Catch-up innovation in emerging market multinationals

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] In this dissertation, I study how emerging market multinationals innovate to catch up with incumbent global leaders. By extending entrepreneurial perspectives into the emerging market context, I provide a comprehensive framework to account for EMNEs' distinctive innovation practices. In essay one, I conceptualize what I refer to as catch-up innovation as a multi-dimensional construct consisting of scarcity induced decisionmaking coupled with innovative behavior. I develop a measurement model of catch-up innovation and empirically test the validity of the measurement model using a sample of Chinese multinational firms. The results support my theoretical conceptualization. In essay two, I focus on EMNEs' aggressive commercialization practices, a unique behavioral dimension of catch-up innovation. I propose a model to explain how aggressive commercialization is influenced by institutional support factors (i.e., government encouragement and knowledge from research institutions) and resource constraints (i.e., lack of innovation capability, lack of brand equity, and lack of time). I also consider how aggressive commercialization influences EMNEs' product output performance. Additionally, I explore two sets of moderating factors, task-related capabilities and environment-related capabilities, in order to study the relationship between aggressive commercialization and product output performance. Findings from a sample of Chinese multinational firms support a majority of my hypotheses