Social Innovation in Emerging Economies: A Resource‐Based View Perspective

• Author: Jean‐Philippe Timsit,Yann Truong,Irena Descubes
• Date: 01 November 2013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.1954
• Published date: 01 November 2013

Strat. Change 22: 503–510 (2013)

Published online in Wiley Online Library

(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jsc.1954 RESEARCH ARTICLE

Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Strategic Change: Brie ngs in Entrepreneurial Finance

Strategic Change

DOI: 10.1002/jsc.1954

Social Innovation in Emerging Economies:

A Resource-Based View Perspective1

Irena Descubes, Jean-Philippe Timsit, and Yann Truong

ESC Rennes School of Business, France

Introduction

 e development process in emerging economies challenges some established

theories in strategic management research (Meyer et al., 2009). In the innovation

literature, the resource-based view (RBV) theory is orientated toward mobilizing

resources and capabilities to achieve innovative performance (Amit and Schoe-

maker, 1993; Barney, 1991; Penrose, 1959), which implies that the RBV theory

resonates mostly in the context of developed economies where extensive resources

are available to  rms for achieving innovation (Teece et al., 1997). However,

emerging economies operate with a di erent approach as they often possess

limited resources to allocate to innovation (Chacar and Vissa, 2005; Milana and

Wu, 2012).  erefore, one challenge would be to investigate the conditions under

which the RBV theory can be applied to the context of emerging economies (Chari

and David, 2012). In other words, we ask the question: How can emerging econo-

mies achieve innovation with limited resources?  is research question addresses

an important research gap in the literature on the interface between strategy and

innovation in the context of emerging economies. Little can be found in the

current literature on this speci c but important area, given the rising importance

of emerging countries in the global landscape.

In developed economies, the increasingly savvy and co-operative, co-creative,

and co-productive consumers force researchers to reconsider the classical producer

technology-based innovation model. In contrast, in developing economies, inno-

vations embrace a di erent lifecycle, mostly based on incremental or discontinu-

ous customer preference changes (Tripsas, 1997). Lower-cost and simpler or more

convenient products or services that meet underserved or new customer segments’

The current literature interfacing

strategy and innovation is largely

based on the Western perspective

that innovation is mostly

technology driven and therefore

resource intensive.

Emerging economies often have

to cope with limited resources to

achieve innovation.

Building on the resource-based

view theory, the approach to

innovation is rethought here from

the perspective of these emerging

countries and applied to the case

of a public transport innovation in

the city of Curitiba in Brazil.

Emerging economies can achieve substantial innovation with limited resources

based on the analysis of demand (user needs) in contrast with the traditional

RBV theory, which considers supply as the departure point of innovation.

1 JEL classi cation codes: O12, O31, R58.