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The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of environmental conditions of the subsidiaries’ host country in the process of developing global innovation. It is argued that, even though the local environment in which subsidiaries are placed must be taken into account, this is not the only important factor to directly create global innovation, but it also becomes necessary for the subsidiaries to be endowed with autonomy, in this sense allowing them to enjoy the local conditions for innovation purposes.

A quantitative approach is opted for the research development, while the hypotheses were evaluated from the analysis of the relationship between four constructs: global innovation, local market conditions, local competitive dynamics and autonomy to innovate. The structural equation modeling technique is applied, using data from 172 foreign subsidiaries located in Brazil.

The validity and reliability parameters analyzed in the proposed model were suitable (average variance extracted, Cronbach’s alpha, composite reliability and discriminant validity). H1 (the better the market conditions of the host country, the greater the subsidiary’s autonomy to innovate) was not supported. However, both H2 and H3 were supported, suggesting the influence of local competitive dynamics on autonomy to innovate, and also the influence of autonomy to innovate on global innovation, respectively.

This paper provides some contributions for the advance in researches about the global innovation management, considering the subsidiaries’ perspective, showing the relevance of the subsidiary’s autonomy for the development of global innovation given a favorable local competitive dynamic.

The last few decades have seen the rapid emergence of two transformative streams in large firms. The first is the development of project management, aimed at improving the performance of innovation management, while the second, the internationalization of innovation organizations and processes in response to strategies of redeployment toward emerging countries. Both streams have been closely analyzed in the fields of project management and international management, respectively. However, the links between the two have been less studied. The purpose of this paper is to consider the hypothesis that a firm’s projectification might have an important impact on its pattern of internationalization in innovation.

First, we present the models of internationalization of innovation processes used in the multinational corporation literature. This field essentially focuses on the components of permanent organizations: global internationalization strategy and legacy, R&D footprint, characterization of local subsidiaries and the role of central head offices. Projects figure only as a context in which those elements operate, not as a structuring variable of the global innovation process pattern. The authors challenge this view by exploring whether the specificities of the firm’s projectification pattern can influence how it builds its global innovation process. The paper is based on a longitudinal case where the authors analyze the organizational transition within the Renault group, an emblematic case of a multinational that implemented a spectacular internationalization transition in the 2000s.

Our results demonstrate project organizing’s major impact on the internationalization patterns of innovation processes within the firm. They show how the deployment of a polycentric innovation footprint has been the consequence of a specific projectification transition, giving the project and program functions the autonomy to transgress centralized product development norms to adapt their project to the local environment; use the initial breakthrough project as the foundation for a new and specific global product development network through a lineage logic; and sustain this innovation global network as a permanent process of the firm.

The paper demonstrates the importance of the organization’s projectification characteristics as an important vector for successfully implementing the most advanced internationalization strategies (i.e. reverse innovation) and innovation processes models (i.e. integrated networks).

The paper characterizes project management related conditions that can govern the success of innovation strategies in high-growth emerging countries: the autonomy and empowerment of project functions; colocation and integration of teams; existence of a program function; and HR policies capable of supporting lineage management and project-to-project learning processes.

Bridging project management literature with multinational management literature. Demonstrate the key impact of projectification on internationalization pattern of the firm. Longitudinal analysis of a firm internationalization transition on a ten-year period.

Is the development of local innovation capabilities enough for foreign subsidiaries in emerging markets to be able to integrate into global R&D projects? The authors argue that it is not. The purpose of this paper is to show the central role of R&D capacities when it comes to inserting foreign subsidiaries in emerging markets into global R&D projects.

The study investigated 131 foreign multinational subsidiaries operating in Brazil. For each subsidiary, the authors surveyed two to five directors or C-level executives from innovation, R&D, engineering, product development and projects. the authors used structural equation modeling for analysis.

The results indicate that product and process innovations alone do not guarantee the insertion of the emerging market subsidiaries into global innovation projects. Such insertion depends on the subsidiary’s accumulation of R&D capacities.

The results reinforce the central issue of building product and process innovation capabilities as the first step toward a blueprint for global projects. However, the effort is not limited to these initiatives. Product and process innovation efforts need be reverted in headquarters’ eyes in order for subsidiaries to gain R&D center status. To achieve this, subsidiaries must align their technological innovations with multinational corporations’ innovation strategies.

In authors’ view, this study contributes to the literature in three main areas: the evolutionary process of innovation capability in subsidiaries, the reverse innovation debate and the discussion of subsidiaries’ initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how national innovation policies strategically interact to form emergent de facto global entrepreneurship and innovation policies.

Reviews the innovation economics theory and policy literature, synthesizing the existing work into three models (autarky, cooperation and competition), then adds four new models of strategic interaction (asymmetric information, duopolistic competition, competitive factor mobility and complementary assets).

The different models predict very different outcomes. Therefore, it matters which model is true. Entrepreneurship and innovation policy needs to start with an improved science of strategic global interaction of national innovation policy.

