Innovation Strategy Complexity and Scope in Automotive Component Manufacturing in Developing Economies

Associations between complexity of innovation strategy and scope of innovation were investigated in automotive component manufacturing in the developing economy contexts of South Africa and India. Understanding how strategy complexity relates to scope of innovation enables engineering managers to select the appropriate level of complexity for their firms' market access strategy. An empirical study was conducted in South Africa and in the Pune region of India. The India data yielded several significant associations between strategy complexity and scope of innovation, but the South African data yielded none. It indicates that engineering managers should consider more complex market access strategies if an increased degree of novelty or increased diversity of innovation is required; however, a simpler strategy should be considered in developing country automotive component manufacturing with a foreign vehicle manufacturer's subsidiary as the customer.