Photographs: Vivek Prakash/Reuters
The Global Innovation Index 2013, which is co-published by Cornell University, Insead and the World Intellectual Property Organisation by sheds light on the factors leading to the excellence of innovation hubs, such as the role of local ‘champions’ (large corporations), the availability of funding for the development of start-ups, and the importance of path dependency.
Linkages among stakeholders (governments, firms, academia, and society) in the development of innovation capabilities - such as the existence of incubators and technology transfer programmes and the interaction of innovation clusters with local, inter-regional, and global networks and value chains - are included in the analyses.
Let's take a look at top 20 outsourcing cities in the world.
Source: Global Innovation Index
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Tyrone Siu/Reuters
Shenzhen
Country: China
Rank in outsourcing: 1
The globalisation of the world economy has brought about a growing internationalisation at the regional level. Regions have increased their ties with foreign regions, both in terms of collaborations for innovation and in terms of new linkages deriving from the new forms of innovation organization; in fact, companies have started to delocalise research and design activities that had previously been kept in-house.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Benjamin Suomela/Lehtikuva/Reuters
Espoo
Country: Finland
Rank in outsourcing: 2
This unbundling of the production and innovation processes and the new knowledge-intensive FDI are contributing to the generation of new alliances among regions and cities located in different countries, especially in emerging economies.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Tim Wimborne/Reuters
Fairfield
Country: The United States
Rank in outsourcing: 3
These new forms of FDI are targeting not only main regions and capital cities; more and more they are targeting new places characterised by growing domestic demand and/or by territorial clusters of scientific and knowledge capabilities.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Robert Galbraith/Reuters
Palo Alto
Country: The United States
Rank in outsourcing: 4
These new forms of FDI have primarily benefited those places that have implemented specific policies targeted to attract these types of investments, including cities in different countries, including Brazil, China, Costa Rica, India and the United Arab Emirates.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Anthony Bolante/Reuters
Seattle
Country: The United States
Rank in outsourcing: 5
The FDI Market database collects information on greenfield investment projects. These data can be broken down to the city level.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Lee Jae-Wone/Reuters
Seoul
Country: South Korea
Rank in outsourcing: 6
According to this database, the top five cities for outsourcing innovative FDI activities in 2010-12, as measured by number of jobs created by greenfield investment projects, are Shenzhen (China); Espoo (Finland); and Fairfield, Palo Alto, and Seattle (US).
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Lucy Pemoni/Reuters
San Jose
Country: The United States
Rank in outsourcing: 7
Seoul, South Korea, ranks sixth, and has the peculiarity of outsourcing more R&D than design activities.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: John Goh/Reuters
Mumbai
Country: India
Rank in outsourcing: 8
Traditional European manufacturing sites, such as Boulogne Billancourt and Paris, also rank among the top 20 cities for outsourcing innovative activities.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Coolcaesar/Wikipedia Commons
Armonk
Country: The United States
Rank in outsourcing: 9
Since the 2008 economic and financial crisis, innovative FDI has suffered of a sharp decrease.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters
London
Country: The United Kingdom
Rank in outsourcing: 10
For example, the number of jobs created by greenfield FDI projects in design, testing, and R&D in the top recipient city decreased from 20,000 in 2005–07 to 13,000 in 2010–12, and from 1,500 to 500 in the 20th city in the rankings.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Christian Charisius/Reuters
Stuttgart
Country: Germany
Rank in outsourcing: 11
The cities that receive the most FDI inflows related to R&D and design are located in emerging economies.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Charles Platiau/Reuters
New York City
Country: The United States
Rank in outsourcing: 12
Only six out of the top 20 are from European countries; five are from India and three from China.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Charles Platiau/Reuters
Boulogne-Billancourt
Country: France
Rank in outsourcing: 13
The top five destinations for design, testing, and R&D are Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune in India; Singapore; and Shanghai in China.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Philippe Wojazer/Reuters
Paris
Country: France
Rank in outsourcing: 14
Most of the jobs created are in design and testing, while a few are in R&D activities.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Ina Fassbender/Reuters
Bonn
Country: Germany
Rank in outsourcing: 15
The flourishing of new clusters of innovative start-ups in emerging economies is contributing to redefine the mapping of world innovation.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Thomas Peter/Reuters
Munich
Country: Germany
Rank in outsourcing: 15
Yet Silicon Valley is still the reference when thinking about a creative environment where knowledge-based firms flourish.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Kimimasa Mayama/Reuters
Tokyo
Country: Japan
Rank in outsourcing: 17
In that environment, potential new entrepreneurs can easily make contact with a high-quality and vibrant science community, can interact with big and top innovative firms, and can have easy access to technologies and finance.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters
Dublin
Country: Ireland
Rank in outsourcing: 18
Furthermore, the regulatory framework is business friendly and less adverse to risk-taking than it is in other localities.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Michael Kooren/Reuters
Amsterdam
Country: The Netherlands
Rank in outsourcing: 19
However, new innovative hotspots where technology-based entrepreneurs cluster together are beginning to appear in other regions.
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Two Indian cities among world's top 20 outsourcing hubs
Photographs: Vivek Prakash/Reuters
Bangalore
Country: India
Rank in outsourcing: 20
Determining where the new global start-up hubs are and why they perform better in certain locations than in others is a topic of increasing relevance for both national and regional governments.
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