Conceptualization Of Innovation Research Articles

Comparative dynamics of public health spending: Re-conceptualizing delta-convergence to examine OECD and Latin America

Theoretical interest in the effects of globalization and regionalization on national outcomes, coupled with the unprecedented availability of comparable, cross-national data, creates an expanded opportunity for social scientists to test propositions of convergence over time. In this article, we investigate trends and convergence in public health spending in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) compared with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Public health expenditures represent an important indicator of social protections, especially for the most vulnerable and the poor. In order to assess patterns in public health convergence in the region, we introduce an innovative conceptualization of delta-convergence. While this term has referred to countries’ convergence toward an exemplar or an abstract ideal, we retool delta-convergence to examine how countries move toward or away from a regional mean, which is itself allowed to vary over time. We find an upwards trend in public health spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in both Latin America and the OECD, and while in OECD there is little evidence of convergence or divergence, our results indicate a period of convergence followed by divergence in Latin America. Our analysis further reveals important regional dynamics at play, and engages with world polity and world systems theory and the literatures on regionalization versus globalization. We conclude by discussing the utility of using delta-convergence analysis to identify group trends, outliers, and country-specific trajectories.

Standards in green public procurement – A framework to enhance innovation

Green Public Procurement (GPP) is defined as purchasing which reduces environmental impacts across product or service life cycles. Standardization, as another demand-side measure, complements GPP by shaping standards, which when strategically applied in tenders can drive market demand for environmental products and services and stimulate eco-innovation. However, the uptake of GPP, use of standards, and consideration of innovation in public procurement is limited, and analyses often only consider two of the three. To broaden conceptualizations of innovation in GPP, this paper conducts a review and synthesis of relevant literature to examine roles for standards and standardization in GPP according to innovation life cycle stages, from R&D through to commercialization and diffusion. It develops a conceptual space for product and service innovations according to the purchase of off-the-shelf products or services, incremental adaptations through the public procurement of innovation, and radical innovations using pre-commercial procurement and innovation partnerships. Roles for particular types of standards are examined as inputs to these different mechanisms. Focusing on pre-commercial procurement, standardization is then situated according to distinct stages in the R&D process. Four case studies from literature are applied to support this framework. This paper creates a foundation for integrated understanding of the functions of standards - and applicability of standardization - in demand-side product and process development and market penetration for environmental improvement. Its framework may be used as a conceptual space for public procurers across Europe to better visualize characteristics of products and services when making tender design decisions based on functionality and rewarding performance. Further study should also consider procurer capabilities for sourcing and revealing knowledge to improve procurement outcomes, as ultimately capturing the benefits from GPP hinges upon its ability to be conducted in practice.

A Promising Partnership: Uncovering the Middle Ground Between Social Innovation and Social Work

This response article discusses opportunities to bridge social work and social innovation as a promising partnership to address the issues impacting vulnerable populations across the global context. It starts by revisiting the conceptualization of innovation in social work and continues by considering factors that contribute to the growing interest in social innovation and related concepts. This article concludes by discussing differences in social work and social innovation and how these differences can be turned into opportunities for a fruitful partnership that can push both fields forward.

A new route to norms evolution: insights from India’s right to food campaign

For over a decade, activists in India have waged a nationwide Right to Food (RTF) campaign aimed at highlighting persistent undernutrition in their country and galvanizing corresponding legal and administrative reform. This article draws on original interview data to demonstrate the process through which the campaign has forged a new and more robust interpretation of the RTF than that prevailing in international law and practice. It has done so by relying largely on domestic law, institutions, and networks rather than through ‘vernacularization’ of international norms or transnational advocacy. The campaign’s innovative conceptualization of the RTF along with the ongoing challenges it faces in attempting to influence the implementation of that right have broader implications for human rights theory and advocacy beyond India.

That's not how the learning works - the paradox of Reverse Innovation: a qualitative study.

