Innovation in Multinational Companies ─ Organisational, International and Regional Dilemmas

This study deals with the organisation of innovation projects of multinational companies. The focus is on learning processes which occur within the company group as well as those taking place between the company and its regional environment. This work establishes a bridge between organisational and regional learning. Three dilemmas of innovation can thereby be identified: the dilemma between formalisation and flexibilisation mirrors that organisations are defined as stable and structured entities whilst innovation is a process of renewal and change. The configuration dilemma reflects the choice between a concentrated setting and international dispersal of innovation activities. The dilemma of regional (dis)embeddedness points at the tension between exploiting available resources and pursuing a regionally detached strategy. Qualitative case-studies of specific innovation projects provide empirical in-depth insights.

This book was awarded the first prize in the catagory Dissertations of the Weser-Ems-Wissenschaftspreis 2011.

Jannika Mattes is researcher at University Oldenburg (Germany) in the Jean Monnet Centre of Europeanisation and Transnational Regulations (CETRO). Her research interests lie at the intersection between innovation studies, organisational sociology and regional geography.