Imitative Learning To Indigenous Innovation

The global economic integration and opening-up of China's market bring important opportunities for automobile industry. But facing with technical monopoly of multinational corporations, problems like hollow tendency of the core technology and the weak ability for indigenous innovation reveal suddenly. With indigenous innovation promoting industrial technological progress and industry upgrading, it will be a fundamental subject for the development of China's automobile industry that gradually develops into the pillar industry in which the domestic intellectual property rights play a leading role. For developing countries, industrial technological progress mainly launches along the external-source style and the inner-source style: the former is mainly the imported technology and FDI; the later is chiefly indigenous innovation. This thesis holds that the two ways are not diametrically opposite. The technical diffusion effect of FDI, technical ability and learning capability based on imported technology, which all belong to external-source style, are foundation and the premise for the great strides towards indigenous innovation. Therefore, the research on technological progress of China's automobile industry should focus on how to transform from primarily depending on imported technology to primarily by indigenous innovation.The mainline of this research is: by synthetically utilizing the related theories of industrial economics, developing economics, innovative economics, and absorbing research results now available, this thesis makes an attempt to establish the ETSI model, which is used to analyze the transform path of industrial technological progress. Then it analyses the process and condition of industrial technological progress from introducing and imitating to indigenous innovation in theoretical and empirical ways. On this basis, this thesis tries to find out the condition and possibility of the transformation for China's automobile industry, as well as the practical method for promoting the performance of the industrial technological innovation and competitiveness, and tries to propose some policy suggestions for strengthening indigenous innovation ability.Firstly, the author makes an attempt to put forward one new analysis model of industrial indigenous innovation ---the ETSI analysis model: The transformation path of industry technological progress is not a subjective hypothesis, but a realistic choice according to the objective environment and the industrial condition, thus it is related with multiple industrial interior and exterior factors. Analyzing from the systemic theory angle, the thesis considers that: economic, technological, industrial organization, and institutional factors have a great influence to the transformation path from imitative learning to indigenous innovation; economic factors will improve technological innovation through creating demands for new technology; technological factors strengthen the base of technological innovation; industrial organization aspects provide the carrier and guarantee for the transformation during industrial innovation stages; institutional factors mainly provide a system framework for the economic and technological factors. This intrinsic relevance in the ETSI also decides the implementation content, key points, as well as the measures for government's policies, which wants to promote industrial indigenous innovation. On this foundation, the author analyses the ETSI internal logical relations, and connections between various factors of the ETSI and industrial indigenous innovation.Enterprise, as the main player of industrial technology innovation, it's innovative drive and ability plays a decisive role in technological progress changing from imitative learning to indigenous innovation. So the author takes a related theoretical analysis at enterprise level. Research shows that enterprises-specific knowledge and resources are the essences of enterprise's indigenous innovation ability, whose formation is a long and complex process, and based on empirical knowledge of the long-term accumulation and improved through continuous technology learning in the organization. Therefore, the government is committed to pay attention to the formation of technical learning mechanism, and to provide a series of corresponding policies. The thesis also uses social learning theory to explain the process and conditions of transformation from imitative learning to indigenous innovation: as technical late-comer, Chinese enterprises'technology innovation capability-building began with imitative learning, and would achieve indigenous innovation by deviating from the normal process through a process of social learning; But in the rapid growth stage of domestic market, most of them will not implement indigenous innovation initiatively so as to need the guidance and support from government, which improves enterprises′pressure and confidence, and make them not be obstructed by latecomer's disadvantages of technical commercialization. Secondly, the thesis takes empirical analysis on the performance of technological progress in China's automobile industry. The result of measurement analysis shows that: the economic contribution rates of technological progress in China's automobile industry were very low compared with its economic growth in both the Eighth Five-Year and Ninth Five-Year plan period, in which China's automobile industry was undergoing a comprehensive technology introduction stage. In these periods, we brought in funds and advanced products through FDI, but the government and enterprises did not pay enough attention to the capacity-building and R&D of car products, furthermore, we neglected the capacity-nurturing for indigenous innovation along with technology introduction, so that the whole industry fell into the passive situation of introduction -backward - reintroduction. On the contrary, the contribution rate of technological progress had been greatly improved in the Tenth Five-Year plan period, in which not only the government's policies of China's automobile industry had also greatly changed but also the demands in domestic market grew steadily, and the diversification of the industrial investors also promoted the technical level to rise continually. All these laid a foundation for technological progress changing from imitative learning to indigenous innovation in China's automobile industry.Subsequently, the thesis applies the ETSI model to systematically demonstrate the factors that hinder the technological progress in China's automobile industry. By analyzing, we find that many factors restrict the conversion from imitative learning to indigenous innovation in technological progress, these factors include: the limitation of market and firm scale; the shortage in R&D input and human resources, as well as the insufficient of data resource; the development of accessory industry is lagging, in addition, both indigenous innovation network system and common technology platform have not been built up; the enterprises have not being the main part of technological innovation, and the necessary prompting policies is absent as well. In order to vividly observe and study the key factors in the path conversion of technological progress and promoting effect of government's policies, the thesis selects Japan and Korea's automobile industry to carry out case analysis.Finally, according to the ETSI analysis model and the development trend in technological innovation of international automobile industry, the thesis puts forward some feasible paths of indigenous innovation and corresponding policy suggestions that can promote the path conversion of industrial technological progress in China's automobile industry. The policy suggestions include the following contents: establishing positive and complete competitive circumstance in domestic market; making enterprise being principal part in the process of indigenous innovation, and setting up an effective impetus mechanism; increasing R&D input and establishing the platform of industrial common technology; encouraging the cooperation among enterprise, university and research institute, and perfecting innovative networks; cultivating policy circumstance that can be in favor of indigenous innovation.Thus the key conclusion is that: for developing countries, technology introduction and indigenous innovation are not completely opposite; technology foundation, capacity, and learning ability, which was formed on the base of technology introduction, are the base and precondition of industrial indigenous innovation; at the angle of system theory, factors of economy, technology, organization, and institution, (ETSI) have decisive effect on the path conversion of industrial technological progress. As main part of indigenous innovation, enterprise's innovation capacity need to be formed on the lasting accumulation of experiential knowledge, and need to be improved by ceaseless technology study inside organizations; but in the rapid growth period of domestic market, most enterprises unlikely engaged in indigenous innovation actively, so guides and supports from government are essential.