IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijeima/v24y2020i4-5p374-392.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Practices for building innovation capabilities of local employees at German manufacturing subsidiaries in China

Author

Listed:
  • Wenqian Zhou
  • Vivek K. Velamuri

Abstract

Many German multinational companies aim to transform their subsidiaries in China that previously solely focused on manufacturing into subsidiaries that also drive innovation. However, these companies face numerous challenges, due to local differences compared to the West. In order to facilitate the process, this paper studies practices for building innovation capabilities at German manufacturing subsidiaries in China, taking into account the local challenges. Based on in-depth interviews with managers in China, this study identifies three practices for driving the build-up of innovation capabilities within the subsidiary organisation: build knowledge, establish a mindset for innovation and increase measures for employee retention. The study adds to extant research by detailing these practices with approaches that target local challenges. Compared to the West, the local challenges include differences in skills and knowledge, culture, as well as work behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Wenqian Zhou & Vivek K. Velamuri, 2020. "Practices for building innovation capabilities of local employees at German manufacturing subsidiaries in China," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 24(4/5), pages 374-392.
  • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijeima:v:24:y:2020:i:4/5:p:374-392
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=108251
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nascimento, Leandro da Silva & Zawislak, Paulo Antônio, 2023. "Towards a theory of Capability-Based Transactions: Bounded innovation capabilities, commercialization, cooperation, and complementarity," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijeima:v:24:y:2020:i:4/5:p:374-392. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=7 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.