Time and place
- Trial Lecture at 10.15 - 11.00 in room B-137
- Defence starts at 12.15 in room B-137
Trial lecture title
"The impact of political connections on the firm’s overall innovation performance within the local and global market"
Supervisors
- Primary supervisor, Professor Carlos M. P. Sousa, Molde University College
- Secondary supervisor, Dr Jieke Chen, University of Dublin
Adjudication committee
- Associate Professor Zhaleh Najafi-Tavani, University of Leeds
- Associate Professor Xiaoning Liang, University of Dublin
- Professor Joao Carlos Ferreira, Molde university College – Specialized University in Logistics
Chair of Defence
Dean Oskar Solenes, Faculty of Business Administration and Social Sciences, Molde University College
Background
Innovation and internationalization have become two of the most critical strategic activities shaping firms’ global competitiveness and long-term survival. As competitive, technological, and institutional environments have become increasingly complex, the interaction between these two strategic domains has gained renewed relevance, yet how the two influence each other remains insufficiently understood. This dissertation addresses this gap by examining their interplay and the key conditions that shape it.
Summary
It investigates the mutual relationships between innovation and internationalization strategies. It explores how different internationalization behaviors, namely outward foreign direct investment and foreign divestment, affect firms’ innovation outcomes, and how innovation performance feedback influences subsequent internationalization strategies. In addition, it examines how external factors such as industrial inward technology licensing and inward foreign direct investment spillovers, and internal factors such as political connections and female leadership, shape these interactions.
Can Meng (36) comes from China. She holds a Bachelor of Finance from Nanjing Audit University (China), obtained in 2012. She also holds a Master of Finance from Lund University (Sweden), obtained in 2016 and finally a Master of Corporate Finance from Ghent University (Belgium), obtained in 2017.