Multinational Corporations and Patterns of Local Knowledge Transfer in Costa Rican High‐Tech Industries |
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| Authors: | Elisa Giuliani |
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| Institution: | 1. obtained a PhD in Science and Technology Policy from SPRU, University of Sussex, and is now involved in postdoctoral research at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), European University Institute in Florence, and at SPRU. She holds a permanent position as researcher at the University of Pisa in Italy (DEA, Facoltà di Economia, University of Pisa, Via Ridolfi 10, 56124 Pisa, Italy;2. e‐mail: giulel@ec.unipi.it) and is visiting fellow at SPRU (University of Sussex, Freeman Centre, Falmer, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 9QE, UK;3. e‐mail: E.Giuliani@sussex.ac.uk). Her research interests include industrial development, innovation and network analysis. |
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| Abstract: | Over recent decades, governments in industrializing countries have promoted policies to attract foreign investors, anticipating the benefits of technology transfer to host economies. During the 1990s, Costa Rica adopted an industrialization strategy based on attracting high‐tech multinational companies (MNCs). Using an original survey of a sample of high‐tech MNC subsidiaries, this article shows that the new wave of efficiency‐seeking subsidiaries tend not to transfer knowledge to domestic firms even when they establish backward linkages with them. Instead, most of the knowledge transfer occurs between high‐tech foreign subsidiaries. This has clear policy implications for host country governments. |
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