Hoechtberger, K.; Zademach, H.-M. and Grimes, S., : 'Aspiring Affiliates, Global Project Networks and Local Embeddedness: Evidence from Bangalore, India'. CISC Working Paper No. 7., Galway 2003

In the context of India�s economic transformation process, Bangalore has become a worldwide leading ICT centre and a key target region for inward investments of a multiplicity of transnational corporations. Against the background of recent theoretical contributions brought forward in regional science and neighbouring disciplines, the rationale of the paper in hand is to examine how a foreign stand-alone R&D unit and its associated indigenous software service firms are embedded in their various networks and organizational relationships across different spatial scales. Adopting the methodology of a �critical case� (Flyvberg 2001), the DaimlerChrysler Research Centre India (DCRCI) serves for the purpose of providing valuable insights into the embeddedness of such a unit. Based on four months of participant observation in the Centre and in-depth interviews with selected local actors, our findings indicate that beside the distinctive involvement in the local community, the DCRCI�s organisational structure and most notably its autonomy as well as its profound integration in the global corporate network of DaimlerChrysler significantly contribute to the unit�s performance. A comprehensive examination of an affiliate�s excellence at large thus not merely require analysing the degree of local embeddedness, but also the consideration of both extra-local networks and the intra-organisational dimension of embeddedness. Reinforcing the methodological value of corporate case studies in regional science, the present examination is suggestive for further qualitative, single-focused research on transnational organizations in general and TNC�s affiliates within the corporate global production network in particular.






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