Research and Development Collaborations: Turkish Automotive Industry

In todays rapidly changing business world, Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) look for local partner firms in different countries to make R&D collaborations. In this book, important factors affecting R&D collaborations were found as production, innovation & R&D capabilities and then absorptive capacity of the Turkish automotive companies. The main R&D policy of the MNE (criteria for possible R&D collaboration, openness to R&D collaboration and strategic goals) was found as an important factor affecting MNEs R&D location decisions. Another factor, competition between other R&D departments in different countries, and other R&D departments competency were found as moderate level of importance. R&D Managers of Fiat, Ford and Hyundai found the Turkish governments R&D incentives very attractive, and found that Turkeys infrastructure, socio-economic conditions and cheap but skilled labor force were appropriate for undertaking R&D collaborations. Social factors (mutual trust, level of commitment and cultural conflicts) were found to be an important influence in MNEs R&D location decisions.