This Management of Organization Review (MOR) special issue aims to explore the key features of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in India. There is recent evidence that innovation and entrepreneurship dynamics in transforming economies differ from like processes in advanced market economies in significant ways (e.g., Maimone, Mudambi, Navarra, & Baglieri, Reference Maimone, Mudambi, Navarra and Baglieri2016). Therefore, applying the dominant theoretical lens developed to study innovation and entrepreneurship in advanced market economies may be inappropriate. For instance, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) surveys clearly demonstrate the composition of total entrepreneurial activity (TEA) for advanced and transforming economies is substantially different, with a significantly higher level of ‘need-based’ entrepreneurship in the latter. Hence the typical advanced economy transition from wage employment to a larger share for entrepreneurship may be reversed in transforming economies. Transforming economies also witness a significant role of the transnational diaspora in their entrepreneurial and innovation processes (Riddle, Hrivnak, & Nielsen, Reference Riddle, Hrivnak and Nielsen2010). Further, at the level of corporate entrepreneurship, London and Hart (Reference London and Hart2004) argue that results of studies of subsidiary entrepreneurship undertaken in advanced market economies may not generalize to transforming market economies. In summary, a fundamental question is whether entrepreneurship and innovation in transforming economies are diverging from the norms of advanced economies as these countries get wealthier and develop entirely new trajectories (Hill & Mudambi, Reference Hill and Mudambi2010).

After experiencing a modest ‘Hindu rate of growth’ for decades, post the 1991 liberalization, India transformed itself as one of the fastest growing countries in the world. In the process, it has developed from a closed and restricted to a progressively much more open and global oriented economy (e.g., Ghani, Kerr, & O'Connell, Reference Ghani, Kerr and O'Connell2014; Krishnan, Reference Krishnan2010; Kumaraswamy, Mudambi, Saranga, & Tripathy, Reference Kumaraswamy, Mudambi, Saranga and Tripathy2012; Ramamurti, Reference Ramamurti1999). The liberalization involved the role of the government (Choudhury & Khanna, Reference Choudhury and Khanna2010), industry development (Brandl & Mudambi, 2013), corporate governance (Khanna & Palepu, Reference Khanna and Palepu2000), and connectivity (Lorenzen & Mudambi, Reference Lorenzen and Mudambi2013).

Strangely, innovation and entrepreneurship have seldom been the focus of research examining the drivers of India's economic growth. This lacuna is surprising as innovation has been argued to be a key enabler of economic growth. Moreover, innovation and entrepreneurship in a large and increasingly globally connected country like India could provide insights on global as well as local networks in the global innovation system. More specifically, solving local problems can lead to innovation with spillovers that spread far beyond the country's borders, sparking effects in other transforming markets and even globally. Finally, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behaviour can transform the entire business environment of a country, as has been argued in the case of Israel (Chorev & Anderson, Reference Chorev and Anderson2006).

The objective of this Management and Organization Review (MOR) special issue is to explore the many dimensions of how the innovation and entrepreneurship eco-system of India has impacted and been impacted by the accelerating development of the Indian economy over the last few decades. The special issue will take a pluralistic view of entrepreneurship and innovation. While studies based on patents are welcome, the editors are keen to see studies based on other innovation metrics. Similarly, while studies focused on high-tech sectors are invited, papers focused on low-tech sectors are encouraged. The guest editors are also soliciting exploratory empirical research that painstakingly describes phenomena that are not well explained by existing theories. In such cases, it would be premature to specify formal hypotheses and exploratory papers would focus on deep description of the phenomenon connected to innovation and entrepreneurship in India, articulating why existing theories are not adequate for explaining them, and offering some speculations on possible underlying causal processes.

All submitted empirical papers must satisfy MOR editorial policies of falsifiability, data transparency, and replication, and advance interesting implications for management theory, practice, and national policies.

The guest editors very much aspire that this special issue will make contributions to the academic literature on innovation and entrepreneurship on India, both in terms of the domestic economy but also in terms of its role in the global economy. The resulting insights will incorporate the roles of practitioners, and especially innovators and entrepreneurs, as well as policy makers from India as well as the wider world. Further, it will provide broader insights about the nature of entrepreneurship and innovation in the wider range of transforming markets.