The transition from imitation to innovation: An enquiry into China's evolving institutions and firm capabilities

Does open innovation apply to China? Exploring the contingent role of external knowledge sources and internal absorptive capacity in Chinese large firms and SMEs

“…In order to further test H3b, the hierarchical models are employed for the large firms and Of the control variables, the market dominance (Market) variable seems to co-vary with innovation performance for large firms (both positive and significant) but not significantly for At present, actually the majority of Chinese firms are still undergoing the process of emergence from imitation to innovation (Dobson and Safarian, 2008). Some have just begun to pursue internally supported, and relatively closed, approaches to innovation with the establishment of internal R&D efforts, in an attempt to scientifically research and innovate themselves, rather than simply following the technological outputs discovered by other countries (Bin, 2008).…”

“…Many large Chinese firms are descendants, in some form, of current and former state-governed enterprises and agencies in the old centrally planned economy. Some of these organisations are unwilling or unmotivated to develop Guanxi-based inter-firm networks due to the government protection they enjoy, as well as the less commercial pressures or competition they face (Dobson and Safarian, 2008).…”

“…This is essentially a practice in accordance with closed innovation processes. The vertically integrated arrangement between 5 R&D and production is also a feature that is inherited from the traditionally centrally-planned economic system in China's recent past (Dobson and Safarian, 2008).…”

Supply chain integration, quality management and firm performance of pork processing industry in China

“…China is making a transition from an economy in which growth is based on labour intensive production and imported ideas and technology to one in which growth is driven by domestic innovation. If China wants to make this transition, we would expect to see institutions that promote the technological advance and firms that develop new capabilities, technologies and products (Dobson and Safarian, 2008). The Chinese government has realised the problem of its weak technological development and innovative capacity.…”

Catching the Runaway Train Innovation Management in Russian Railways

“…The last option often appears in the literature as 'imitation strategy' (Schewe 1996) and has actively been discussed in line with a nation's technology catch-up processes. See, for example, Mansfield (1988) on Japanese advantage on innovations based on external technologies, Chiang (1989), Chen (2009) on Taiwan, Dobson and Safarian (2008) on China, Amsden (1989), Choi (1989) or Kim (1997) on Korea. This paper studies innovation in Russian Railways, the world's largest transport company.…”