Cross-border Innovation in a Changing World: Players, Places, and Policies

Over the last three decades cross-border innovation has profoundly changed. The fragmentation of global value chains, increased global connectedness, and pervasive digitalization have helped shape innovation processes that now increasingly span national borders. This changing process has involved a wide array of actors (players) in a variety of geographical locations and organizational spaces (places), calling for new guidelines, public interventions, and regulatory frameworks (policies).

Considering this complexity, the existing literature has only partially captured the ongoing changes in cross-border innovation and showed a limited engagement in integrative, cross-disciplinary debate. This book presents complementary and novel perspectives on the phenomenon from distinguished scholars, bridging perspectives from a rich set of research streams including international business, strategy, innovation studies and policy, international economics, industrial organization, economic geography, ethics, and sustainability. Three distinct sections focus on the players, the places, and the policies in contemporary cross-border innovation. Together, the contributions highlight the changing role of multinational enterprises and the growing participation of emerging actors in cross-border innovation, via formal and informal networks which are increasingly shaped around highly mobile individuals and new geographical centres. The book also emphasizes the intertwined role of policies at national and international level, stressing the importance of supply- and demand-oriented policies and presenting intellectual property right policies as a double-edged sword for cross-border innovation.

Davide Castellani, Professor of International Business, University of Reading,Alessandra Perri, Associate Professor of Management, Ca' Foscari University Venice,Vittoria G. Scalera, Associate Professor of International Strategy, University of Amsterdam,Antonello Zanfei, Full Professor of Applied Economics, DESP-University of Urbino

Davide Castellani is a Professor of International Business and Strategy at the Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK, and a Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Perugia, Italy. His research is at the intersection of International Business, International Economics, Economic Geography, and Innovation Studies, and has been published in leading academic journals including Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of International Economics, and Global Strategy Journal. Davide is currently the Chair of the Academy of International Business UK & Ireland Chapter. He is also Associate Editor of Journal of Industrial and Business Economics and serves in the editorial boards of several other academic journals.


Alessandra Perri is an Associate Professor of Management at the Department of Management of Ca' Foscari University Venice, Italy. Before joining Ca' Foscari, she worked as a research fellow at the Department of Business Administration of Carlos III University, Spain. Her research focuses on the strategic management of technological innovation in multinational firms. Alessandra is an Associate Editor of Industry and Innovation and serves on the Editorial Review Board of Global Strategy Journal. Her research work has appeared in various journals and has been awarded several international recognitions.

Vittoria G. Scalera is an Associate Professor of International Strategy at the Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam. Her research lies at the intersection between international business and innovation management and has received several international awards and grants, including the VENI grant by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. Her work has been published in leading academic journals including Journal of International Business Studies, Research Policy, and Leadership Quarterly, among others. She serves on the Editorial Review Board of Global Strategy Journal and Journal of World Business, and she is Representative-at-Large of the Strategic Management Society.

Antonello Zanfei is Professor of Applied Economics at University of Urbino, Italy, where he is also the Director of the International Ph.D. Programme in Global Studies. He has worked on the links between international production, innovation, and productivity, and on Global Value Chains in different industries. His work is published in leading academic journals and has won several recognitions and research awards. He has been visiting professor at multiple academic institutions in Europe and the US and he has participated in international research projects funded by EC-DG Research and EC-DG Enterprises, OECD, and Eurostat, among others. Antonello is currently the Co-Editor in Chief of Journal of Industrial and Business Economics.