The evolution of business model of offshoring process from manufacturing to innovative activities: the innovativeness of offshored R&D projects

The offshoring of high-value innovative activities, such as R&D is a relatively new business model that has gained significance in the last two decades (Rodgers et al., 2019). Theories of management and international business suggest that firms must retain control over their high-value innovative activities to maintain a competitive edge (Demirbag et al., 2020). However, recent decades have seen the dispersal of these high-value activities across different geographical locations (Grecu et al., 2020). The techno-economic paradigm and the most recent technological revolution have been characterized by the cross-pollination of technologies across different disciplines and the diversification of technological capabilities of firms. This has been instrumental in the development of R&D offshoring (Narula and Lee, 2020).
The aim of this article is to examine the variations in the level of routineness and innovativeness R&D projects that are offshored to emerging and developed countries. Additionally, the study aims to investigate the differences in the level of routineness and innovativeness of R&D projects that are offshored to foreign branches and non-integrated contractors.
In order to accomplish the goals of the research, a self-administered survey was disseminated. An electronic questionnaire was utilized to around 2500 Multinational Corporations (MNCs) to attain the goals of the study and 108 responses were collected. In addition to utilizing one-way ANOVA and factorial ANOVA for the analysis, post-hoc analysis and Helmert contrast were employed to further validate the structural models and measurement.