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This study aims to investigate whether there are disparities in research and development (R&D) internationalization between latecomers from economy-level technological disparities and firms with ownership-specific technological capability differences in the wind turbine industry.

Employing econometric analysis based on patent indicators, the authors examine the patent data assigned by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to the technologically advanced economy and the technologically emerging economy.

This study finds that latecomers from technologically advanced economies behave with no difference from early leaders in terms of international co-invention (INCO) but do show differences in another indicator – native ownership of foreign inventors (NOFIs). Additionally, latecomers from economy-level technological disparity show significant differences both in both INCO and NOFI. These results indicate that the latecomers from technologically advanced economies not only possess the nature of latecomers which motivates them to seek knowledge from foreign economies but also benefit from their advanced home base, thereby prompting them to internationalize and access cost-effective R&D resources. Moreover, the results demonstrate that latecomers from technologically emerging economies are more prone to engage in R&D internationalization to augment their own home base compared with firms from advanced economy.

This study extends the literature on R&D internationalization by introducing novel perspectives. It distinguishes some apparent distinctions of the tendency of R&D internationalization between latecomers under economy-level technological disparity as well as firms from ownership-specific technological capabilities differences. Additionally, this study disaggregates R&D internationalization into twin key dimensions: INCO and NOFI. These findings allow for a comprehensive understanding of the differences in the firm's R&D internationalization under economy-level technological disparities and ownership-specific technological differences. These findings offer valuable insights for decision-makers in navigating global innovation activities by highlighting the diverse economy-level technological advantages as well as ownership-specific advantages.

This paper aims to answer two research questions: what latecomer advantages and disadvantages they had, and what strategies they employed to utilize the advantages or to surmount the disadvantages.

After reviews of the literatures on latecomers' characteristics and the notable rise of Taiwanese thin‐film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT‐LCD) panel manufacturers in the global manufacturing contexts, this research project combined secondary industrial sector data analysis and individual company case study (AUO Ltd) approaches in order to build a conceptual framework and identify latecomers' (dis)advantages.

This paper advances the existing literature on latecomer advantages and disadvantages by reviewing the spectacular rise of Taiwanese TFT‐LCD panel manufacturers and reveals the importance of some unexplored source of latecomer advantage such as the competition dynamics which is proved to be vital for Taiwanese firms to successfully penetrate into the market. The paper finds the influence of technological regime and argues that the incremental technological advance rather than radical innovation provides latecomers with opportunity to utilize the learning curve effect. It has also discovered new forms of latecomer advantages, for example the free‐rider effect of improved equipment due to suppliers' own learning curve. This paper illustrates the necessity of adequate exploration on technology and product features to understand firms' strategic behaviors. Moreover, the subtle tactics found in this case study may enlighten other latecomers.

The study leaves a number of questions unanswered which warrant more attention. First, the theoretical arguments and experiences from this single case are not easily extendable to the other industries. Broader investigation should be helpful to discover the mechanism between latecomer advantage, strategy and performance. Second, the study of latecomer (dis)advantages and strategies should take the firm features into account to get a whole picture. Third, the examination of interactions between latecomer (dis)advantages and more detailed analytical framework are needed.

Although latecomers' characteristics and strategies have been discussed for many years since Asia economy emerged, TFT‐LCD industry is a relatively new and fast growing industry. How can a latecomer play an important role in emerging industry growing phase? This is novel in contrast with classical latecomer's model in established industry.

This study aims to analyse how different types of public policies have supported the internationalisation of latecomer science-based firms, taking the case of large Brazilian pharmaceutical companies (LBPCs).

The methodology comprises a multiple case study and uses a literature review, fieldwork interviews and document analysis of eight LBPCs, five policymakers and three sector experts.

Direct and indirect policies differ in supporting LBPCs’ internationalisation motivation. The indirect policies created the necessary conditions to accumulate knowledge and capacity in the domestic market. LBPCs that adhere more to policies supporting production and technological capabilities development are internationalising as an extension of their innovative efforts. In contrast, LBPCs that have built productive capacities and have not yet reached a minimum level of technological capacity go abroad to exploit their production capabilities with the support of direct policies.

This study contributes to international business and evolutionary literature, demonstrating the channels through which public policies support latecomer science-based firms. The results show that direct and indirect policies assist firms’ internationalisation in different ways, according to actors’ perception: providing support to strengthen their domestic capabilities, which have become competitive advantages in the international market; or offering support to external expansion. It emphasises that industrial policies are relevant to support companies in creating the initial conditions (ownership advantages) to internationalise, and direct policies are important to help companies to design international strategies. This study also debates that policies supporting companies’ internationalisation depend on their adhesion to programmes and incentives and their routines and capabilities, which are specific to each company and lead to different motivations for international expansion.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the strategy for latecomers in large developing countries under globalization. The relationship between innovation and learning is deeply studied.

The paper formulates an in‐depth case study on the digital video player industry through consideration of government documents, reports, and research papers; intensive interviews; and questionnaire study.

The firms in developing countries might be able to innovate before they can match the firms in advanced countries in technological capabilities, and innovation is the most effective way of learning. The firms can achieve competitive advantage owing to the effect of the national value network, the nature of architectural technology, and the relationships between them in product development. The national market should be deliberately taken as a strategic asset for the technological learning and latecomers should learn how to exploit the advantage of globalization.

The paper tries to understand how firms in developing countries conduct learning by innovating to build their competitive advantages.

