"Challenges and barriers of European firms in Global Innovation Networks"
by Susana Borrás and Stine Haakonsson, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Denmark, June 2011

Summary

During the past decades, large firms and especially multinational firms have been developing innovation networks with a true global reach. In these networks, innovation is created in different locations and shared among different partners in order to open, adapt, maintain or exploit new market opportunities. The objective of this research project is to investigate what global innovation networks are and what policy implications they pose for Europe.

Key messages for policy-makers, businesses, trade unions and civil society actors

• Policy-makers should lower the barriers for European firms’ active participation in global innovation networks.
• Policy makers must help improving European firms’ capabilities to manage global innovation networks. In particular, their ability to manage globally dispersed innovation projects, to manage relocation costs efficiently, and to manage cultural differences.
• European firms need more open and flexible migration regulations for employing foreign scientists and technicians; and more stringent regulations, practice and jurisprudence around intellectual property rights.