Innovation landscape in developed and developing markets

Innovation is proven to be an absolute requirement for growth in both developed and developing countries, but the type and motivation of innovations differ depending on various surrounding factors. In developed countries innovations are often technology-driven and associated with delighting the end customers. On the contrary, in the emerging markets; due to the unique settings and infrastructural gaps innovations are focused towards meeting customer’s fundamental needs. Considering these vast differences, this research focuses on the comparison of the on-going innovation fostering in both developed and developing world individually. In developed world, where information technology (IT) is emerging out as the key enabling technology, thesis focuses on technology convergence and IT enabled business transformations. It illustrates the case of General electric and describes its Industrial Internet initiative. On emerging markets side, thesis discusses various types of innovation approaches adopted by local firms and multi-national companies to develop bottom-up low-cost products. It attempts to consolidate the research insights into a unified framework. It also touches upon the topic of social enterprises as a medium to diffuse social innovations into emerging markets to address social challenges and developmental issues like poverty and access to healthcare services.