Innovation ecosystem (IE) literature explores the interdependencies between partners that jointly innovate and create value. IEs comprise various actors such as focal firms, suppliers, complementary innovators, and customers. This study elaborates on actors’ interactions that promote the emergence and evolution of IEs in emerging economies. System of Systems (SoS) literature—which classifies the types of authority between the system and its components into virtual, collaborative, acknowledged, and directed—is applied to propose a conceptual framework for analyzing IEs. Following a multiple case study, three ecosystems were selected from the Brazilian armored vehicle sector and analyzed according to the proposed framework. The results revealed that the organizational environment impacts IEs by promoting their emergence and evolution or even leading to their death. The interaction between ecosystem actors can also contribute to the success or failure of IEs. Managing to reach the optimal type of authority can be a valuable tool for orchestrating actors and their interactions in IEs.

Innovationsförmåga avser förmågan till ständig förnyelse. Denna förmåga framhålls ofta som den mest kritiska källan till bibehållen konkurrenskraft hos företag. I tillväxtekonomier leder företagens innovationsförmåga till ekonomisk utveckling, vilket förutom konkurrenskraft också kan medföra förbättringar av utbildning, hälsa och demokrati.  

Det är svårt att bygga innovationsförmåga i en tillväxtekonomi. Till skillnad från företag i väl utvecklade ekonomier, saknar företag i tillväxtekonomier många resurser och kompetenser. Eftersom de inte har tillgång till kritiska resurser inom företaget eller från inhemska partners är de beroende av internationella kluster av innovativa leverantörer. Företag i tillväxtekonomier verkar också i sammanhang som präglas av lågkvalitativ utbildning, svaga institutioner och ekonomiska begränsningar.  

Även om byggandet av innovationsförmåga har intresserat forskare under de senaste decennierna, finns det fortfarande utrymme för bättre förklaringar. Litteraturen i detta område behöver mer överensstämmelse, helhetssyn och bättre operationalisering. Dessutom leder ekonomiska nedgångar i flera tillväxtekonomier till ett ännu större behov av att förstå hur förtag kan bygga en innovationsförmåga.  

Denna avhandling innehåller forskningsartiklar med studier av företag i Brasilien, en välkänd tillväxtekonomi i Latinamerika. Forskningen analyserar 13 fallstudier som bygger på data från 47 intervjuer samt sekundära källor. Olika analysnivåer, från projekt till företag och ekosystem, bidrar till att komplettera och berika resultaten och slutsatserna.  

Forskningen visar hur företag i tillväxtekonomier bygger innovationsförmåga genom att först utveckla och ta till sig teknisk kunskap så att de närmar sig de ledande företagen i sin bransch. När klyftan har minskat fortsätter de att bygga sin innovationsförmåga genom att känna av miljön, ta tillvara på möjligheter, konfigurera om befintlig kunskap, hantera leverantörer och komplementära organisationer, strategiskt anpassa sin tekniska uppgradering och dessutom uppmuntra kontinuerligt lärande för att vidareutveckla personalen. I detta senare skede är målet att ta vara på möjligheter som hjälper företagen att utmana eller till och med gå om branschledarna. Sammantaget visar avhandlingen hur viktigt lärandet är genom hela processen.   

Frugal innovation has recently attracted the attention of scholars and practitioners seeking new approaches for innovating in both established and emerging economies. However, hitherto, the literature has been concerned mainly with defining the topic; few empirical studies exist on the development process underlying frugal innovation. This study, thus, explores if and how the digital simulation tools of computer-aided engineering (CAE) can foster frugal innovation and what the organizational challenges are that affect this process. Three firms from different industries in Brazil are analyzed through a multiple-case study. The results reveal that CAE can help firms by promoting the development of affordable and quality products, thereby fostering frugal innovation. CAE also contributes to sustainable development by facilitating the design of products that use fewer raw materials along with equipment that consumes less energy. Further, CAE can support business and organizational activities related to marketing and learning. However, firms need to first overcome organizational challenges related to software, hardware, and technical skills to achieve a minimum level of reliability for CAE outcomes. Otherwise, the development of frugal innovation may be jeopardized by inaccurate simulation results. 

Technology upgrading plays a crucial role in the catching-up process of emerging economy firms (EEFs) that aim to develop technological capabilities and move from imitation to innovation. The literature on emerging economies has mainly focused on how EEFs overcome the lack of technological knowledge at initial stages of catching-up while neglecting organisational issues that arise at later stages. The purpose of this study was to explore organisational activities performed by EEFs that are innovating at advanced stages of catching-up. Two Brazilian firms, namely Petrobras and WEG, were selected to be studied and to provide evidence for the research. The results indicate that both firms have systematically monitored their environments to look for windows of opportunity and have consistently invested in learning mechanisms to overcome shortcomings in knowledge. Furthermore, an activity for aligning strategy and technology was found to be key for optimising the technology upgrading process and for maximising its results.

Emerging economy firms (EEFs) have striven to accumulate technological capabilities and promote indigenous innovation for technology upgrading and catching-up. By assuming that R&D projects affect firm capabilities, this study investigated how EEFs can accumulate technological capabilities through R&D activities. A technological-capability framework was proposed with the dimensions of organisational structure, innovation processes, practice, resources and entrepreneurial leadership. The framework guided an exploratory case study of three R&D projects in the Brazilian defence industry: the thrust vector control (TVC), software-defined radio (SDR) and radar projects. The TVC project utilised existing firm capabilities, whereas the SDR and radar projects needed to develop their capabilities from scratch. Different paths were adopted to accumulate technological capabilities and deliver the projects’ outcomes. It was found that a balance between the dimensions may positively impact the rate at which technology capabilities are accumulated. Theoretical contributions and practical implications for EEFs are also discussed. 

Capability transformation occupies a central role in providing competitive advantages to firms facing rapidly changing environments. To track capability transformation, the existing literature proposes a capability lifecycle model that includes founding, development, and maturity stages and identifies several possible capability transformations such as retirement, retrenchment, replication, renewal, redeployment, and recombination. Monitoring can be used to check significant changes in the complex environment that includes political, economic, social, and technological fields and initiate capability transformation by adapting firms to new environmental conditions ahead of the competition. Learning mechanisms such as tacit accumulation of past experience and explicit knowledge articulation can also be employed to guide the capability evolution to capability innovation. This paper explores the transformation of capabilities in one Brazilian firm by looking for processes used to monitor and evaluate the environment and identifying learning mechanisms utilized during the capability transformation process. Results indicate that the firm has systematic monitoring activities in place and consistently applies learning mechanisms to support capability transformation. Recommendations for managerial and organizational processes concerning monitoring and organizational learning on the firm level are also developed