It is a pleasure to introduce this special issue which was compiled from the selected papers presented at the Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology in July 2010 at Phuket, Thailand. The issue focused on exploration of the technological innovation. Specifically the papers dealt with emerging issues in a global economy. There are eight papers in this special issue. Four of these papers are from Taiwan, two from Germany and two from the USA.

The first group of papers explored different industries. Chang, Chen, Lin and Gao studied the case of Taiwanese Science Parks. Wang, Huang and Chen explored the semiconductor industry. Hewig took a look at the software industry while Jimenez, Angelov and Rao dealt with the service industry.

Following two papers introduced new frameworks for managing innovation. Scholten and Scholten explored a platform-based innovation model while Chiang Lie and Wen studied organizational innovation. The final two papers examined managing projects and teams of such projects, both of which are critical elements of managing innovation and have become even more challenging in a global economy. Wang explored virtualization and effectiveness of teams whereas Patanakul and Aronson studied cultural and personal elements impacting the management of multiple projects.