Conceptual approach only, without empirical analysis, calls for empirical analysis to test the different models.

Points to the problem of absence of global coordination in innovation policy arising from strategic interactions between national innovation policies. Recognizes that entrepreneurship public policy is caught in this strategic game, and that there are missing global institutions here.

Improved innovation policy should enable more effective entrepreneurial environments.

Proposes seven models for understanding global strategic interaction of innovation policy, out of which four are new. These new ones are highly relevant to entrepreneurship policy.

The interest in global purchasing has increased significantly in recent years, but the impact on product innovation is not well understood. The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse the impact of global purchasing on product innovation sourced from suppliers, while taking into account how firms integrate their suppliers.

The data used in this study are from the International Purchasing Survey, an international online survey on purchasing and supply management conducted in 2009. The data are analysed using factor and regression analyses.

The paper shows that global purchasing has no direct impact on product innovation performance. However, supplier integration is more strongly associated with product innovation performance for firms purchasing globally compared to firms purchasing regionally.

The implication is that when companies purchase globally, they must have a highly developed purchasing department in order to sustain a high level of innovation. For firms purchasing only regionally, the role of the purchasing department is diminished, at least in terms of contributing to innovation.

This paper contributes to the discussion of potential advantages and disadvantages of global purchasing. First, the paper provides an explanation for the ambiguous results of previous research. Product innovation does not depend on whether firms are purchasing globally or not, it depends on how they purchase. This paper has showed that when purchasing globally, the role of the purchasing department becomes crucial for product innovation. The proficiency and activities of the purchasing department largely determine the success, in terms of supplier product innovation, of global purchasing.

Studies on inter-firm relationships have recently shifted their attention from dyadic networks to more globally driven network structures. This condition occurs because embeddedness in global network structures may improve firm innovation and performance. In addition, the improvement of firm innovativeness and performance seems higher when globally networked firms both compete and cooperate between and among them. In this paper, we categorize the simultaneous interplay of cooperation and competition in the global arena as global network coopetition (GNC). Under GNC, multinational enterprises act jointly with their global partners-rivals to improve performance, at the same time by sharing complementary resources (cooperation side) and by undertaking independent actions to enhance their own performance (competition side). This paper aims to expand existing research on network and global coopetition by shedding light on the effects of coopetition between and among firms belonging to global network structures on value capture and innovation performance.

Using a sample of 100 firms belonging to 14 industries organized in 47 global networks of different sizes, the authors conducted a longitudinal empirical study over the period 2000-2014 covering 1,098 observations, 1,717 interfirm relationships and 78 inter-networks linkages. A multiple regression model on panel data with random effects was conducted on the sample of 1,098 observations related to the global automotive industry to test the research hypotheses.

Findings show that GNC enhances firm performance and innovation outcomes. In addition to GNC, structural characteristics such as network size, network position and network diversity have significant positive or negative effects on innovation and performance outcomes of firms belonging to these global network structures.

Our research offers a contribution to the literature dealing with global networked structures’ effects on firm innovation performance. In fact, it effectively complements prior work on outcomes of coopetition between firms embedded in complex network structures. It also advances research in the area by introducing the notion of GNC as a network by which firms can enhance their innovation performance and, therefore, their global innovation performance. This study has some limitations. First, we acknowledge that it is focused only on 14 global coopetitive networks. It could be promising to extend the scope to integrate other networks. Second, our measures of firm actions as based on a content analysis of news reports related to firms. It would be important to complement this data collection by conducting a qualitative analysis (interviews). Atlast, it could be promising to include the study of customer needs in the new product development process.

Our study also offers some insights into the management of coopetition. In fact, by taking into account the existence of a context in which global coopetition networks play a role, managers may be better positioned to effectively deal with the paradox of being a partner of their direct rivals to improve their firms’ innovativeness and, consequently, achieve good performance, on the one hand, and to maintain relationships within several networks by taking into account their structural properties such as centrality and diversity, on the other hand.

We contribute to extant network coopetition literature in two ways. First, we introduce the notion of GNC to detect coopetition occurrence in global network structures. GNC refers to a context where actors in various networks belonging to different industries and geographies cooperate in a one (or more) innovative project/s, while simultaneously keeping on competing within and between their networks. Second, we contribute to network coopetition by analyzing specific GNC effects on firm innovation performance. In so doing, we can provide a deeper analytical understanding of GNC performance effects on firms operating in global network contexts.

This paper aims to study the learning-by-exporting effect among small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, the authors propose a dynamic perspective and suggest that learning-by-exporting is duration-dependent and contingent upon the born global internationalization strategy. In earlier phases of export activities, exporting has had a strong positive effect on SMEs’ innovations, which, however, diminishes over time. This inverted U-shape effect is even more distinct for born global firms.

The authors used longitudinal data with 1,689 Canadian SMEs to test their hypotheses. A two-stage instrumental approach is used to take into account the endogeneity of the born global international strategy on new product innovations.

