An exploration of Swedish companies´ offshoring of R&D activities to China

A trend among manufacturing companies is offshoring of R&D. The aim of this study is to investigate Swedish companies´ offshoring of R&D activities to China, utilizing both a survey and explorative case studies. The survey results show that 9% of the companies have offshored R&D to China, that performance in China is satisfactory, primarily in terms of costs, and that there is a need for strong integration mechanisms to handle coordination and information sharing. Based on the case studies, a categorization of firms offshoring R&D into Market- & Talent-driven firms and Low-cost & Supply-driven firms is proposed, as these have different challenges and require different managerial solutions. Finally, a dilemma concerning information sharing and innovation is identified and discussed.