Cross border Innovation activities of MNEs: a commentary

In this commentary, I consider the two chapters by Cantwell and Marra and Mukherjee, Makarius, and Gaur who write about the cross border innovative activities of mature MNEs and emerging market MNEs respectively. The evolutionary lens adopted by Cantwell and Marra prompts reflection on Penrosian dynamic capabilities of MNEs and the role that cross border innovation plays in the exploitation and augmentation of those dynamic capabilities. In contrast, the snapshot perspective employed by Mukherjee, Makarius, and Gaur emphasises the variety of strategies available to emerging MNEs to build their dynamic capabilities. Both chapters underplay the role of product markets in defining and limiting innovation activity but the different vantage points also prompt reflection on how we should regard today’s emerging market MNES and their cross border innovation activity.