R&D co-practice and “reverse” knowledge integration in multinational firms

This paper contributes to the developing literature on the management of distributed innovation in multinational firms. We focus on a specific organiza-tional mechanism, R&D co-practice, which we believe is an important facilitator of knowledge integration in multinationals with global innovation strategies. In our formulation, R&D co-practice (joint technical activities between units) increases levels of absorptive capacity and social capital among participating units, thus increasing the likelihood that they will share knowledge at future time periods. We find strong support for this hypothesis through an empirical analysis of ‘reverse ’ (subsidiary to headquarters) knowledge integration in two sectors – automotive and pharmaceuticals – over a 21-year period