Shifts in Innovation Power to Brazil and India

Abstract

Analysts tend to explain the shift in innovation power by concentrating on factors within the rising powers, such as their investment in high-level education, their low labour cost, their big and expanding internal markets and others. In contrast, this report concentrates on explanatory factors that emanate from the old powers, notably the organisational decomposition of the innovation process (ODIP). To this end the report focuses on global value chains that link Brazilian auto and Indian software suppliers with lead firms in the US and Europe. It shows that ODIP undertaken by US and European lead firms contributes direct and indirectly to the accumulation of innovation activities in Brazil and India. It also suggests that the build-up of innovation capabilities in countries like India and Brazil is accelerating ODIP in the US and Europe. PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary of 'Shifts in Innovation Power to Brazil and India: Insights from the Auto and Software Industries’, IDS Research Report 73.