Alan M. Rugman's and Cecilia Brain's paper examines the R&D and strate gies of the world' s largest finns in the phannaceuticals sector and finds a high degree of intra-regional sales. R&D and sales are more concentrated within North America and Europe than in Asia. In addition, the relative size of the US market, compared to other parts of the triad, creates imbalances with respect to R&D, sales and international strategy. The paper written by Bruce Kogut and Anca Metiu addresses the question of what limits the international distribution of work between rich and poor coun tries in the software industry. Their research reveals a convergence among co located and distributed projects. The results indicate that the managerial experi ence to support global outsourcing of intellectual labor is already advanced, while creativity remains more likely to be located in rich countries. lohn Cantwell, Katherina Glac, and Rebecca Harding analyze the extent and the patterns of specialization of the internationalization of R&D since 1969 by the largest Swiss finns abroad, and by the largest non-Swiss finns in Switzer land. They find out that Swiss-owned finns abroad access technologies in the primary fields of their own industry, while foreign-owned finns conducting re search in Switzerland demonstrate more technological diversification away from their own primary fields and into sources of local Swiss traditional technological strengths.

As a field of research, the joint of innovation and internationalization is eminently fruitful because these two aspects of management have a reinforcing influence on one another. Innovation enables internationalization, internationalization triggers innovation. A balanced set of authors, from near to far and from upcoming to established reflect the latest research in this area in this special issue of mir.