شبکه های نوآوری جهانی
Abstract
1- Introduction
2- Three megatrends
3- Generic forms of connectivity: pipelines vs. personal relationships
4- Globalization – rising skepticism
5- Common avenues, distinct angles: articles in this special issue
6- Concluding remarks
References
Abstract
Innovation is increasingly the outcome of global networks that connect geographically dispersed knowledge centers. The international business (IB) literature has developed a sophisticated understanding of the multinational enterprise (MNE) as an organization generates value by integrating knowledge across national borders. We advance this literature by making three key arguments. First we highlight the three megatrends that shape the strategy of the modern MNE: the disaggregation of the value chain into ever narrower activities, the migration of value to knowledge-intensive intangibles and the rise of huge emerging markets like China and India, whose domestic firms can grow to enormous size before venturing abroad. Second, we trace these three megatrends to falling spatial transaction costs, enabled in the main, by digitalization. Third, we draw on earlier research on the generic forms of global linkages, arguing that the IB literature has limited itself to organizational pipelines, while paying relatively little attention to personal relationships. The latter are particularly important in the genesis of both entrepreneurship and radical innovation, but are particularly sensitive to the anti-globalization policies. An environment where technology continues to reduce spatial transaction costs, while policy raises them, strengthens large MNEs at the expense of innovative international new ventures.
Introduction
The distribution of economic value creating activities across space has intrigued scholars since at least the nineteenth century. The modern study of this phenomenon has its roots in the classic work of Marshall (1920). Over the course of the last century, it has been studied from different perspectives, leading to the formation of several research communities and each with an associated body of literature. Economic geographers and regional scientists mainly study the characteristics of places while international business scholars focus on the organization of economic activities. In other words, economic geographers' and regional scientists' main focus of interest is the location, while for international business scholars, it is the (multinational) firm. Over the last few decades, innovation has received increasing amounts of attention from both research communities who recognize it as one of the key drivers of the modern knowledge economy. The study of global innovation networks has been undertaken within three major literatures: international business, economic geography and innovation management. In the main, these literatures have moved along in parallel with one another, but their actual analytical connections remained very limited, so that the analysis of global innovation networks remains partial and fragmented. The main goal of this special issue is to work at the nexus of these three research communities and literatures and build knowledge conduits among them.