Building blocks of the reverse innovation process

Ambidexterity within a multinational context: how organisations can leverage explorative and exploitative reverse innovation

“…Primarily, a purposive sampling strategy was applied as the sampling had a focus on key themes (Saunders et al., 2019), namely the management of R&D activities of multinational firms. We did not focus on specific industries as previous studies have found evidence of RI across industries (e.g., (von Zedtwitz et al., 2015; Dudaklı et al., 2021).…”

“…We recognise that the cases upon which our conceptualisation is based do not substantially differ from the ones already discussed in RI literature. Cases of explorative RIs, even though not defined as such, have been discussed by, for example, Corsi et al (2014), Dudaklı et al (2021), andImmelt et al (2009). What we have identified as explorative reverse product innovation is in line with the flow pattern as reflected in their case studies.…”

“…Extending a capability to generate global innovation to MNEs from EEs (EMNEs) (Govindarajan and Ramamurti, 2011), the concept of RI specifically addresses how MNEs access knowledge and resources in EEs and use these to their advantage globally (Hadengue et al., 2017). Although the process underlying RI has received substantial attention (Corsi et al., 2014; Stokes et al., 2017; Malodia et al., 2020; Dudaklı et al., 2021), and despite having identified cases of RI that can be defined as either explorative or exploitative (Zeschky et al., 2014), it remains largely unexplored as to how MNEs from either advanced (AMNEs) or EEs (EMNEs) can find a fruitful balance between exploration and exploitation across two sets of countries that are set apart in both their technological and market endowments. In fact, while traditional views would suggest that exploration and exploitation activities occur in AEs and EEs respectively, reality dictates that both innovation activities happen in both scenarios.…”

“…Furthermore, exploration activities that are carried out in EEs may arise or benefit from both the concentration of specialised technical knowledge, which may bring further development along established technological trajectories, and from market or environmental drivers that may suggest the undertaking of globally innovative technological trajectories. This adds a layer of complexity that requires to go beyond the level of analysis that has so far characterised RI studies mostly focusing on formal units such as products (Rosca et al., 2017; Dudaklı et al., 2021) or patents (Huang and Li, 2019; Willoughby and Mullina, 2021), and to study reversal of traditional flows of innovation that includes innovative contributions that EE‐based activities make within multinational R&D networks of headquarters, subsidiaries, and partners. We argue that by changing the analytical lens through which we look at RI in MNEs we can shed light on how the same MNEs can achieve geographic ambidexterity by balancing explorative and exploitative activities across geographies at different stages of economic development.…”

The New Marketing Realities and the Major Marketing Forces

“…Initially, for a number of years, GE had negligible access with its premium ultra-sound scanners in the Chinese market. However, later the company developed a portable, ultralow-cost version of the scanner that addressed the unique market needs of the customers (Dudaklı, Felekoğlu, & Baykasoğlu, 2022). GE was also able to sell the product successfully throughout the developed world for use in ambulances and operating rooms which were too small for the existing models to fit in (Dudaklı et al, 2022).…”