BackgroundThere are significant differences in the meaning and use of the term ‘Reverse Innovation’ between industry circles, where the term originated, and health policy circles where the term has gained traction. It is often conflated with other popularized terms such as Frugal Innovation, Co-development and Trickle-up Innovation. Compared to its use in the industrial sector, this conceptualization of Reverse Innovation describes a more complex, fragmented process, and one with no particular institution in charge. It follows that the way in which the term ‘Reverse Innovation’, specifically, is understood and used in the healthcare space is worthy of examination.MethodsBetween September and December 2014, we conducted eleven in-depth face-to-face or telephone interviews with key informants from innovation, health and social policy circles, experts in international comparative policy research and leaders in the Reverse Innovation space in the United States. Interviews were open-ended with guiding probes into the barriers and enablers to Reverse Innovation in the US context, specifically also informants' experience and understanding of the term Reverse Innovation. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed thematically using the process of constant comparison.ResultsWe describe three main themes derived from the interviews. First, ‘Reverse Innovation,’ the term, has marketing currency to convince policy-makers that may be wary of learning from or adopting innovations from unexpected sources, in this case Low-Income Countries. Second, the term can have the opposite effect - by connoting frugality, or innovation arising from necessity as opposed to good leadership, the proposed innovation may be associated with poor quality, undermining potential translation into other contexts. Finally, the term ‘Reverse Innovation’ is a paradox – it breaks down preconceptions of the directionality of knowledge and learning, whilst simultaneously reinforcing it.ConclusionsWe conclude that this term means different things to different people and should be used strategically, and with some caution, depending on the audience.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12992-016-0175-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Marketing social innovations concept: an appeal for methodological pluralism

Societal problems represent both opportunities and challenges for private and public organizations. Issues such as poverty, climate change and inequality can be seen either as a burden or as a source for innovation. Multinational Corporations, Nonprofit Organizations (NGOs), Cooperatives and Social-Purpose Organizations (SPOs) have engaged in projects that can tackle some of these major societal issues.The paper explores existing discussion over controvercial social marketing concept and develops superior conceptualization of social innovation marketing concept based on pluralist research paradigm found in the philosophy of social science literature.

Marketing Social Innovations Concept: An Appeal for Methodological Pluralism

Societal problems represent both opportunities and challenges for private and public organizations. Issues such as poverty, climate change and inequality can be seen either as a burden or as a source for innovation. Multinational Corporations, Nonprofit Organizations (NGOs), Cooperatives and Social-Purpose Organizations (SPOs) have engaged in projects that can tackle some of these major societal issues. The paper explores existing discussion over controversial social marketing concept and develops superior conceptualization of social innovation marketing concept based on pluralist research paradigm found in the philosophy of social science literature.

<em>Josephs without Pharaohs: The Du Boisian Framework for the Sociology of Education</em>

INTRODUCTIONBlacks are generally disadvantaged at both the macro and micro levels of U.S. society. At the macro level, Blacks have historically suffered from low rates of social mobility. This holds whether mobility is measured as educational attainment (Kao & Thompson, 2003), residential mobility (Massey & Denton, 1993), or wealth accumulation (Oliver & Shapiro, 2006). At the micro level, Black students in U.S. schools are more likely than students from other backgrounds to have negative interactions with peers, teachers, and other school authority figures (Solorzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000). Both levels of inequality contribute to racial disparities in educational experiences and outcomes (Diamond, 2006). How should sociologists of education conceptualize these dual processes?As early as 1898, Du Bois argued that Blacks' micro level educational realities-number and condition of schools, illiteracy rates, and being unwelcome in schools and colleges with Whites - were inseparable from a macro level peculiar environment (Du Bois, 1898). Denials of Black humanity, anti-Black discrimination, fear of large scale Black socioeconomic mobility, and resistance to widespread educational opportunities for Blacks characterized this environment. Paradoxically, it would take education for Blacks to fully recognize the extent of their oppression. Because Du Bois articulated the interplay between education and oppression in this way, his writings and speeches on education reveal an innovative conceptualization of the macro-micro link. His work, therefore, also presents one resolution to the macro-micro issue within the sociology of education (Hammersley, 1984; Mehan, 1992; O'Connor, Lewis, & Mueller, 2007; Shilling, 1992; Willmott, 1999).In this article, the author outlines a Du Boisian framework for the sociology of education. The framework is based on Du Bois's numerous writings and speeches about the education of Black students. Also considered are sections of his major works (e.g., The Souls of Black Folk, 1994) that touch on education. The author uses Du Bois's work as qualitative data from which to generate a grounded theoretical framework (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Doing so demonstrates one way to connect Du Bois's broader educational philosophy to the investigation of specific educational realities facing Black students today. Du Bois is quoted at length whenever possible to enter his own words into the lexicon of the sociology of education, from which he currently remains largely absent.The Du Boisian framework's central problematic is the macro-micro feedback loop between racial inequalities in the U.S. political economy (Marable, 2000) and discriminatory treatment of Black students in schools (see Figure 1). The feedback loop perpetuates multigenerational educational inequality. That is, discriminatory treatment of Black students in schools is made possible by, and reinforces for another generation, racial inequalities in political economy. Du Bois's theoretical points of view on education will be identified as neo-Marxism (Bowles & Gintis, 1972, 2002, 2013) at the macro level and structuration theory (Giddens, 1984) at the micro level. Given the framework's central problematic of the macro-micro feedback loop, it is not surprising that both points of view focus on the bidirectional relationship between individuals and society, or agents and structures.The Du Boisian framework reconceptualizes issues currently facing Black students, who are the focus of much sociological and educational research (see O'Connor, Lewis, & Mueller, 2007). Issues are seen as ways in which political economic inequalities affect another generation of Black youth through or by way of the institution of schooling. This new intuition applies both within and between schools. Individual schools, even racially integrated ones, can be internally organized on the basis of race. Furthermore, the distribution of educational opportunity between schools and neighborhoods in the U. …

