Technological Catching-up and Latecomer Strategy: A Case Study of the Asian Shipbuilding Industry

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper investigates the role of imitation and innovation in technological catching-up. On the one hand, excessive innovation and no imitation can never provide latecomers with absorptive capacity to embark on catching-up along the existing technological trajectory. On the other hand, excessive imitation and no innovation can debilitate the ability of latecomer firms to leapfrog incumbents by creating a new trajectory and further reducing the technological gap. Thus, we argue that successful technological catching-up in the long term can hardly be achieved without a fine balance between imitation and innovation at the early stage of catching-up. We also propose that occurrence of technological uncertainty at the later stage of catching-up allows latecomers with such balance to realize radical technological leapfrogging. By conducting a case study on the shipbuilding industry in the 20th century, we find supporting evidence that validates our argument.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 Tripsas,Mary, "Unraveling the Process of Creative Destruction:Complementary Assets and Incumbent Survival in the Typesetter Industry" 119-142, 1997

2 Song, Jaeyong, "The Paradox of Technological Capabilities:A Study of Knowledge Sourcing from Host Countries of Overseas R&D Operations" 39 (39): 291-303, 2008

3 Levinthal, Daniel A, "The Myopia of Learning" 14 (14): 95-112, 1993

4 KOSHIPA(The Korea Shipbuilders’ Association), "The Korean Shipbuilding Industry-Growth and Challenge(originally in Korean)," Pure communications 2005

5 Christensen,Clayton.M, "The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail" Harvard Business School Press 1997

6 Song, Michael, "The Effect of Perceived Technological Uncertainty on Japanese New Product Development" 44 (44): 61-80, 2001

7 Freeman, Christopher, "The Economics of Industrial Innovation" MIT Press. 1997

8 Kim, Linsu, "The Dynamics of Technological Learning in Industrialisa-tion" 53 (53): 297-308, 2001

9 Malecki,Edward J, "Technology and Economic Development: the Dynamics of Local, Regional and National Competitiveness" Longman, 1997

10 Edward K. Y. Chen, "Technology Transfer to Developing Countries" Taylor & Francis 1994

11 Lee, Keun, "Technological Regimes,Catching-up and Leapfrogging:Findings from the Korean Industries" 30 (30): 459-483, 2001

12 Malerba, Franco, "Technological Regimes and Sectoral Patterns of Innovative Activities" 6 (6): 83-118, 2001

13 Dosi,Giovanni, "Technological Paradigms and Technological Trajectories:A Suggested Interpretation of the Determinants and Directions of Technical Change" 11 (11): 147-162, 1982

14 Cantwell,John, "Technological Innovation and Multinational Corporations," B. Blackwell Cambridge, Mass., USA. 1989

15 Anderson, Phillip C, "Technological Discontinuities and Dominant Designs: A Cyclical Model of Technolo-gical Change" 35 (35): 439-465, 1990

16 Giovanni Dosi, "Technical Change and Economic Theory" Pinter Publisher 458-479, 1988

17 Christopher Freeman, "Small Countries Facing the Technological Revolution" Pinter Publishers, London. 1988

18 Kim,Hyo-Chul, "Ships of Korea" Jisung Press 2006

19 Henry Chesbrough, "Research on Technological Innovation, Management and Policy" 59-84, 2001

20 Teece,David J, "Profiting from Technological Innovation" 15 (15): 285-305, 1986

21 Grabowski, Henry G, "Pioneers,Imitators,and Generics — A Simulation Model of Schumpeterian Competition" 102 (102): 491-526, 1987

22 March, James G, "Organizations" John Wiley & Sons Inc. 1958

23 Lee,Keun, "Making a Technological Catch-up:Barriers and Opportunities" 13 (13): 97-131, 2005

24 Park, Kyoo-Ho, "Linking the Technological Regime to the Technological Catch-up:Analyzing Korea and Taiwan Using the US Patent Data" 15 (15): 715-753, 2006

25 Song, Jaeyong, "Learning-by-Hiring:When Is Mobility More Likely to Facilitate Interfirm Knowledge Transfer?" 49 (49): 351-365, 2003

26 Brezis, Elise S., "Leapfrogging in International Competition: A Theory of Cycles in National Technological Leadership" 83 (83): 1211-1219, 1993

27 O,Wonchol, "Korea Model for Economic Development(originally in Korean)"

28 Kogut, Bruce, "Knowledge of the Firm.Combinative Capabilities,and the Replication of Technology" Knowledge in Organizations 1997

29 Zander, Udo, "Knowledge and the Speed of the Transfer and Imitation of Organizational Capabilities:An Empirical Test" 6 (6): 76-92, 1995

30 Zhang,Jian-ren, "Introduction to Shipbuilding Engineering:The Present and the Future of the Taiwanese Shipbuilding Industry(originally in Chinese)"

31 Nathan Rosenberg, "International Technology Transfer: Concepts, Measures and Comparisions" Praeger, 1985

32 Kim,Linsu, "Imitation to Innovation: The Dynamics of Korea’s Technological Learning" Harvard Business School Press. 1997

33 Lee, Jeho, "Exploration,exploitation and adaptive rationality:the neo-Schumpeterian perspective" 10 (10): 297-320, 2002

34 Lee, Jongseok, "Exploration and Exploitation in the Presence of Network Externalities" 49 (49): 553-570, 2003

35 March,James G, "Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning" 2 (2): 71-87, 1991

36 Teece, David J., "Explicating Dynamic Capabilities: the Nature and Micro-foundations of Sustainable Enterprise Performance" 28 (28): 1319-1350, 2007

37 Romer,Paul M, "Endogenous Technological Change" 98 (98): 71-102, 1990

38 Lee, Keun, "Emerging Digital Technology as a Window of Opportunity and Technological Leapfrogging:Catch-up in Digital TV by the Korean Firms" 29 (29): 40-63, 2005

39 Hobday,Michael, "East Asian latecomer firms:Learning the technology of electronics" 23 (23): 1171-1193, 1995

40 Teece, David J, "Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management" 18 (18): 509-533, 1997

41 Christensen, Clayton. M, "Customer Power, Strategic Investment, and the Failure of Leading Firms" 17 (17): 197-218, 1996

42 Chou, Chia-Chan, "Core Competence and Competitive Strategy of the Taiwan Shipbuilding Industry:A Resource-based Approach" 31 (31): 125-137, 2004

43 Michael E. Porter, "Competition in Global Industries" Harvard Business School Press 539-568, 1986

44 Lee,Sang-Kyu, "Comparative Analysis of the Shipbuilding Industry of Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China" KIET(Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade), 1984

45 Kim, Linsu, "Building technological capability for industrialization:analytical frameworks and Korea’s experience" 8 (8): 111-136, 1999

46 Dierickx, Ingemar, "Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage" 35 : 1504-1511, 1989

47 Nelson, Richard R, "An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change" Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 1982

48 Cohen, Wesley M, "Absorptive Capacity:A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation" 35 (35): 128-152, 1990

49 Motora,Seizo, "A Hundred years of Shipbuilding in Japan" 2 (2): 197-212, 1997

50 Mathews,John A, "-up Strategies in Technology Development with Particular Reference to East Asia" UNIDO. 2001

51 Eisenhardt, Kathleen M, ""Dynamic Capabilities:What Are They?"" 1105-1121, 2000