International Business

1. Is the comparative success of leasing national economies principally explained by differences in innovation systems? (2009) 2. Is technological innovation the main source of all economic development and change? How might differing research and development systems influence the performance of major nations? (2008) 3. Is the capacity for technological innovation the key factor in determining the long-term performance of national economies? Compare differences in the innovation systems of leading economies.(2011) 4. To what extent is the long-term performance of national economiesdecided by their capacity for technological innovation? To what extent can we say that the innovation systems of leading economies have national characteristics?(2012) 5. How have leading national economies gained a competitive advantage intechnological innovation, and to what extent is their competitivenessdetermined by their investment in research and development? (2013) ii. Key Arguments. R&D and technology: as the engine of economic growth and the creator of new industries. How important is its role, or are there other institutional factors, such as management, finance, etc? Are there national R&D systems, or are large companies the focus of R&D systems? You need detailed industry level evidence, a notion of how technology becomes commercial innovation, and a sense of comparative differences, including outcomes. Focus on a key list of analytical topics: innovation versus invention, first mover advantages and strategy, government, national innovation systems, role of financial systems and corporate governance, managerial systems and corporate investment and strategies, nature of national industries, FDI and MNEs, but clearly you can’t cover all these topics one by one. iii. Importance of technological borrowing against invention iv. R&D and the large corporation (Chandler argument): case evidence v. R&D and the state: case evidence vi. Role of MNEs and international transfer vii. Institutional environment, financial systems, education systems vii. Variations between sectors and firms more important than between nations? ix. Conclusion Nations to work on should be US, UK, Japan, China and Germany *need to touch on late industrialization-borrowing of technology as well authors to include should be Max Weber, Kuznet and Chandler