Research On Influence Of Roundabout Modes And Key Learnine Activities Of Latecomers' Technological Catch-up

In an environment of "hyper-competition" where technologies and markets are changing simultaneously and rapidly,it is increasingly important for latecomers facing new opportunities and threats to choose the appropritate technological catch-up modes.Based on the experience of latecomers in emerging economies,some studies summarize two modes of technological catch-up,which are path-following catch-up and leapfrogging,but they cannot accurately explain the catch-up experiences of latecomers in current competitive environment because of the lack of attention to learning mechanisms of latecomers and the neglect of learning processes of market knowledge and capabilities.Therefore,this paper analyzes the process of technological cath-up and the learning mechanism from the perspective of organizational learning theory and especially with the help of the analytical framework of exploration and exploitation,and proposes three roundabout modes of catch-up.Through a comparative case study of three latercomers,this paper illustrates and preliminarily verifies the three modes.Then the empirical study tests the effects of key learning mechanisms on the long-term and short-term performance of latecomers in different situations to further verify the effect of the roundabout modes on the results of latecomers' technological catch-up.In the case study,this artcle first divides exploration and exploitation from the dimensions of technology and market into four categories,which are product exploration,process exploration,product exploitation and process exploitation.Based on this analytical framework,this paper points out that technological catch-up is a learning process that starts from process exploitation and increamental innovation,and is aimed at product exploration and radical innovation.In terms of the difference of learning activities adopted by latecomers in this process,this paper points out that there are three new modes of catch-up,that is,technological roundabout mode,market roundabout mode and tourtuous roundabout mode.The first mode emphasizes the latecomers to carry out process exploration in time to broaden the technological knowledge base of firms to grasp the potential window of opportunity,as well as to meet the existing market needs;the second mode emphasizes that latecomers should carry out product exploitation to discover new segments of market,reduce the competition with incumbents and accumulate technological and financial resources for environment changes;and the last mode is an combination of product exploitation and process exploration.Through three cases of BOE,Hangyang and Huawei,this paper respectively illustrates the three roundabout modes and makes preliminary verification of the theoretical model.In the empirical study,this paper validates the effect of the key learning mecahnisms in roundabout catch-up modes on short-term and long-term performance of latecomers through questionnaire design,data collection and statistical analysis.Empirical results show that in turbulent environment of technology and market,process exploration and product exploitation are more effective learning mechanisms than process exploitation.Comparatively,process exploration are suitable for technology and market environment with modest change rates,and are substitutable with external technological knowledge acquisition.Porduct exploitation,on the other side,are more suitable for environment with higher frequency of technological and market changes,and are complementary with external technological knowledge.