| So great was American corporation's dominance of international trade and investments on the basis of their world class technologies during the early decades after WW II that almost all of the theorization on the internalization processes had a distinctly corporate-centered feature. But, in an environment that is under an increasing techno-global influence, American multinationals have been actively acquiring technologies from outside their corporate and national boundaries. This more recent setting, characterized mainly by the greater spread of technical expertise across more corporations and nations than previously was the case, has obliged even key US multinationals to reach out for technologies and technical skills.;Data have been compiled with the Predicasts F&S Index to demonstrate the greater reliance on outside technologies and skills by twenty technology intensive US multinationals from the Chemicals, Medical Products, Drugs and Research, Electronics and Semiconductors, and Computers and Peripherals industry segments. The analysis showed that these multinationals have been obtaining an increasing level and rate of technologies relative to their inhouse technical operations when the data on the 1986-1990 period is compared with the 1976-1980 period. Although much of the outside technologies and expertise have been domestic, there are indications that foreign sources, particularly non affiliates, are growing in importance. |
