A project lead by Régis Coeurderoy, Professor, The Future of European Multinationals (FEM) Research Center, ESCP Business School With Duong Nguyen, PhD Researcher, The Future of European Multinationals (FEM) Research Center, ESCP Business School And Xuejing Yang, Researcher, The Future of European Multinationals (FEM) Research Center, ESCP Business School

This report analyses the global market presence of the world’s leading R&D-spending multinational enterprises (said Leading R&D MNEs), drawing on firm-level data from the 2024 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard (Nindl et al., 2024). It examines the regional sales footprints of 472 companies that together account for two-thirds of total private R&D expenditures, providing a grounded view of how these innovation leaders are embedded across three major regions: the Americas, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), and Asia-Pacific. The figures are data released for 2023.

In an era of geopolitical tension, regulatory divergence and economic fragmentation, the assumption that leading MNEs operate with seamless global reach no longer holds. While most maintain international operations, the majority remain commercially anchored in one or two regions—underscoring the continued importance of regional ecosystems in shaping global business strategy.