Global Innovation Management

This chapter examines one of the key drivers of firm growth and global competitiveness: innovation. It explains that innovation differs significantly across firms and can take different forms and types, elaborating on how innovation can help firms to build significant competitive advantages in the global economy. It talks about the globalization of research and development (R&D) which represents a major challenge, such as increasing knowledge leakage which leads to imitation, although it provides the opportunity to access diverse technologies from multiple countries. The chapter analyses how the global factory helps explain the trade-offs that specific R&D location choices may cause in terms of value creation and value capture and may assist firms to locate their R&D units across countries in an optimal way. It explains how open innovation can help firms to gain a competitive advantage in the global economy.