Innovation Challenges When Multinationalizing: The Source of Innovation

Bregolat (2014) evidenced the ambition of China in science and technology in its second revolution in economic development. This is also considered as one of the principal motives for Chinese firms to internationalize along with resource seeking and market penetration. On the other hand, the great interest in investing in China and attracting Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) to Western countries and other parts of the world (Alon and McIntyre, 2008), has encouraged many scholars to explore the phenomenon of China’s economy and enterprises. In their attempt to better understand the evolution of systematic knowledge on management and organization in Chinese management, Tsui et al. (2004) extended the literature review on the nature and influence of market transformation on firms and management in China, and concluded that “the original theorizing on Chinese business organizations and management is still in a primitive stage” despite a growing body of literature and the legitimacy of Chinese context for knowledge generation in the global management base (p. 137). The aim of this book is twofold: First, to call the attention of scholars and practitioners to the innovation phenomenon in China; second, to set a sprat to catch a mackerel — that is, our work may serve as a modest spur to someone to come forward with their contributions to future studies on this theme.