Innovation in social work research

Greetings to readers as we start a new year for Qualitative Social Work. Last year saw an increase in papers to the Journal and as our readership continues to grow, the value of qualitative research for social work is confirmed. However, there is no room for complacency and if we are to ensure that the Journal continues to thrive, it is important to remain abreast of changes in the world of qualitative research and social research more generally. So, this brings me to consider the issue of innovation in this new year editorial. For readers familiar with writing or reviewing grant applications, claims by academics that their work is novel or innovative are all very familiar. As Taylor and Coffey described in 2009, pressures stemming from funding councils and publishers encourage academics to state and indeed over-state the cutting edge nature of their work. Writing in 2015, it seems that claims to innovation are now endemic and if we examine the mission of the UK’s major social science research funding council – the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) – the word innovation is never far from the Council’s funding calls, strategy statements or impact case studies. In the Council’s research funding guide, applicants must pay attention to impact, innovation and interdisciplinarity. The Council’s conceptualisation of innovation is broad, to include: ‘innovative or even untested methods’, through to research which challenges ‘existing paradigms in respect of research ethics’ (ESRC, 2015). So what exactly is meant by innovation and to what extent is new invention better than old? In response to the latter question, critics differ in their opinion. For example, there are those who consider that innovative methods simply represent the latest fads, leaving unresolved the long-standing challenges in qualitative research (Travers, 2009). The problem of fad is that where we fetishise the novel we may inadvertently recast tried and tested methodologies as dated, or at worse obsolete. Traditional ethnography and conventional methods of qualitative interviewing have been so vital to our understanding of the social world, we must resist casting such methods as old hat (Wiles et al., 2011). Critics have also argued that claims to innovation are frequently overstated and can amount to little more than Qualitative Social Work 2016, Vol. 15(1) 3–10 ! The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1473325015619822 qsw.sagepub.com

An Exploratory Study for Conceptualization of Rural Innovation in Indian Context

Innovation is central to the economic growth and development of any nation. In rural context, innovation approach provides new ways to solve the problems of rural people and to create new opportunities for entrepreneurship development. Yet the empirical studies on rural innovation is still young in literature. Thus, this paper describes the conceptualization of rural innovation in rural Indian context based on filed survey. The paper's main objective is to find out the variables of rural innovation from literature review and to identify the factors of rural innovation by analyzing empirical data. The filed survey is performed through close ended questionnaire and face-to-face interview of 140 rural people who involved in entrepreneurial activities. The finding of the paper revealed that there are three factors of rural innovation include knowledge sharing for enhancing economic efficiency, new learning for economic scale up and new skill development for economic scope. Thus, this research gives unique contribution to literature by describing the measurable conceptualization of rural innovation in Indian context. The study highlights that knowledge, learning and skills development, as elements of human capital having contribution in configuration of rural innovation. Moreover, the study allows for the implication to be made for rural entrepreneurship development. However, the future scope of this research could corporate large sample data, greater number of variables of rural innovation and conduct in other countries.

