KNOWLEDGE TRANSIT: THE CREATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND ORCHESTRATION OF INNOVATION ACROSS SPACE

Abstract

The desegregation of global value chains has accelerated the development of a fabric of connectedness between firms, locations, and inventors. The modern global business world is now characterized by these connections, which serve as conduits of high value knowledge between specialist repositories, or centers of excellence. The properties of knowledge repositories are a function of the co-evolution of their constituent firms and the locations themselves. Thus, it is of great interest to scholars of international business, economic geography, and innovation studies to understand the roles and characteristics of the firms and locations that participate in global value chains. This dissertation explores the movement of knowledge from seemingly disparate locations and firms as it coalesces into ideas, and then follows the path of transformation into a commercialized product or service. In the first chapter, I laid the theoretical groundwork for the dissertation and review how the different studies contribute to the our understanding of how firm and location characteristics interact with global innovation connectedness, and vice versa. Three chapters that study innovation dynamics at within global value chains then follow. In the second chapter, I explore the characteristics of orchestrating firms, high order specialists that coordinate the movement of knowledge and activities in global value chains. With evidence from the pharmaceutical industry I find that not all orchestrating firms are created equal: a core insider group, known as “majors”, possess a unique legitimacy that enables the absorption of risk and grants access to greater resources that are required to control the value capture from market-defining innovation. In the third chapter, I discuss the interdependencies of orchestrating firms and industrial change by examining the Detroit auto cluster. I argue that the very forces that led to significant manufacturing loss in the Detroit area may also be behind the resilience of its knowledge production, a finding underwritten by significant innovation connectedness to other auto clusters. In the fourth and final chapter, I find that knowledge connectivity is a crucial driver of exploration into new technological areas, and that firms may be connected both internationally and domestically. Further, I find that the operational footprint of the firm is a vital amplifier of its connectivity efforts.