The Global Shift in R&D Alliances: Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) and the Quest for the Base-of-the-Pyramid (BOP) Markets

该项目将研究跨国企业如何通过与非政府组织结成联盟来设计获取市场情报的新途径，并将对新兴经济体的组织创新进行案例研究。该项目将特别关注跨国公司与非政府组织（ngo）之间的研究与开发（R&amp；D）联盟的新兴现象，并将分析全球公司研发活动在印度五个大都市地区的意义。为了理解以“金字塔底部”（BOP）市场为目标的创新活动的过程和组织动力学，研究者将开发一个新的概念框架，明确地将创新视为技术知识和市场情报之间的相互作用。此外，非政府组织作为创新伙伴的新角色需要更广泛地理解它们在塑造跨国公司行为方面的作用。跨国公司和非政府组织如何在激励结构、制度目标和组织文化相互竞争的情况下共同创新、共同发展和培育知识资产，需要对多维协调问题和新形式市场治理的不同概念框架提出新的解决方案。研究者将采用多利益相关者的方法来分析新兴的创新治理形式。主要任务将包括对在印度开展研发活动的外国跨国公司进行问卷调查，以bop为导向对在印度的外国跨国公司进行访谈，对与跨国公司合作的印度非政府组织进行访谈，以及对跨国公司全球研发业务有了解的驻美国高管进行访谈。该项目将把多方利益相关者方法与制度演化框架以及比较分析相结合，对定性证据进行三角测量。通过学术出版物、为跨国公司和非政府组织编写的案例书，以及在印度班加罗尔国际信息技术研究所（IITB）举行的为期两天的研讨会，该项目将提供有关参与金字塔底层倡议的各种利益攸关方的作用和期望的基本新知识。通过美印两国机构之间的国际合作努力，该项目将促进两国学术界就全球力量参与塑造印度经济以及其他发展中国家经济的未来进行智力对话。

This project will examine how multinational enterprises (MNEs) are devising new ways to access market intelligence by forging alliances with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and it will conduct case studies of organizational innovation in emerging economies. In particular, the project will focus on the emerging phenomenon of research and development (R&D) alliances between MNEs and NGOs , and it will analyze the significance of global corporate R&D activities in five metropolitan areas in India. In understanding the process and organizational dynamics of innovative activities that target "base-of-the-pyramid" (BOP) markets, the investigators will develop a new conceptual framework that explicitly recognizes innovation as interactions between technological knowledge and market intelligence. Furthermore, the new role of NGOs as partners in innovation demands a broader understanding of their role in shaping the behavior of MNEs. How MNEs and NGOs co-innovate, co-develop, and nurture knowledge assets in spite of competing incentive structures, institutional objectives, and organizational cultures requires new solutions to multi-dimensional coordination problems and different conceptual frameworks for new forms of market governance. The investigators will adopt a multi-stakeholder approach to analyze the newly emerging governance form of innovation. Primary tasks will include a questionnaire survey of foreign MNEs with R&D activities in India, interviews of foreign MNEs in India with a BOP-orientation, interviews of NGOs in India collaborating with MNEs, and interviews with executives based in the United States with knowledge of MNEs' global R&D operations. The project will combine the multi-stakeholder approach with institutional-evolutionary framework as well as comparative analysis to triangulate the qualitative evidence.Through scholarly publications, case books developed for both MNEs and NGOs, and a two day symposium at International Institute of Information Technology in Bangalore, India (IITB), the project will provide basic new knowledge regarding the roles and expectations of the various stakeholders involved in base-of-the-pyramid initiatives. Through this international collaborative effort between institutions in the U.S. and India, the project will foster an intellectual dialog among academics in the two countries on the involvement of global forces in shaping the future of the Indian economy as well as the economies of other developing nations.