Global Networks, Outside-In Capabilities and Smart Innovation

Starting from the early Sixties, and yet in the Seventies, competition imposed significant advancements in design and reengineering of products for the intense export policy into international markets pursued by large corporations. The nowadays globalisation phase (competitive globalisation) is characterized by the R&D activities as a key-intangible asset, whose role is to develop the innovation and imitation policies of the large corporations, to anticipate demand trends and the initiatives of the competition, even collaborating with key competitors on particular projects.Over-supplied markets emphasises the critical nature of research for customers empowerment because the condition of excess of production presents strongly unstable demand and unstable supply structures. In over-supply competition, research for customers empowerment maximises the opportunity to produce goods focused on design, smart innovation and creative imitation to satisfy specific demand bubbles.

Product Design Management and Global Competition

A global firm's success is conditioned by its ability to manage the system of corporate intangible assets (corporate culture, corporate identity and information system), and product intangible assets (product design, brand equity and pre/after-sales services). Corporate imitation and innovation processes have come to represent a primary condition to stand up to global competition on the markets, which takes the shape of identifying by the design management products with 'new' features to propose to customers that change in time and space. For global corporations, achieving a differential advantage in terms of product design therefore means designing an offer based on the best interpretation of specific distinctive characteristics, and to this end, information must be collected in continuum from the market, about customers and competitors