International Business

The innovative strength of the world's two largest economies, the United States and Japan, are based on two different forms of industrial and social organization. For the United States, venture companies play a key role in technical and economic progress, while in Japan they have only a minor role. This book argues that without vibrant new high technology companies, Japanese industry will decline inexorably. At the same time, if the favourable yet delicate environment in America is undermined, America will face collapse of its innovative and economic strength. Japan has done much to improve its environment for high technology ventures. It has some promising new high technology companies and gradually increasing numbers of entrepreneurial scientists and managers. But they continue to swim against the current. One reason is that large, established companies dominate high technology fields and pursue an autarkic innovation strategy-relying on research in-house or in affiliated companies. Another reason is that these same large companies still have preferential access to university discoveries, largely because of government policies. Thus, high technology ventures are deprived of niches in which to grow, skilled personnel, and their natural customer base. In the field of university-industry relations, steps can still be taken to improve the environment for high technology ventures-steps that would also increase the quality of university science. The American–Japanese innovation dichotomy represents a broader dichotomy between so-called liberal and coordinated market economies. The lessons from these two countries' experiences are applicable to many industrialized countries, and to developing countries shaping their innovation systems.

This book provides the first in-depth analysis of how four innovative Chinese electronics enterprises — the Stone Group, the Legend Computer Group, the Founder Group, and the China Great Wall Computer Group — transformed the Chinese computer industry over the past decade. It explains how indigenous Chinese business enterprises that developed during the era of economic reform gained the high-technology capabilities and modern marketing know-how to compete domestically and internationally with powerful foreign multinationals. Through case studies based on first-hand access to company records and personnel, this book reveals how, building on technological capabilities accumulated during the central planning era, the institutional transformations of the economic reform era unleashed a unique pattern of organizational learning and innovative enterprise. This book also draws out the implications of the developmental experience of the Chinese computer electronics sector for understanding the institutional and organisational foundations for a successful transition from a centrally planned economy toward a market-oriented one.

The rise of innovative firms in emerging market economies is an increasingly topical issue. However, the literature has lagged behind in helping us understand this phenomenon. Aiming to shed more light on the processes through which innovative firms in emerging markets have developed, this book analyzes a variety of firm‐level experiences. These are drawn from a range of key countries, sectors, and institutional contexts. The book finds that the rise of innovative firms in emerging market countries has been influenced by shifts in the institutional, technological, and policy environment — in particular, by the opening up of emerging market economies over the past three decades, and the consequent increase in international business interactions. Across the different countries surveyed, we find that firm-level innovation has been strongly influenced by capabilities that had previously been built up in a relatively closed environment. However, in the current more open environment, we find that innovation among firms also reflects differences in these national historical contexts, as well as in the different forms of interaction with international business that have subsequently emerged. Across all countries, however, it is found that the type of firm that will prove a successful innovator varies according to its goodness of fit with its surrounding environment. Two key facets of this environment are found to be the nature of the industrial and technology policy regime and the scope of international business connections.