Max von Zedtwitz (born in
Switzerland) is a scholar of global R&D and innovation with a focus on emerging countries. He is Managing Director of GLORAD, a research network with locations in China, the United States, Brazil and Europe, and professor at universities in Europe and China.
Scientific work
Von Zedtwitz's work is at the intersection of
international business,
innovation, and
R&D Management. With collaborator
Oliver Gassmann, he proposed a widely used behavioral model of evolution of global R&D organization based on internal organizational tension.[1][2] He and Gassmann also formulated a
supply-and-demand model for innovation globalization based external drivers, namely access to
markets and access to
technology.[3] In managerial writings,[4] he outlined support mechanisms appropriate to lead global innovation teams within such R&D organizations.[5]
Early to study
R&D in China,[6] he co-developed theory of
reverse innovation and innovation in
emerging countries,[7] both inbound R&D investments and management of innovation in China and outbound internationalization of R&D by Chinese firms. In this context, he refined organizational growth models for individual units as well as networks of units. He also contributed to the theory of
global R&D flows,
pharmaceutical innovation, and
business incubator management.[8]
Awards
2009 IAMOT Award for Research Excellence (top-50 researcher worldwide in technology management)[9]
Winner of the 2015 Thomas P. Hustad Prize for best paper in the Journal of Product Innovation Management[10]
Keupp, M.; Friesike, S.; von Zedtwitz, M. (2012). "How Do Foreign Firms Patent in Emerging Economies with Weak Appropriability Regimes? Archetypes and Motives". Research Policy. 41 (8): 1422–1439.
doi:
10.1016/j.respol.2012.03.019.
S2CID153693459.
von Zedtwitz, M.; Birkinshaw, J.; Gassmann, O. (2008, Editors): Management of International Research and Development. Edgar Elgar: Cheltenham.
Boutellier, R.; Gassmann, O.; von Zedtwitz, M. (2008): Managing Global Innovation – Uncovering the Secrets of Future Competitiveness. 3rd ed. Springer: Heidelberg.
^Niosi (1999). "The Internationalization of Industrial R&D: From Technology Transfer to the Learning Organization". Research Policy. 28 (2–3): 107–118.
^Criscuolo and Narula (2005) Using Multi-Hub Structures for International R&D. Management International Review 47, 5, 639-660
^Gammeltoft (2006) Internationalisation of R&D: trends, drivers, and managerial challenges. Int'l Journal of Technology and Globalisation, 2, 1/2, 177-199
^results, search; Gassmann, Oliver; Zedtwitz, Maximilian von (16 April 2008). Managing Global Innovation: Uncovering the Secrets of Future Competitiveness. Springer.
ISBN978-3540254416.
^Medcof (2009) Book Reviews. R&D Management 39, 2, 225-226.
^"Research in China", The New York Times, C1 & C4, 13 Sept. 2004
^"IAMOT - Top 50 List of Researchers in the Technology Innovation Management Field". Technovation. 29 (4): 235–236. 2009.
doi:
10.1016/j.technovation.2009.01.001.