Institutional Frameworks and R&D Location Choices. Seeking an Equilibrium between Jurisdiction Shopping and Institutional Entrepreneurship

This Paper is part of a wider research plan aimed at analyzing the impact of institutional frameworks on firm performance and specifically the mechanism through which institutions and legal frameworks shape the behaviors, actions and relations in R&D networks. We observe international networks and R&D location choices and we aim at observing how institutional forces rationalizing the environment in which the network is embedded may leverage network relations (Uzzi, 1997). We focus on actors that are embedded in different institutional environments, where they are offered the possibility to catch different institutional opportunities residing in other parts of the network, as diverse institutional spheres can represent windows in which frameworks tend to be less constraining to the actions of the firm. We aim address the following research questions: How are institutional frameworks impacting on the formation of international networks and R&D location choices? Can international networks be the result of strategies of jurisdiction shopping? Under which circumstances do firms engage in Institutional Entrepreneurship strategies?