Multinationals are more Innovative

Access to workers, suppliers, and universities outside their home countries is key:

Multinational firms are more innovative than domestic firms. This can only be partly explained by multinationals’ greater investments in R&D. A more important reason for their being more innovative is their higher propensity to learn from sources such as suppliers, customers, and universities. Multinational firms are also able to benefit from a worldwide pool of knowledge between firms. The importance of these knowledge sources varies systematically with the type of innovation: the interaction with suppliers and customers is more important for new products, whereas the interaction with universities is prominent for patents.

We still need to make sure they adhere to reasonable environmental and labor standards across the planet.