• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-19
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• 2004

This paper focuses on the significant issues of technological capability development of latecomer firms, and government policies enabling such firms to attain certain level of technological capability. The survey and case studies of manufacturing firms in Thailand were conducted to substantiate and investigate the process of technological capability development of latecomer firms. The analysis portrays a dynamic view of technological capability development that comprises three key elements namely strategic capability, internal capability, and external linkage capability. The paper, subsequently, discusses and suggests a tentative taxonomy of government policies and measures to support firms' technological capability development.

• Journal of East Asia Management
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.43-64
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• 2022

Exploring innovations for latecomers to catch up has been a popular concern in industry and academia. Over the last decade, more and more East Asian latecomer firms have moved beyond imitation and are delivering innovative products and services to the market. However, the semiconductor latecomers from China have limited success in catching up with more mature semiconductor firms. Our study examines how semiconductor latecomers to break through the latecomer's dilemma by innovation and achieve catch-up. We use a single-case approach for the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) vertical development process to analysis its innovation path of catching up. The study's results showed that SMIC relied on the government's policy and funding support, and based on the strategic endurance of entrepreneurs, it persisted in technology R&D investment and independent innovation for 20 years. SMIC finally smashed the dilemma of latecomers and successfully achieved catch-up. With these findings, we believe that the path of catching up innovation for semiconductor latecomers should be equipped with independent innovation of technology, strategic leadership of entrepreneurs and support of government policies. As these factors are combined, latecomer firms' position is expected to rise and catch-up will become visible. Our study contributes to some enlightenment on the innovation path for latecomers in China and global semiconductors to achieve their catch-up.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.119-131
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• 2015

The rise of K-Pop in the latecomer environment is unusual. There is little research on K-Pop from the catch-up perspective though it would yield some insight into a strategic direction of creative industries in the latecomer environment. Thus, this study aims to compare the firm capability, market development, and product strategy of K-Pop firms with ones of manufacturing firms during the catch-up period. It reveals first that K-Pop firms developed project execution capability to carry out discrete projects effectively by adopting in-house (vertical) system in music production and increasing the size of firms. Second, they pursued global market and utilized the window of opportunities based on a proven music genre. Third, K-Pop firms pursued the incremental innovation in the product development. Since these characteristics have many similarities with the catch-up strategy in the manufacturing sector, Korean catch-up experience could provide valuable insight into the development of creative industries in Korea.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.23-43
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• 2005

Industrial clusters are geographical concentrations of interconnected companies, specialised suppliers, service providers, firms in related industries, and associated institutions (for example, universities, standard agencies, and trade associations) that combine to create new products and/or services in specific lines of business. At present, the concept of industrial cluster becomes very popular worldwide, policy makers at national, regional and local levels and business people in both forerunner and latecomer countries are keen to implement the cluster concept as an economic development model. Though understanding of clusters and related promoting policies varies from one place to another, the underlying benefits of clusters from collective learning and knowledge spillovers between participating actors strongly attract the attention of these people. In Thailand, a latecomer country in terms of technological catching up, the cluster concept has been used as a means to rectify weakness and fragmentation of its innovation systems. The present Thai government aspires to apply the concept to promote both high-tech manufacturing clusters, services clusters and community-based clusters at the grass-root level. This paper analyses three very different clusters in terms of technological sophistication and business objectives, i.e., hard disk drive, software and chili paste. It portrays their significant actors, the extent of interaction among them and the evolution of the clusters. Though are very dissimilar, common characteristics attributed to qualified success are found. Main driving forces of the three clusters are cluster intermediaries. Forms of these organizations are different from a government research and technology organization (RTO), an industrial association, to a self-organised community-based organization. However, they perform similar functions of stimulating information and knowledge sharing, and building trust among participating firms/individuals in the clusters. Literature in the cluster studies argues that government policies need to be cluster specific. In this case, the best way to design and implement cluster-specific policies is through working closely with intermediaries and strengthening their institutional especially in linking member firms/individuals to other actors in clusters such as universities, government R&D institutes, and financial institutions.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.435-450
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• 2006

As technological capabilities have enhanced, the patterns of innovation activities of latecomer firms changed to post catch-up mode. The purpose of this research is to provide conceptual frameworks for post catch-up mode of innovation activities, based on the case study on Korean mobile phone industry. It presents the possibilities of architectural innovation of latecomer firms, which is stimulated by the co-operative innovation activities between component suppliers and users from the initial stage of final product development.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.147-175
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• 2006

