Towards a new wave in internationalization of innovation? The rise of China's innovative MNEs, strategic coupling, and global economic organization

• Author: Yong Kyu Lew,Grahame Fallon,Kwang‐Ho Kim,Zaheer Khan,Ping Wei,Shaowei He
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1444
• Published date: 01 December 2017
• Date: 01 December 2017

Towards a new wave in internationalization of

innovation? The rise of China’s innovative MNEs,

strategic coupling, and global economic

organization

Shaowei He

Northampton Business School

Grahame Fallon

Brunel University

Zaheer Khan*

The University of Kent

Yong Kyu Lew

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Kwang‐Ho Kim

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Ping Wei

Central South University

Abstract

This paper examines the changes in the internationalization

of innovation created by the recent surge of Chinese

innovative f‌irms and the resultant effects on global economic

organization. Drawing insights from the international

business, economic geography, and development studies

literatures, we investigate the rise and internationalization

of Chinese innovative f‌irms from the perspective of strategic

coupling, decoupling, and recoupling. This novel approach

provides a f‌irst glimpse into the potential impact of Chinese

innovative f‌irms on global business leadership, power

relationships in global value chains, and ultimately into

global economic organization. Copyright © 2017 ASAC.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: emerging economy multinational enterprises,

internationalization of innovation, strategic coupling, global

economic organization, global value chains, China

Résumé

Dans cet article, nous examinons les changements enregistrés

dans l’internationalisation de l’innovation en raison de

l’essor récent des entreprises chinoises du secteur de

l’innovation. Nous nous penchons également sur les effets de

ces changements sur l’organisation de l’économie mondiale.

À partir des éclairages fournis par les travaux antérieures en

commerce international, en géographie économique et en

études du développement, nous analysons la montée et

l’internationalisation des entreprises innovantes chinoises

du point de vue du couplage, du découplage et du recouplage

stratégique. Grâce à cette approche originale, on peut se faire

une idée de l’inf‌luence que ces entreprises exercent sur le

leadership du commerce mondial, des rapports de forces au

sein des chaînes de valeurs mondiales et, en f‌in de compte,

de l’organisation de l’économie mondiale. Copyright ©

2017 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mots-clés: économie émergente, entreprises

multinationales, internationalisation de l’innovation,

couplage stratégique, organisation de l’économie mondiale,

chaînes des valeurs mondiales, Chine

A growing number of studies now regard China as

having the potential to become a leading global power in

R&D and innovation terms (e.g., Peerenboom, 2007;

Sigurdson, 2005; Shi, Sun, Pinkham, & Peng 2014), thus

The authors would like to thank the guest editors of this issue and two anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful comments, which have greatly improved the

paper. Ping Wei wishes to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project code: 71302066), and the Humanities and Social Sciences Planning

Fund by Chinese Ministry of Education (project code: 11YJA790158) for f‌inancial support for this project.

*Please address correspondence to: Zaheer Khan, Reader (Associate Professor) in International Business, Kent Business School, University of Kent, UK.

Email: z.khan‐53@kent.ac.uk

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

34: 343–355 (2017)

Published online 7 May 2017 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1444

Can J Adm Sci

34(4), 343–355 (2017)Copyright © 2017 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 343