How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

World Investment Report

The End of History and the Last Man

Leveraging the recent research interest in emerging economies, this Perspective paper argues that an institution-based view of international business (IB) strategy has emerged. It is positioned as one leg that helps sustain the “strategy tripod” (the other two legs consisting of the industry- and resource-based views). We then review four diverse areas of substantive research: (1) antidumping as entry barriers; (2) competing in and out of India; (3) growing the firm in China; and (4) governing the corporation in emerging economies. Overall, we argue that an institution-based view of IB strategy, in combination with industry- and resource-based views, will not only help sustain a strategy tripod, but also shed significant light on the most fundamental questions confronting IB, such as “What drives firm strategy and performance in IB?”

/pdf/an-institution-based-view-of-international-business-strategy-b2jah8hc81.pdf

An institution-based view of international business strategy: a focus on emerging economies

While the study of psychology has offered little in the way of explaining the creative process, Koestler examines the idea that we are at our most creative when rational thought is suspended--for example, in dreams and trancelike states. All who read The Act of Creation will find it a compelling and illuminating book.

The Act of Creation

Some scholars have argued that globalization will reduce the importance of local contexts. We argue instead that despite the increased frequency and intensity of interactions across local contexts, they continue to retain their distinctive differences. MNEs face growing challenges in managing the complexity of these interactions, because they must manage 'multiple embeddedness' across heterogeneous contexts at two levels. First, at the MNE level, they must organize their networks to exploit effectively both the differences and similarities of their multiple host locations. Second, at the subsidiary level, they must balance 'internal' embeddedness within the MNE network, with their 'external' embeddedness in the host milieu. Balancing the subsidiary's strategic role within the MNE with its local identity and its domestic linkages can sometimes represent a trade-off. Multiple embeddedness thus creates both business opportunities and operational challenges, which are explored in this special issue.

/pdf/multinational-enterprises-and-local-contexts-the-114va7ixqw.pdf

Multinational Enterprises and Local Contexts: The Opportunities and Challenges of Multiple Embeddedness

http://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:1082/rm2001-012.pdf

R&D collaboration by SMEs: new opportunities and limitations in the face of globalisation

Globalization has changed economic realities. First, the competences of multinational enterprises (MNEs) are becoming increasingly mobile and knowledge-intensive. MNEs thus give more attention to the availability and quality of the created assets of alternative locations. Second, among developing countries there are now considerable differences between the catching-up countries (e.g. newly industrialized countries) and falling behind , less developed countries. These developments have helped change the opportunity sets of both MNEs and host countries. Foreign direct investment (FDI)-based development strategies are now commonplace among less developed countries, but there is also increased competition for the right kinds of investment. In general, the balance in bargaining power has shifted in favour of the MNE, and less developed countries increasingly need to provide unique, non-replicable created assets to maintain a successful FDI-assisted development strategy.

Industrial Development, Globalization and Multinational Enterprises: New Realities for Developing Countries

https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/files/1255083/guid-1bf27650-4dfb-4ba6-9594-8833875bddd2-ASSET1.0

Innovating through strategic alliances: moving towards international partnerships and contractual agreements

(1995). The R&D Activities of Foreign Firms in the United States. International Studies of Management & Organization: Vol. 25, The Dynamic Multinational Firm, pp. 39-74.

Rajneesh Narula

Papers

Multinational Enterprises and Local Contexts: The Opportunities and Challenges of Multiple Embeddedness

R&D collaboration by SMEs: new opportunities and limitations in the face of globalisation

Industrial Development, Globalization and Multinational Enterprises: New Realities for Developing Countries

Innovating through strategic alliances: moving towards international partnerships and contractual agreements

The R&D Activities of Foreign Firms in the United States