One of the biggest problems of Korean economy is polarization of firms for export and domestic demand and that of conglomerates and SME's achievement. One of the culprits lies weakness of intermediate industry such as machine tool. Since intermediate industry is important path where export performance affects domestic demand and whose actor usually is SMEs with high spill over effect in labor market. Especially, intermediate industry Is vulnerable because of industrial policy biased In backward linkage effect. However if a country fails to develop intermediate industry above some critical point, that country would fall in low-tech equilibrium without growth. In case of benign circle where final goods industry growth leads growth of intermediate industry and again it leads that of final goods industry, it can reach high-tech equilibrium. By contrast, in opposite case where in industrialization latecomer fails to link industries likewise above some critical point that country would fall in low-tech equilibrium without growth. Moreover, for several reasons, machine tool firms of Korea have difficulty in catching up technology above critical point. Firstly. Conglomerate demander neglects their product. Secondly, even after success of development overcoming difficulties they fail to get market share for response of dumping of foreign competitors. And the last one is patent litigation of foreign competitors that incapacitate the technology development. For these, Korean machine tool firms fell in 'middle-income country trap' itself, since they stuck in some extent when they technologically catch up. Consequently, for latecomer country in machine tool industry to leapfrog meaningfully policy support is necessary, Weak intermediate industry does not Induce domestic firms and remained fragile. Therefore, localization, policy should reflect condition of technological catch up more than before, in order to be effective and fruitful. There should be turning point over relationship between conglomerates, major demander of machine tool and SME's, for only with active purchasing of conglomerate Korean machine industry can grow.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.49-67
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• 2009

As technological capabilities have enhanced, the patterns of innovation activities of latecomer firms changed to post catch-up mode. The purpose of this research is to analyze the post catch-up innovation patterns of technology-intensive small and medium firms of Korea. The innovation patterns can be divided into three types: the technology deepening innovation type, the new technology based innovation type and the architectural innovation type. The characteristics of the technology deepening innovation type are cumulative technological learning and the integration of new generic technology and existing technologies. The characteristics of new technology based type are the acquisition and revelations of new basic knowledges from former incubating organizations such as large firms and universities. The characteristics of the architectural innovation type are the learning of system architecture knowledge from former organization and interactive learning with user firms. These post catch up innovations also have some general characteristics. They effectively exploited the windows of opportunities which are opened in the middle of technological paradigm change.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.169-184
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• 2012

All firms require new stimulus to spurt growth. Therefore it is necessary to successfully develop new products and to employ appropriate marketing practices for the new products to enter and settle in the market. Binggrae, a Korean company that specializes in dairy and processed dairy products, introduced a ready-to-drink (RTD) coffee product, 'a Café la' to expand its business into the coffee market in 2008. Binggrae was a latecomer in the RTD coffee market but a Café la has shown an impressive average sales growth rate of 115% as of 2011 since the launch. Moreover, it is a steady bestselling coffee brand among the Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)bottle category. Binggrae found potential and opportunity in the growing coffee market and made efforts to develop a new product that can be differentiated from the existing products. The result was PET bottle coffee, which was more portable and convenient to drink than coffee products offered in cups or cans. PET bottle coffee is produced through the patented Aseptic Filing System, thus the original coffee flavor stays fresh when combined with milk and has a longer shelf life than coffee products in cups. Moreover, as the taste of coffee consumers has become more sophisticated, Binggrae developed a premium product by differentiating the product processing method and by using higher-quality Arabica beans. After launching the new product, the company also employed a well-designed communication strategy. First, Binggrae was able to confirm the level of market demand and market potential for the product by employing BTL (Below the Line) marketing strategies through the consumers' word-of-mouth. Afterwards, the company invested its resources for a full-scale ATL (Above the Line) marketing campaign. Later a Café la's TV commercial effectively portrayed the product's characteristics, and succeeded in raising consumer awareness of the product. As a result, a Café la has become the bestselling brand in the PET bottle coffee market. The successful new product marketing strategy of Binggrae'sa Café la offers many valuable implications for companies planning to launch new products in the future.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.95-128
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• 2018

Since mid and late 2000s, the smartphones has been widely diffused and Korea ranked first in global smartphone market in 2011 thanks to its rapid adoption of Android operating system, technology capability accumulated in featurephone development, vertical integration on smartphone production and premium positioning. However, Korea fell behind because of the rise of another latecomer, China, in four years (2015) after it recorded the top position globally. How did the leadership change occurred in the smartphone industry so rapidly? In order to answer the question, we investigated three favorable windows of opportunity for the rise of China, which are technological, demand, and institutional, and the strategic responses of Chinese firms as well as the rigidity and complacency with the past success of Korean firms. Our findings contribute to the extension of 'catch-up cycle' theory as well as provide in-depth insights for strategies and policies settings to overcome the recent rise of China in information and communication technology sector for Korea.