Innovation and international business policy

A recent literature in International Business has argued that a contemporary trend towards techno-nationalism is attributable to a conflict between countries with stronger intellectual property (IP) rights and countries with weaker such rights. We contend instead that this trend mainly reflects a tension over competing interests in IP markets, as well as over the control of activities deemed to be critical to national security interests. We therefore focus instead on the more general tension across all countries between innovative, entrepreneurial interests and the associated open access institutions on which they rely, and rent-seeking interests linked to extractive institutions, both within countries and across the world. We argue that a current divergence in the agendas of value creation versus value capture lies at the heart of contemporary political polarization and consequent cross-border tensions, and suggest how this might be addressed by policymakers.