The Influence of Micro-Characteristics in Different Modes of Globalization of Innovation: A Comparative Study of Indian (Pune) and Chinese (Beijing) Firms

Since the seminal work of Archibugi and Michie (1995) on the globalization of innovation, several authors have attempted to understand the complex relationship between innovation and internationalization. However, most tend to focus on industrialized countries, just one mode of globalization of innovation and often one traditional indicator of innovation, such as patents or R&D investment, thus ignoring the complexity and multiple aspects of the phenomenon. This paper explores empirically the linkages between different modes of globalization of innovation and firms’ micro-characteristics in two of the fastest growing emerging economies. We analyze three distinct modes of globalization of innovation: the global exploitation of innovation, the global sourcing of technology and global research collaboration. We then use primary data from Chinese and Indian firms belonging to three sectors (automotive components, software and green biotech) to explore the differences in the ways in which the firms located in these two economies globalize their innovatiton activities.