Globalization of innovation networks: A model of the process

Research on innovation networks has increasingly considered their internationalization as a natural later stage in their evolution, necessitated by augmented competition and acceleration of technology cycles. A complex dynamic ensues in such later stages as firms and other actors in the innovation network begin to pursue their own interest in the innovation space, as it grows from local to global contexts. Grounded in complex system theory, in this paper we present a theoretical model of the interaction between centrifugal and centripetal forces that shape the decision making space in which entrepreneurs and higher management act as interdependent actors in a complex system. We base this model on an analysis of the way in which locally available resources, such as talent and knowledge interact with evolving business models, as technology-based firms face economic and technological uncertainties, and we set forth testable propositions derived from the model with the aim of identifying likely evolutionary paths in other innovation networks, and. Interview data from firms in the Vancouver fuel cell cluster is used to illustrate different components and processes in the model. Policy implications for innovation at the regional level are discussed.