International collaboration and innovation: empirical evidence on a global-leading innovative enterprise in emerging markets

Driven by increasing global competition and rapid technological shifts, emerging market firms are increasingly adopting international collaboration to promote mutual learning among organizations and enhance dynamic innovation capabilities. Inevitably, international collaboration faces challenges and understanding in the context of emerging multinational enterprises (MNEs) is still limited. For example, can MNEs in emerging markets foster original innovation through international collaborations, catch up or even lead the industry’s technological frontier? In this process, how to overcome various difficulties to achieve effective innovation results?

Director of TMCD, Prof. Xiaolan Fu, and her collaborators have just published the latest paper in the Journal of World Business, a leading journal in international business. By using a unique dataset of 1,428 collaboration projects over the 2010–2016 period carried out by a global leader in the ICT industry headquartered in China, the research investigates the impact of international collaboration and its characteristics on the quality of the innovation of MNEs. The finding shows that while international innovation collaborations are associated with high innovation quality, cultural distance has a negative effect on collaboration outcomes. To overcome such cultural barriers, proximity to the focal firm’s overseas R&D centres and the size of expenditure budgets exhibit significant moderating effects. Meanwhile, the research capability of collaborators also serves as an important moderator facilitating the innovation outcome quality. Based on the above findings, the paper further discusses how MNCs in emerging markets can significantly improve the quality of their innovations to achieve global industry leadership through international collaborations.

 

Please refer to if you are interested:

International collaboration and innovation: Evidence from a leading Chinese multinational enterprise

Xiaolan Fu, Xiaoqing (Maggie) Fu, Pervez Ghauri, Jun Hou (2022) Journal of World Business, 57 (4), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2022.101329

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Series of Research on International Innovation Cooperation by TMCD:

International research collaboration: An emerging domain of innovation studies?

Kaihua Chen, Yi Zhang, Xiaolan Fu, (2018) Research Policy, 48 (1), 149-168.

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When do latecomer firms undertake international open innovation: Evidence from China

Xiaolan Fu, Yawen Li, Jizhen Li, Henry Chesbrough, (2021) Global Strategy Journal, 12 (1), 31-56. 

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Exploring new opportunities through collaboration within and beyond sectoral systems of innovation in the fourth industrial revolution

Xiaolan Fu, Xiaoqing (Maggie) Fu, Carmen Contreras Romero and Jianping Pan (2020) Industry and Corporate Change, 30 (1), 233–249.

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How does international collaboration lead to radical innovation in latecomer firms?

Xiaolan Fu, Cintia Külzer-Sacilotto, Haibo Lin, and Hongru Xiong (2021) Innovation and China’s Global Emergence: 144.

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Boundary spanning roles in cross-border university-industry collaboration: the case of Chinese multinational corporations

Simone Corsi, Xiaolan Fu, Cintia Külzer-Sacilotto (2020) R&D Management, 51 (3), 309-21.

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Collaborative innovation for more value: how to make it work

Haibo Lin, George Yip, Jinchun Yang and Xiaolan Fu (2020) Journal of Business Strategy, 41 (2), 3-10.

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Open Innovation as a Response to Constraints and Risks: Evidence from China

Xiaolan Fu, Jizhen Li, Hongru Xiong, Henry Chesbrough (2014) Asian Economic Papers, 13 (3), 30-58. 

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Open innovation in China: policies and practices

Xiaolan Fu, Hongru Xiong (2011) Journal of Science & Technology Policy in China, 2 (3), 196-218.

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