Study on relationship between industrial technological catch-up mode and performance in backward countries

Abstract

Abstract: This paper adopts "the multi-case study approach through the establishment of theory", collects data via interviews, documents, field observations and other methods, and conducts the data triangulation. China's TV set manufacturers followed the same catching-up pathway, namely to catch up by importing mature product technology form abroad and it is the typical "single pathway" technology catching-up mode. In the initial period of China's telecommunication equipment industrial technology catching-up, while introducing from abroad the advanced equipment and the production line, the Chinese enterprises and research institutes (which are transformed into enterprises) made early independent R&D of products (the imitative innovation), thus forming a unique catch-up mode of the industrial technology, including the entry catch-up by developing independently the high-end products, the initiation catch-up by developing independently the low-end products, the initiation catch-up by introducing the production lines for high-end products and other catch-up pathways, and it is a typical "multiple pathway" technology catching-up mode. This paper measures the performance of the above two typical technology catching-up modes from the following two aspects:1) the quantity of patents for the key enterprises in the industry; and 2) the subjective assessment of the experts and scholars in the industry. Based on the comparisons and analyses, it is believed that the technology catch-up performance of the telecommunication equipment industry is significantly higher than that of the television set industry. And on the basis of these studies, the main findings in this paper are as follows:in the context of the rapid technological changes and the poor bases of the technological competence of the backward countries, the "multiple pathway" technology catching-up mode is likely to bring higher technological catching-up performance compared with the "single pathway" technology catching-up mode. This theoretical proposition contributes to compensate for the deficiency of the theories of "the catching-up in sequence" and "the catching-up by leapfrogging".

Key words: industrial technological catch-up, mode, performance, technological innovation

CLC Number:

F269.3

Liu Jianxin, Wang Yi. Study on relationship between industrial technological catch-up mode and performance in backward countries[J]. Science Research Management, 2013, 34(8): 68-74.

References

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