TY - JOUR
T1 - From local modification to global innovation
T2 - How research units in emerging economies innovate for the world
AU - Morris, S
AU - Oldroyd, J
AU - Allen, RT
AU - Chng, DHM
AU - Han, J
PY - 2023/1/30
Y1 - 2023/1/30
N2 - More and more companies are turning to emerging markets as sources of global innovation to help transform business and society. However, building innovation capabilities in emerging markets is still elusive for most companies. To understand how some companies are successfully building these capabilities, we examined workers within R&D units in China across six foreign multinational corporations. In contrast with prior literature that emphasizes a structural view of who the workers interacted with to innovate, our inductive analysis highlights a behavioral view of how R&D unit personnel interact during the problem and solution search process. We identified two key behaviors associated with the problem and solution search: (1) observing customers in their everyday context, and (2) uncovering general knowledge principles from internal experts. Respectively, these behaviors helped R&D workers to question assumptions about existing products as they relate to customers and to apply useful principles from expert knowledge rather than copying solution templates. Our findings offer an alternative path to building global innovation capabilities in markets where structural constraints exist for the company.
AB - More and more companies are turning to emerging markets as sources of global innovation to help transform business and society. However, building innovation capabilities in emerging markets is still elusive for most companies. To understand how some companies are successfully building these capabilities, we examined workers within R&D units in China across six foreign multinational corporations. In contrast with prior literature that emphasizes a structural view of who the workers interacted with to innovate, our inductive analysis highlights a behavioral view of how R&D unit personnel interact during the problem and solution search process. We identified two key behaviors associated with the problem and solution search: (1) observing customers in their everyday context, and (2) uncovering general knowledge principles from internal experts. Respectively, these behaviors helped R&D workers to question assumptions about existing products as they relate to customers and to apply useful principles from expert knowledge rather than copying solution templates. Our findings offer an alternative path to building global innovation capabilities in markets where structural constraints exist for the company.
KW - Capabilities and capability development
KW - Emerging markets
KW - Global and local knowledge
KW - Innovation and R&D
KW - Knowledge-based view
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=ceibs_wosapi&SrcAuth=WosAPI&KeyUT=WOS:000921778200001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/e44f8a4d-9ee5-317e-966a-e19a75e9dae8/
U2 - 10.1057/s41267-022-00570-2
DO - 10.1057/s41267-022-00570-2
M3 - Journal
SN - 0047-2506
VL - 54
SP - 418
EP - 440
JO - Journal of International Business Studies
JF - Journal of International Business Studies
IS - 3
ER -