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What makes a successful industry-level catch-up? General framework and case study of China’s LED industry

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Abstract

How latecomers from emerging countries catch up on technological innovation is an important topic for industrial practitioners, policymakers, and academic researchers. This study systematically reviews 37 empirical studies on the precursors of industry catch-up in emerging countries. A general framework on what makes a successful catch-up in latecomer industries is suggested based on literature review. The framework comprises six generic determinants, including technological capability, business ecosystem, government roles, market condition, technological regime, and windows of opportunity. In addition, this framework is applied to the Chinese LED industry, and a case analysis of the catch-up is performed in Chinese LED firms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Bin Guo, Peng Ding & Frans J.A.M. Greidanus

  2. UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Wen (Helena) Li

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  1. Bin Guo
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  2. Peng Ding
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  3. Frans J.A.M. Greidanus
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  4. Wen (Helena) Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wen (Helena) Li.

Additional information

This work is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71372054). All authors contribute equally to this manuscript.

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Guo, B., Ding, P., Greidanus, F.J. et al. What makes a successful industry-level catch-up? General framework and case study of China’s LED industry. Front. Eng. Manag. 8, 284–309 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-019-0085-5

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