How does an offshore R&D unit starts and grows up? Insights from the automotive industry
Wheareas the R&D activities get more and more global, we still have little insights or research results about how international R&D units’ genesis – meaning how they emerge and grow. Relying on a longitudinal analysis of two cases in the automotive industry, this article provides such insights. We show that the internationalization of R&D combines three constitutive mechanisms of an “organized proximity” (1), competence building (2) new routines building and (3) internal and external legitimacy building. These mechanisms drive the empowerment of the unit on a multi-year timeframe. They also allow to enriching and reorient the missions of these R&D offshore units.