IMD Annual Report 2019

37

UNDERSTANDING CHINA’S NEXT WAVE OF INNOVATION Mark Greeven, George Yip, Wei Wei MIT Sloan Management Review Chinese innovators are making their mark globally. Not only do such giants as Alibaba and Huawei continue to thrive and grow through innovation, thousands of younger Chinese entrepreneurs are poised to enter the global marketplace. While the world obsesses with a handful of large Chinese companies, our study puts a spotlight on China’s emerging innovators. As a threat, these emerging innovators are often underestimated and ignored while, in our studies, we see them collectively – as a swarm of innovators – challenging incumbent and multinational players. As an opportunity, they develop cutting-edge, proprietary technologies that become intellectual property to create a stream of innovative products and services. In our estimation, there are today between 200 and 300 Chinese hidden champions. Now, imagine that tens of thousands of China’s tech underdogs over time give rise to thousands of new, hidden champions. It is crucial for companies worldwide to recon the swarm of emerging innovators coming from China as they both pose competitive threats and provide important opportunities for collaboration.”

Mark Greeven IMD Professor of Innovation and Strategy