Business model innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that expands business model innovation literature by including a social goal, the emerging markets (EMs) environmental characteristics and adopting a bottom-up perspective. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on a single-case study. Sistema Ser/CEGIN (SER–CEGIN) is an Argentine social business that offers high-quality medical healthcare to BOP users. Findings – The paper presents a new conceptualization on business model innovation that includes three dimensions: firm-centric, environment and customer-centric. The framework incorporates to the traditional framework on business model innovation, the social profit equation, the general and task environment and the end-user, as well as the dynamics between them. Research limitations/implications – While the authors acknowledge the importance of studying the components of the business model operating levels (economic, operational and strategic) to determine the type of business model innovation (revenue, enterprise and industrial), the framework incoporates the environment and customer-centric dimension. The suggested framework opens new streams of research both for the innovation business model literature as well as for the EMs – bottom of the pyramid (BOP) literature. Practical implications – To achieve economic and social goals, particularly in the BOP, firms need to adopt a bottom-up approach to understand the components of their business model that need to be modified. Originality/value – The paper proposes a novel business model innovation conceptualization which is useful for both researches to better study business models in the BOP and for firms to successfully operate in the BOP.

Exploiting the Implementation Gap: Policy Divergence and Industrial Upgrading in China's Wind and Solar Sectors

This article argues that manufacturing policies of Chinese local governments have provided an important corrective to some of the weaknesses inherent in the central government’s indigenous innovation framework, most importantly its inattention to the importance of advanced manufacturing capabilities for innovation. Based on an original dataset of over 100 executive interviews conducted with 43 Chinese wind and solar firms, I identify both central government R&D funding and continued local government support for manufacturing as a critical factors in enabling innovation among China’s renewable energy firms. In particular, this article shows that firms have utilized a combination of both central and local government policies to establish unique engineering capabilities required for innovation in commercialization and scale - up to mass production. The findings suggest that continued local government support for the manufacturing economy has not undermined central government innovation policies, but has (1) broadened the range of resources available to entrepreneurial firms and (2) enabled new options for industrial upgrading that are outside the conceptualization of innovation underlying the central government’s indigenous innovation framework.

Very Feminine, Yet Unmercifully Intelligent. A Portrait of the Dutch Critic and Translator Elisabeth de Roos (1903-1981)

The Dutch author and translator Elisabeth de Roos has largely been ignored by literary historians. Nevertheless, she played a major role in the literary scene in the Netherlands between 1925 and 1955. She was a very productive and respected essayist, critic, journalist and translator, but in the rearview mirror of literary history her husband Eddy du Perron outshined her. The contemporary gender discourse, in which de Roos herself took part, created a blind spot for the contribution to innovation and poetical conceptualisation of female authors. The infamous journal Forum to which both she and her husband contributed was a mouthpiece for a masculine discourse: being a fellow was the highest goal. After their marriage her husband pursued his writing career, whereas de Roos took care of the household and was the family breadwinner by writing journalistic pieces instead of literary work. After her husband’s death at the start of the Second World War, de Roos started to work as a translator, a profession in which she soon gained a high degree of expertise and professionalism. She wrote lengthy and substantial essays as prefaces to her translations, revealing her thoughtful literary ideas that preferred intellect and lucidity to melodrama and sentimentality and partis pris to half-heartedness. An analysis of her translation of Wuthering Heights suggests she didn’t smoothen the source text to please the target audience, in accordance with her poetics.

Family health strategy: a technological innovation in health

The importance of the Family Health Strategy in the health sector in Brazil, and the debate on technology and technological innovation have led to the development of a theoretical reflection aiming to characterize the Family Health Strategy as a non-material technological innovation of the health field. In order to construct the text, the philosophical and sociological approach was used, as was the conceptualization of technological innovation, found in international documents and in Brazilian legislation and publications regarding technological innovation in health care. These references were used in order to analyze what is prescribed for the Family Health Strategy in the National Primary Healthcare Policy, emphasizing the innovative aspects in relation to biomedicine, which made it possible to support that the Family Health Strategy consists of a non-material technological innovation in health care, of the incremental type. It is concluded that the Family Health Strategy is a non-material technological innovation in health care, due to the principles which it anchors, and is incremental, as it does not completely break with the traditional model in health care.

Digital voice recorders - A conceptual intervention to facilitate contemporaneous record keeping in midwifery practice.

