Companies should ask: Innovation for whom?

Strategy | Zheng Yangpeng

The strength and weakness of Chinese companies can be illustrated no better than with the rise and fall of the country's photovoltaic industry, according to Steven White, associate professor in the Department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy at Beijing's Tsinghua University.

It's easy to appreciate the Chinese entrepreneurs' "can do" spirit when looking back at how they built their photovoltaic industry virtually from scratch.