Technological learning in six firms in Southern China: success and limits of an industrialisation model

Abstract

This article examines the creation of industrial enterprises and the basic models of firm-level technological learning behaviour of the last 20 years in China. Six case studies of technological learning and links to external sources of know-how from the South of China in the Pearl River Delta are examined. It is shown that the learning process that has been experienced in these enterprises is similar to that of other fast growing East Asian economies. Until now enterprises have been acquiring technology through external linkages with foreign clients that become their main providers of technology. A detailed account of the enterprises allows a typology of the external technological learning. It is claimed that the growth of the South of China lies in this 'external' interactive technological learning, as in other East Asian economies.

Managing innovation for economic development in greater China: The origins of Hsinchu and Zhongguancun

“…As illustrated in Fig. 4, both cases complemented Arvanitis et al's [64] finding that at later stage of industrial development, it was foreign clients that served as sources of technological knowledge for local firms; whereas in the initial stage, it was domestic research institutes that helped overcome the technological disadvantages.…”

Monitoring Research and Innovation Policies in the Mediterranean Region

“…36. As has been shown repeatedly in Latin America (Katz, 1976;Pirela et al 1993;Villavicencio and Arvanitis 1994;Villavicencio et al 1995;Villavicencio 1998, 2000;Dutrénit and Vera-Cruz 2000;Mercado 2002) and in many analysis of firms activities in Asia (Mathews 1999;Lall 2000;Lee and Lim 2001;Hobday 2002;Arvanitis et al 2006;Zhao 2006). 37.…”

Technological innovation capabilities, product strategy, and firm performance: The electronics industry in China

“…Many studies on the development of indigenous technological capability in developing countries (Arvanitis, Zhao, Qiu, & Xu, 2006;Bell, 2006;Dodgson, 2009;Kim, 1997;Tacla & Fiqueiredo, 2006) indicate that newly industrialized economies (NIE) first absorb the technology of developed nations and then gradually develop their own TIC.…”

“…Many studies look at the accumulation of TICs at the corporate level as well as in the national industrial sector in the context of developing nations (Amsden, 1989;Arvanitis et al, 2006;Bell, 2006;Dodgson, 2009;Kim, 1997;Mathews & Cho, 1999;Tacla & Fiqueiredo, 2006;Shan & Jolly, 2012). A number of studies have shown that the technological learning of latecomer firms has the following features: (a) TIC improvement should be considered a result of voluntary allocation of resources (Cooper, 1991); (b) the learning process is risky (Lall, 1992); (c) the firms are at the heart of the technological learning (Bell & Pavitt, 1993); (d) technological learning is a cumulative process (Hobday, 1995); (e) technological learning implies tacit knowledge (Bell & Pavitt, 1993).…”