The first responder, faced with any obstetric incident, frequently finds themselves within a dichotomy of multi-tasking activities. One challenge for the midwife, is to keep accurate and contemporaneous medical records, whilst simultaneously providing immediate clinical care. This paper aims to propose an innovative conceptualisation and a practical solution for maternity services, which strive to uphold best practice in creating contemporaneous and accurate medical records. The feasibility of introducing the use of voice recorders within maternity services will be explored, and offered as a mechanism to facilitate record keeping and simultaneous clinical care. A synthesised narrative review of the literature is conducted. This review academically tests the conceptual hypothesis that the implementation of voice recorders within maternity services may augment the midwife's ability to generate contemporaneous medical records. A background literature review will also explore the key drivers for this particular innovation, and the challenges facing healthcare leaders in service improvement. This paper builds upon previous suggestions that digital voice recorders may be an effective solution to enhance overall obstetric outcomes, and focuses upon conceptual processes for implementation. This paper offers the principal conclusion that the integration of voice recorders into midwifery practice for the purpose of supporting contemporaneous record keeping may be feasible within the current healthcare climate.

Innovation Labs: Leveraging Openness for Radical Innovation?

A growing range of public, private and civic organisations, from Unicef through Nesta to NHS, now run units known as “innovation labs”. The hopeful assumption they share is that labs, by building on openness among other features, can generate promising solutions to grand challenges of systemic nature. Despite their seeming proliferation and popularisation, the underlying innovation principles embodied by labs have, however, received scant academic attention. This is a missed opportunity, because innovation labs appear to leverage openness for radical innovation in an unusual fashion. Indeed, in this exploratory paper we draw on original interview data and online self-descriptions to illustrate that, beyond convening “uncommon partners” across organisational boundaries, labs apply the principle of openness throughout the innovation process, including the experimentation and development phases. While the emergence of labs clearly forms part of a broader trend towards openness, we show how it transcends established conceptualisations of open innovation (Chesbrough, 2006), open science (David, 1998) or open government (Janssen et al., 2012).

Research traditions of innovation

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to offer a fresh framing of innovation, as service innovation/value innovation.Design/methodology/approach– By examining the visions, patterns and outcomes of three different research approaches to understanding innovation – goods-dominant (G-D) logic, the resource-based approach and service-dominant (S-D) logic – the authors strive to outline the contribution of each to the debate on innovation. This investigation involves a comprehensive literature review. Scrutiny of a case company provides a means of identifying and illustrating how these approaches play out in a real business context.Findings– A framework for innovation builds on the comparison of the three research approaches. G-D logic, when analysed in terms of new product development and new service development, positions innovation as an output (a new good or service) of a business's internal processes, with the firm as the main actor. The resource-based approach establishes the drivers of innovation as knowledge, capabilities and relationships, but the firm is still the main innovator. S-D logic addresses “open” innovation processes in which all actors in the network can mobilize and integrate their resources to become value co-innovators.Research limitations/implications– This study builds on the literature review by offering a more systematic way of dealing with the different research traditions in innovation debate.Practical implications– This study spurs managers to question the validity of dominant logic and how it affects the decision-making process. The conceptualization of innovation within S-D logic provides new avenues for decision makers and practitioners to tackle topical challenges of global competition.Originality/value– The value of this paper lies in defending the premise that S-D logic is better suited than the other two research traditions to frame current innovation within the context of global competition because it moves innovation beyond mainstream conceptualization: from “products and services” to “service and value”, from “buyer-seller dyads” to “ecosystem relationships”, and from “closed/linear process” to “open/co-created process”.

Stakeholder power and engagement in an English seaside context: implications for destination leadership

