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Understanding China’s next wave of innovation

Professor Mark J. Greeven looks at the next wave of innovators from China

By Mark J. Greeven

6 min.

April 2019

In recent years, a handful of Chinese companies have emerged as global innovators and have garnered a lot of attention. But there’s another, less obvious force to be reckoned with in China as well: thousands of innovative companies that are quietly disrupting numerous industries, overtaking incumbents, and developing new products and new business models.

IMD Professor Mark J. Greeven, along with Imperial College Business School Professor George S. Yip, and CEO of GSL Innovation Wei Wei recently carried out research on the next wave of innovators from China. They developed an emerging innovators framework specifically for China, detailing the different types of Chinese innovators, and the lessons for non-Chinese multinationals.

Their research was published in the MIT Sloan Management Review, in an article titled Understanding China’s Next Wave of Innovation. This article draws on insights in their recently released book, Pioneers, Hidden Champions, Change Makers, and Underdogs: Lessons From China’s Innovators (MIT Press).

In this new IMD Research and Knowledge video series, IMD faculty explore the surprising results from recently-published influential, research-based articles, and spell out the main learning points for business leaders.

How does this new wave of innovators affect your company?

Watch the video and find out.

Further reading:

Understanding China’s Next Wave of Innovation in MIT Sloan Management Review

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