Innovative Firms in Emerging Market Countries

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. Addressing this gap, the book draws on a variety of firm-level experiences across a range of key countries, sectors, and institutional contexts. Despite the obvious differences, the book finds a commonality in these experiences: they have all 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 in Asia and Latin America, the book argues 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, it is suggested 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. This book is a valuable resource for academics, researchers, and graduate students in international business and technology management.

Edmund Amann is Reader in Development Economics at the University of Manchester and Professorial Lecturer at the School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He has published widely in international journals. His work concerns the themes of firm evolution, technological change and competitiveness that feature in this volume. A special focus of his research has been on firms and the business environment in Latin America.

John Cantwell is Professor of International Business at Rutgers University and is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of International Business Studies. He has published widely on themes covered in this volume both in leading international journals and in several notable books. Like his co-editor on this volume, Prof. Cantwell has been involved in the Columbia University-based International Catch-Up Project from its inception.