Research On The Latecomer Firms’Technological Catch-up Situation,Catch-up Path And Generative Capability

Compared with leader firms,latecomer firms are usually defined as the firms in a developing country,which strategic object is to achieve technological catch-up and surpass the leader firm.Successfully transformation from a large manufacturing country to a world manufacturing power in China,the latecomer firms in China must master the core technologies in an industry,grasp the leadership position,and then achieve technological catch-up.What are the technological catch-up paths for latecomer firms?How should the latecomer firms adjust their technological catch-up path according to different catch-up situations? What kind of innovation capability is essential for latecomer firms to achieve technological catch-up? How this innovation capability helps latecomer firms to achieve technological catch-up? Solving these issues benefits for latecomer firms to understand the phenomenon of technological catch-up,and provides valuable guidances and suggests to help latecomer firms in China to achieve technological catch-up finally.In the process of latecomer firms’ technological catch-up,latecomer firms usually infer the technology process and core knowledge from the innovative results(technologies,services,and products of leader firms)got by open channels.After that,latecomer firms can strengthen and improve these innovative results by imitative innovation or independent innovation for achieving technological catch-up.Imitative innovation benefits for latecome firms to fully utilize backwardness advantage,reduce catch-up cycle and improve innovation performance.However,some scholars have questioned this view.They indicate that latecomer firms should increase the intensity of R&D in response to achieving technological catch-up through independent innovation strategy.Only with special innovation capabilities can latecomer firms surpass the leader firms and obtain leadership position.In the research on latecomer firms’ technological catch-up,it is necessary to clarify the applicable situation of imitation innovation or independent innovation,and how the latecomer firms adjust their catch-up strategy according to different catch-up situations.It is also necessary to clarify the effect of catch-up situation and catch-up path that help latecomer firms to achieve technological catch-up,and what kind of capability is a necessary innovation support.This paper applies evolutionary game model,empirical analysis and qualitative comparative analysis to explore the technological catch-up process based on dynamic capability theory and Technology-Organization-Environment framework.First,this paper constructs a bipartite game model consisted of leader firms and latecomer firms.Next,the potential entrant firms are introduced into tripartite game model that fully consideres the effect of potential entrant firms on latecomer firms’ technological catch-up and on decision motivation of both leader firms and latecomer firms.The results show that latecomer firms should play imitative innovation strategy during the technological catch-up process,especially when considerating the potential entrant firms.Our evolutionary game model provides an intuitive explanation on how the strategic positionings of leader firms,latecomer firms and potential entrant firms are adjusted over time,that has benefits for enriching previous literature on latecomer firms’ technological catch-up.Second,this paper discusses the promoting impact of "imitation innovation" strategy on latecomer firms’ technological catch-up from the perspective of generative capability based on the dynamic capability theory,and proposes a conceptual model among competitor orientation,imitation innovation,generative capability and innovation performance.This paper also verifies the validity of this model.The results show that competitor orientation not only has a directly effect on improving generative capability,but also has an indirectly effect on improving generative capability through significantly affecting knowledge integration and creative imitation;generative capability has a promoting effect on innovation performance,and this effect will be weakened by technological turbulence.This study can explan what kind of innovation capability that latecom firms must develop as necessary innovation support to achieve technological catch-up from the perspective of competitor orientation and generative capability,and can explain the important role of generative capability in the latecomer firms’ technological catch-up process with imitation innovation strategy.It provides a better understanding of the concept of generative capability and expands the research on dynamic capability theory and catch-up theory.Finally,this paper combines Technology organization environment framework and qualitative comparative analysis to explore the associative effect of generative capability,organization and environmental contexts on latecomer firms’ technological catch-up.The results show that technology context plays a key role for latecomer firms to achieve technological catch-up;organization and environmental contexts play an accessory role.When latecomer firms do not have high level of generative capability,they should follow the technological catch-up path of combination of technological gap and government support or combination of technological gap and R&D team stability.Otherwise,they should follow the technological catch-up path of combination of generative capability and strategic flexibility.This study can explain the associative effect of technology,organization and environment contexts on latecomer firms’ technological catch-up from an overall perspective,further reveal the root cause for latecomer firms to achieve technological catch-up.For better understanding the latecomer firms’ technological catch-up,this study discusses how to adjust technological catch-up path according to different situation,and then discusses the important role of generative capability in the latecomer firms’ technological catch-up process.Generative capability has both sole and associative effect on promoting latecomer firms achieving technological catch-up by imitative innovation.This study is conducive to reveal the multiple configurations of relevant elements that helps latecom firms to achieve technological catch-up from the perspective of catch-up situation,catch-up path and innovation capability.This study also helps latecom firms to understand the phenomenon of technological catch-up and to develop unique competitive advantages,finally achieving technological catch-up.