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine stakeholder power and engagement within an increasingly competitive English seaside resort setting. It aims to adopt a structuralist and functionalist perspective and develop an enabling conceptualisation of power that incorporates structural and agency components in stakeholders’ reasons for engaging. Based on the conceptual interdependencies between stakeholder power and engagement, this study aims to present the limitations of previous studies on destination leadership in this area, and this paper also seeks to discuss implications for destination leadership. Design/methodology/approach As a qualitative and exploratory study, mixed-method research was adopted using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with destination stakeholders from a prominent tourism action group. The primary research was carried out in an English seaside resort between 2010 and 2011. Data are used to draw a stakeholder map as a visual tool. Findings Eight elements of enabling power are confirmed to be of importance in identifying stakeholder power and engagement. The level of power varies depending on stakeholders’ position within a network. These findings direct attention towards adopting a complexity leadership approach in an increasingly competitive destination environment. Research limitations/implications The paper focuses on an English seaside resort, although results can be transferred to other similar-sized destinations where the focus is on local tourism policy development. Originality/value The paper provides an innovative conceptualisation of power in stakeholder theory by drawing primarily on a sociological understanding of power as an enabler and not as an inhibitor for development, leadership and change in seaside resorts. This paper uses leadership theories to interpret data and infer implications for destination leadership.

Decision-making as performative struggle

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of performative struggle through the use of an interpretative case story focussed on a strategic decision-making process concerning infrastructural development. Performativity is about “world-making” (Carteret al., 2010), based on the assumption that conceptual schemes are not only prescriptions of the world, for the practices flowing from these abstract ideas bring into being the world they are describing. The focus on agency and multiplicity in the academic debate on performativity in organizational settings are combined, resulting in the conceptualization of a multitude of performative agents struggling to make the world.Design/methodology/approach– The methodological approach of this paper is based on an interpretative analysis of contrasting narratives that are told by political-executives in a strategic decision-making process. These narratives are based on in-depth interviews and participant observation. The interpretative case story, exhibiting the strategic decision-making practices of Aldermen, Delegates and Ministers – focusses on the moments of performative struggle based on strategic narrative practices.Findings– The interpretative case story will exhibit the way in which a multiplicity of agents reflects on the performative dimension of the decision-making process, anticipates on its performative effects and attempts to manipulate the strategic vision that is actualized into reality. Moreover, the agents are not primarily concerned with the actualization of a specific infrastructural project; they are more concerned with the consequences of decision making for their more comprehensive strategic visions on reality.Research limitations/implications– The notion of performative struggle has not yet been explicitly studied by scholars focussing on performativity. However, the concept can be used as an appropriate lens for studying meaning making within ethnographic studies on organizational processes such as for instance culture change intervention and strategy formation. The concept of performative struggle is especially useful for understanding the political dimension of meaning making when studying an organizational life-world through the use of ethnographic research.Originality/value– The originality of this paper lies in the innovative conceptualization of struggle between a multiplicity of reflexive agents in the debate on performative world-making. Moreover, the incorporation of the perspective of performative struggle within organizational ethnographic research is valuable for the development of organizational ethnographic methodology.

Contradictory or Complementary? Indigenous Innovation and Manufacturing Policy in China's Wind and Solar Sectors

In support of renewable energy industries, China’s central and local governments have pursued divergent goals, as central government policies have encouraged industrial upgrading through ‘indigenous innovation’ (Liu and Cheng 2011, State Council 2006), while local governments have continued to provide incentives and policy support for traditional manufacturing activities. In this environment, China’s wind and solar firms have often shunned central government requirements for autonomous technology development, drawing instead on local government resources for mass production. To date, China’s wind and solar firms continue to rely on global partners in the development of renewable energy products, even as China has become an important location for the commercialization of new wind turbine and solar panel technologies. Has local government support for the manufacturing economy undermined the central government’s indigenous innovation strategy for renewable energy sectors?This paper argues that local manufacturing policies have not prevented the establishment of innovative capabilities in Chinese wind and solar firms. Rather, local government policies have provided an important corrective to some of the weaknesses inherent in China’s indigenous innovation policy framework, most importantly its inattention to the collaborative nature of innovation in contemporary supply chains and the importance of innovative manufacturing capabilities in product development. Based on 107 interviews in 43 Chinese wind and solar firms, I find that China’s wind and solar firms have build on local government resources for manufacturing to establish highly innovative capabilities in mass production. By utilizing local manufacturing resources to establish innovative manufacturing capabilities, Chinese wind and solar firms have not defied upgrading and innovation, but have followed global trends toward niche specialization and collaboration in product development. These findings suggest that local government policies to support the manufacturing economy are not in conflict with central government goals for upgrading and innovation. Resources for manufacturing firms provided by local governments have enabled new options for the establishment of innovative capabilities in manufacturing itself -- options which have been neglected by the narrow conceptualization of innovation underlying the central government’s indigenous innovation framework.