Blurred boundaries between firms, and new boundaries within (large multinational) firms: the impact of decentralized networks for innovation
John Cantwell, Rutgers University
Changes in the environment for international business activities have facilitated more open networked formations, both within and between firms. The spread of more open networks for innovation is increasingly blurring the boundaries between firms. Yet in contrast, more open relationships within large multinational corporations imply that some new boundaries are being correspondingly erected between different sub-units of the firm. A critical feature of more open structures is that internal and external networks have become more closely connected to one another.
About the speaker
Dr Cantwell came to Rutgers as Professor of International Business in 2002. Coming from a chair at the University of Reading in the UK, he has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", the University of the Social Sciences, Toulouse, and the University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna. He is the author of Technological Innovation and Multinational Corporations (Basil Blackwell, 1989), which book helped to launch a new literature on multinational companies and technology creation, beyond merely international technology transfer, and which alone has a cumulative social science journal citation count of well over 150. Altogether, John Cantwell has published ten books, over 50 articles in refereed academic journals, and over 60 chapters in edited collections. Dr Cantwell was the President of the European International Business Academy (EIBA) in 1992, and in 2001 he was elected as one of four EIBA Founding Fellows. He has served as the first Secretary of the EIBA Fellows since 2002. In 2005 he was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK. Professor Cantwell is also an associate editor of the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and on the editorial review board of seven other peer-reviewed academic journals in the fields of international business, management, and international and institutional economics.
Venue: Keizer karelplein 19, conference room, 4th floor
Date: 28 August 2008
Time: 12:00 - 13:00 CET
