Who is us: the globalization of innovation and challenges to assessing technological dependence

How do states assess technological self-sufficiency in a globalizing world? To sustain long-term growth and limit foreign dependency, rising powers pursue domestic sources of technological innovation. In recent decades, however, the hybridization of innovation – marked by increased cross-border financial flows and expanded mobility of high-skilled workers – has fostered hybrid firms that challenge emerging economies’ ability to assess ‘independent’ innovation. Borrowing Robert Reich’s notation, the grounds for debate over ‘who is us’ have fundamentally shifted. This article posits that, compared to their predecessors, rising powers today adopt more malleable boundaries for the corporate actors included within indigenous innovation because their technology ecosystems are more reliant on transnational technical communities and foreign direct investment. Case studies of how policymakers evaluated independent innovation in China, India, and Japan provide empirical support for the theory. These comparisons, across time and between states, illustrate how structural changes in the global economy have made it more difficult for rising powers to draw lines between ‘domestic’ and ‘foreign’ companies, resulting in unsettled assessments of independent innovation. This article contributes to academic and policy debates about the consequences of economic dependence, the efficacy of high-profile industrial policies, and how developing states manage the challenges of globalization.