The decentralization of Research, Development, and Engineering - R, D & E activities towards subsidiaries in transnational companies have been justified due to market conditions and access to scarce resources such as technology. Such analysis has been made on the basis of research performed in central countries - that is, a transnational central country-based company which is setting up a R, D & E center in another central country. The analysis does not explain adequately cases of R, D & E location in emergent countries, as it is the case of Brazil. This paper proposes a theoretical models improvement in order to explain the decentralization of R, D & E towards subsidiaries based on an in-depth research conducted in the Brazilian automotive industry. Besides traditional explanation, market proximity, and technology sourcing, it can be said that the decentralization of R, D & E activities towards subsidiaries is influenced by the need of achieving agility in the product development process and by the quality of the relationship between the headquarters and subsidiary.
R & D; Product development; Product development decentralization; Innovation; Automotive industry; Emergent countries
