What is the link between country efforts to support innovation and company efforts? CASE 14.2: The Impact of HR on Innovation: A Six-Country Comparison (Global) Innovation is increasingly seen as a central need for economic growth and vitality for countries as well as for businesses and it now seems as though everyone wants to contribute. Continuous improvement in technology and business processes is vital to economic prosperity as well as to the ability to be competitive. The ability of govern¬ ments, businesses, and individuals to identify, respond to, and especially to introduce change is the bedrock of competitive ability. And now we are seeing such abilities developing in new places, making global competition increasingly strong. For example, in the words of The Economist, "the emerging world, long a source of cheap labor, now rivals the rich countries for business innovation."1 * In the 2010 Bloomberg Business Week annual rankings of Most Innovative Companies, 15 of the Top 50 are Asian. For the first time, the majority of corporations in the Top 25 are based outside the US. Just as countries vary in their values and infrastructure for nurturing innovation, so also do firms. And, presumably, HR managers and their practices have a lot to do with the ability of firms to sustain innovation so as to achieve strategic competitive advantage in the global marketplace.