Japanese transnational corporations' knowledge transfer to Southeast Asia: The case of the electrical and electronics sector in Malaysia

The role of Japanese Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in the economic development of the host Southeast Asian countries is at the heart of contemporary discussion on knowledge transfer. This paper is an empirical analysis of the existence of knowledge transfer from Japanese TNCs to their local suppliers in the Malaysian Electrical and Electronics sector. A logistic regression model enables to define the factors that determine the existence of knowledge transfer between Japanese affiliates and their local suppliers. © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.