Internationalization of R&amp;D in China and India: Conventional wisdom versus reality

Asakawa, Kazuhiro; Som, Ashok

doi:10.1007/s10490-007-9082-z

Cited by 99 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The state government has allotted 700 acres land to Maruti for this purpose, out of which a dedicated 100 acres will house the Suppliers' Park. The center is intended as "the parent Suzuki Motor Corporation's global R&D hub for small cars" (Economic Times, 2009) and will be responsible for localizing existing models and designing new compact cars (Asakawa and Som, 2008).…”

Section: Suzuki Motor and Subsidiaries Production Of Automobiles (Exclumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…R&D teams are sent in batches of 20-30 people to Suzuki's R&D headquarters in Japan for training spells of well over a year (Asakawa and Som, 2008). Suzuki also deploys Japanese engineers at Maruti.…”

Section: Suzuki Motor and Subsidiaries Production Of Automobiles (Exclumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies, however, indicate an increasing trend of market-driven globalization of innovations in countries such as China or India (Asakawa and Som, 2008, Economist, 2010b, Ernst et al, 2009, which cannot be sufficiently explained by the lead market theory and factors such as access to cheap and skilled manpower only. Furthermore, our research suggests that firms increasingly use fast-growing developing economies as "lead markets" for innovating specific products, services, and technologies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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India - A Lead Market for Frugal Innovations? Extending the Lead Market Theory to Emerging Economies

Tiwari

Herstatt

2012

SSRN Journal

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India has emerged as a vibrant and versatile source for cost effective, "disruptive innovations" of various varieties. Price-sensitive consumers in a large and growing market keep inducing firms to apply "frugal engineering" for creating affordable products and services without compromising excessively on quality. Because, as The Economist asserts: "Frugal does not mean second-rate". Such innovations are characterized by high affordability, robustness, and "good enough" quality in a volume-driven market. Resource constraints motivate firms and entrepreneurs to think out-of-thebox. The trick lies in creating solutions that are able to circumvent given environmental constraints in a cost effective way. India's large and enormously young population faced with limited budgets, but well-endowed with high aspirations, provides an ideal experiment ground for many firms. Solutions created for the Indian market are often suitable for other developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America that frequently face similar socio-economic conditions. In some instances they succeed even in developed country markets by enabling significant cost reductions. This emergence as a hub for "frugal innovations" possibly suggests a "lead market" role for India.On the other hand, lead markets, as understood today, are characterized by high per capita income, great customer sophistication and high quality infrastructure. Such assumptions imply that lead markets, almost by default, can only exist in economically developed countries because only they can finance the development effort. Using two anchor-cases of product innovations aimed at pricesensitive segments in India we generate preliminary evidence to challenge some of the core assumptions of the "lead market" theory and propose that lead markets can emerge in developing countries too because market attractiveness (e.g. volume of demand, export possibilities) and technological capabilities are able to offset many other deficiencies. The supposed absence of customer sophistication is channelized into a challenge for supplier-side sophistication to design cost effective, "good enough" solutions ("low-cost, thin-margin") that can meet the aspirations of consumers in a highly competitive market. In order to master this challenge companies need access to a competent and sufficiently large technical base with first-hand knowledge of the ground situation of targeted customer groups ("social capital").

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Section: Suzuki Motor and Subsidiaries Production Of Automobiles (Exclumentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Suzuki Motor and Subsidiaries Production Of Automobiles (Exclumentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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India - A Lead Market for Frugal Innovations? Extending the Lead Market Theory to Emerging Economies

Tiwari

Herstatt

2012

SSRN Journal

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“…The Chindia countries have experienced rapid growth and have undertaken changes in the economy and firms' openness to the world over the last few years leading to large foreign direct investment (Asakawa & Som, 2008;Athreye & Kapur, 2009;Oswal, 2010;Gill, & Singh, 2012). Both countries have implemented policies to encourage outward foreign direct investment (Gill, & Singh, 2012).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internationalization and firm performance in Chindia: a meta-analytic review

2016

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“…Kuemmerle (1999) shows that in 1965 the 32 MNCs studied in his paper carried out 6.2% of their R&D efforts outside the home country boundaries, whereas in 1995, the corresponding figure was 25.8 percent. Asakawa and Som (2008) discuss the growing number of Western and Japanese firms that have been launching R&D operations in China and India. Other surveys provide essentially similar information.…”

Section: Relocation Of Randd Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%