Traditional multinational enterprises (MNEs) have introduced new products in overseas markets while conducting Research and Development (R&D) activities mainly in their home country. However, over the last 10-20 years, as a result of the geographical dispersion of scientific and technological knowledge creation, these companies now conduct R&D activities in collaboration with other institutions at home and abroad.　　　　　
This study investigates how the accession and integration of geographically dispersed and technologically diversified knowledge affect innovative performance at corporate-level. We focus on the cases of two Japanese MNEs, (Kao and Ajinomoto), two European MNEs (Unilever and Nestlé) and one American MNE (P&G) to examine innovation mechanisms, with particular focus on the knowledge-sourcing of MNEs in a culture-specific industry. We find that some MNEs' ability to integrate technologically-diversified knowledge positively affects their innovative performance, while others do not get statistically positive effects. This finding contributes to a better understanding of the advantages of cross-border collaborative R&D activities in a firm's knowledge accumulation, with an additional time-series perspective.