This paper tries to analyze mandates of Transnational Enterprises (TNEs) subsidiaries in the foreigner through the mechanisms of allocating activities of R&D (Research and Development) between decentralized centers of research. We initiate the work by presenting a synthesis of the different perspectives found in economic literature on the subordination (or conditionings) administrative and technological of the subsidiaries. Such synthesis allows us to establish a hierarchy between subsidiaries and a typology for evolution (retrocession) of mandates constructed, mainly, for the TNEs that are structuralized in form of a corporative network. Then, from researches on the activities of laboratories of R&D in the industry of telecommunications equipment in Brazil, we tried to show that: a) the decentralization of the technological activities is a fact that is not restricted only to developed countries; b) the information and communication technologies have allowed that the subsidiaries in the foreigner integrated themselves to the central laboratories of the TNEs giving them conditions to develop and to participate on other technological activities beyond the traditional functions of adapting process and products.
transnational enterprise; subsidiary mandate; research and development internationalization and decentralization; evolution of technological capabilities in developing countries
