Technology and innovation management in a global perspective

Abstract

This chapter analyzes major trends and structural changes related to technology and innovation management (TIM) for the period 1995 to 2018. For quite a while, TIM was characterized by an emphasis on R&D, and biases in favor of technology-push, home-country and lead-countries. Most research was concentrated in a few academic institutions in Anglo-saxon countries that acted as centers of excelence. Technological parochialism dominated our thinking about global innovation. Until about 2005, innovation remained centered in large multinational corporations from a small group of advanced nations. And these large corporations concentrated most of their R&D investments in a small group of target countries. This pattern has somewhat changed during the last fifteen years, and particularly during the last decade. The footprint of innovation activities has become much more global and diversified. An increasing number of countries have followed ambitious innovation strategies. And our concepts of managing innovation had to be refined: towards more open, more user-oriented and more boundary-spanning concepts. We have seen a persistent increase in the globalization of the R&D function and a greater diversity of target countries for new R&D locations.

Even though it is hard to predict future courses in periods of growing political instability, the globalization of R&D will most probably go on during the period 2019 to 2030. Long-term megatrends like climate change, urbanization and new mobility must be addressed from a global perspective, and the appropriate technological and social solutions need to be developed and implemented in many countries simultaneously. The global footprint of innovation activities will be extended and we will see a proliferation of new uprising nations that play an increasingly important role. Sometime during the next decade, China will surpass the United States in terms of GDP as well as R&D spending. Other emerging nations like India, Brazil, Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia will follow high-tech development strategies. It will be interesting to monitor country-specific processes of linking science and technology, human capital formation and R&D growth. A key issue will be whether catch-up nations are able to grow beyond the so-called middle-income trap and whether these countries can implement a sustainable growth path.