Born globals learn faster at the early stages of exporting but also restrain their innovations more strongly than gradual internationalizers in the longer run, leveling out the initial learning advantages of newness. Thus, this study suggests that born globals have a significantly different learning trajectory than gradual internationalizers.

To maximize the benefits of exporting on innovation, managers should focus on learning during the initial years of exporting. However, once this period has passed, it is advisable for managers to invest in research and development as well as other innovation activities to complement the learning effect of exporting. Born global firms experience more rapid learning at the initial stage of exporting, but such learning effects wear off quicker later than gradually internationalized firms. For SME managers, this study helps draw their attention to the learning benefits of exporting in the initial years of export participation.

This study corroborates recent studies arguing for a “learning-by-exporting” effect. Providing longitudinal firm-level evidence, the authors also forward a dynamic perspective and show that learning by exporting is duration dependent and contingent upon the market entry strategy pursued by SMEs.

Western business-to-business firms are under increasing competition from firms in emerging nations. As examples, Mindray in medical devices, LiuGong in earth moving equipment, Tata motors in Buses and Suzlon in Wind turbines are emerging as strong competitors in their industries. Yet despite increased competition from emerging nation firms, insufficient research has examined the growth of these firms, specifically in the areas of technology and innovation development processes. The purpose of this study is to examine how emerging nation business-to-business firms that have global ambitions achieve technology competence.

The authors examined several case studies on emerging market business-to-business firms that have moved to global markets and highlight the following five: LiuGong China (excavating products), Mindray China (medical equipment), Suzlon Energy India (wind generators), Tata Motors Buses India and BYD Auto China (batteries to electric cars). The firms are in business-to-business markets, except for BYD China that emerged as a business-to-business battery supplier but is currently in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets.

The authors find that firms in emerging markets that have global ambitions follow different approaches to innovation development processes from conventional theories and assumptions held by scholars and practitioners in Western developed countries. Our cases suggest that firms follow the proposed progression: domestic markets – internally developed technology; domestic markets –acquired technology; and finally to, global markets – acquired technology.

The authors contribute to research in three areas. First, they suggest that the innovation development process for emerging market firms is different from the Western world. Second, they provide a framework of innovation development process that can be tested in multiple environments. Third, this study suggests a deeper examination of the longitudinal development of business-to-business firms, an area that has received less attention.

The authors suggest that firms need to better track their competition from emerging nations because emerging nation firms can quickly acquire technology to become strong competitors.

Extant research has not examined these issues.

Emerging markets play an important role in the global economy. However, a common feature of most emerging markets is that firms must operate in a resource-constrained environment. In emerging markets, global mindset is a necessary resource for firms’ global competitiveness. Although global mindset has been proven to improve export performance, the theoretical mechanism behind this relationship is less clear. Based on the resource-based on the resource-based view and capability-building perspective, this study developed a model linking global mindset, relational capability, bricolage capability, innovation, and export performance.

A survey was conducted to collect data from exporting firms in Taiwan. Subsequently, the data (n = 172) were analyzed using a partial least squares program.

The analytical results reveal that a global mindset positively influences relational and bricolage capabilities; relational capability positively affects bricolage capability; relational capability and bricolage capability have significant and direct effects on innovation; and innovation positively affects export performance.

The findings confirm that a global mindset plays a crucial role in the capability-building process, which suggests that it contributes to the development of relational and bricolage capabilities. Also, relational capability is critical for exporting firms to develop bricolage capability. Finally, innovation is an important mediating mechanism between capabilities and export performance. Therefore, exporting firms can develop their international business models on the basis of their capabilities, including relational capability and bricolage capability. These capabilities improve innovation, which, in turn, enhances export performance in a resource-constrained environment.

This paper aims to study largely recent aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation in China. It synthesizes the research in the current special issue (SI) of Multinational Business Review (MBR) on this topic. In addition, this paper differs from other work on this topic in examining entrepreneurship and innovation from a more global standpoint with relevant international effects.

The paper provides an overview of the literature on entrepreneurship, innovation and key related topics such as firm and economic growth, as well as linking this research to related international works. It also summarizes the papers of the SI.

The authors’ analysis suggests that the study of entrepreneurship and innovation should be placed in the context of a country’s economic development and institutional environment as well as the firm internationalization trajectories and business models. In addition, the authors believe that a good understanding of economic growth in a transition economy like China (which is a key goal of China’s recent emphasis on innovation) is facilitated by understanding the comparative advantages and disadvantages of an economy with respect to the global innovation system.

The authors’ study explores the local-global and parent-subsidiary connectivity and co-evolution of firm strategies and the institutional environment in entrepreneurship and innovation in emerging and transition economies. The authors summarize and synthesize the papers in this SI to provide the results as well as some directions for future research in the domain of entrepreneurship, innovation and new venture creation, which is believed to be a key engine of economic growth in the coming years.