Jan Hauke Holste analyzes how a company can innovate and change its business model to the degree that it can climb up the value chain. His research synthesizes a combination of the global value chain and the business model literature to create a new framework of local firm upgrading. The findings of an empirical test of the model indicate that local firms are more than just a link within a global value chain. Each firm has a choice and inter-firm differences indicate that there is a strong firm level factor. Next to other factors, the founder is the key driver of local firm upgrading. He is possibly the most important element within a firm.