From process manufacturing to R&D manufacturing:: Empirical cases from foreign firms in China

With the rapid advancement of globalization and the development of technology and innovation, Firms' manufacturing mode has changed greatly. This. paper aims to explore the evolutionary nature and trend of foreign firms' manufacturing in China. By employing firms' case study, this paper shows that foreign firms' manufacturing has been changing from process manufacturing to R&D manufacturing. The dynamics of the evolution has its complexity. The driving forces are combination of market, labor and cost factors. Different firms show different organizational patterns during the evolutionary process. The study also shows that the emergence of R&D manufacturing has positive impact on Chinese firm's technology development. More technology diffusion to Chinese indigenous firms is visible.