Developing Innovation Transfer Capacity in a Cross-National Firm

Abstract

The study presented in this article analyzes an attempt to transfer a discontinuous product innovation across national boundaries within a biopharmaceutical company. The commercialization process, which had been effective within the company's home market, was less effective in Europe and Japan. The study concludes that when the company engaged in a transformational change intervention, it was able to improve the effectiveness of its international transfer process. The changes required were emergent rather than planned; they were driven by a renewed strategy and did not use the tools of OD nor embed itself in the humanistic values typically associated with OD. The study provides insight into the requirements of product transfer and commercialization to international subsidiaries, which needs to be approached as an international organizational change process, which the authors define as strategically aligned alterations in patterns of employee behavior across international borders.