The purpose of this paper is to review the evolution of policies and practices of open innovation (OI) in China under globalization.

This is a review paper. It combines historical archives and case study approaches, covering policies and practices at both the macro‐ and micro‐levels.

It is found that Chinese firms have in practice employed a variety of OI models since the reforms of science and technology systems in the mid‐1980s. Policies introduced by the Chinese Government with respect to inbound and outbound OI, as well as policies encouraging OI networks, have encouraged Chinese firms to adopt various OI modes and practices. Some critical institutional challenges still need urgent attention and effective efforts to reinforce them.

This paper aims to fill the gap in the literature by providing the first systematic review of the evolution of the policies and practices of OI in China, and exploring the implications for latecomer firms in building indigenous innovation capability. As far as the authors are aware, this is one of the first systematic review studies on OI policies and practices with a focus on emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the development of high‐tech industry and the dynamics of technological learning, innovation, entrepreneurship in China through the telecom‐equipment industry.

The paper derives a number of research propositions from the literature and then uses four case studies to show how domestic firms narrow their technological gap in different stages of catch‐up and how these firms have been influenced by their innovation capabilities to catch up to the multinationals.

The major findings of the paper may be summarized as follows. First, the innovation capability and self‐developed technologies have been the key to leading domestic firms in catching‐up with the MNCs. Second, leading domestic firms mainly depend on in‐house R&D development, supplemented with external alliance to build their innovation capability. Third, there are two different catching‐up patterns in China's telecom‐equipment industry. One is “path‐following” catching‐up in global system for mobile communication driven by using new technology in low‐end market. The other is “leapfrogging” catching‐up in the development of phone digital switches and China's own 3G standard (time division – synchronous code division multiple access). However, it seems that the leapfrogging strategy will meet more challenges and problems than the path‐following strategy.

Based on the previous researches about technological learning, innovation and catch‐up in the newly industrializing economies, the paper provides a comprehensive elaboration in Chinese telecommunication industry by using case study approach in an original way.

The purpose of this paper is to contextually theorise the different patterns of emerging multinational companies’ (EMNCs’) learning processes for innovation and the different influences of their technology-driven FDIs (TFDIs) on the processes.

A comparative case study method and process tracing technique are employed to investigate how and why firms’ learning processes for innovation took place, how and why the TFDIs emerged and influenced the firms’ learning processes in different ways.

The paper identifies two different patterns of learning process for innovation (Glider model vs Helicopter model) and two different roles of the case firms’ TFDIs (accelerator vs starter) in the different contexts of their learning processes. It is found that the capability building of the domestic wind energy industry has an important influence on the case of EMNCs’ learning processes and thus on the roles of their TFDIs.

The limitation of the paper lies in its small number of cases in a specific industry of a specific country. The two contextually identified learning models and roles of TFDIs may not be applied to other industries or other countries. Future research should investigate more cases in broader sectoral and geographic scope to test the models and also to identify new models.

For EMNCs, who wants to use the Helicopter model to rapidly gain production and innovation capability, cross-cultural management and integration management are crucial to practitioners. For emerging countries with ambitions to explore the global knowledge and technology pool, besides of the EMNC’s capability building, the capability building in the domestic industries should not be overlooked by policy makers.

The paper develops a dynamic and contextual analytical framework which helps to answer the important questions about how and under what context a TFDI emerges and influences firm’s learning process for innovation. It theorises the EMNCs’ learning process and TFDIs in the context of the development of the domestic industry. It strengthens the explanatory power of the learning-based view and adds new knowledge to the current FSA/CSA discourse in the international business literature.

Since China initiated its “go global” policy that promotes its overseas investment, China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) has increased almost twenty times during the last 10 years, reaching $55.9 billion in 2008. The issue of internationalization of Chinese OFDI has attracted increasing attention of researchers from a business perspective. This article systematically reviews the previous studies on overseas investments by Chinese MNEs and discusses the characteristics of Chinese internationalization behavior at both firm level and country level. The internationalization of Chinese companies cannot be understood as a simple game of “catch up” with established MNEs, and more firm‐level empirical studies should be carried out on how these characteristics influence firms’ strategic decisions.

This chapter provides a logical extension to the understanding of firm-specific advantages and disadvantages and the enabling role of existing and emerging country-specific advantages relevant to the process of Chinese firm internationalization. Its longitudinal perspective considers the changing objectives and actions of firms that enable them to compensate for disadvantages and create new or strengthen existing competitive advantages. The case study evaluation reveals that the evolution of strategic resources is the key motivator behind the internationalization of Chinese firms. Decisively encouraged by the Chinese government firms with corporate entrepreneurship aspire to alter themselves from home market leaders and regional players into globally competing multi-nationals. This process is made possible via the development of firm-specific advantages and continuous compensation for firm-specific disadvantages. The aspiration for strategic asset acquisition from developed countries combined with cost leadership and independent customer-centred innovation brought about strong firm-specific advantages stimulating the internationalization process of firms. The chapter focuses on the interdependence of country- and firm-specific advantages and disadvantages, thus recognizing the significance of the home country institutional context in Chinese outward foreign direct investment. It has been identified that corporate entrepreneurship is a significant firm-specific advantage for firm internationalization being a major force in gaining, accumulating, utilizing and leveraging resources for transforming firm-specific disadvantages into advantages. We argue that if the relational framework between governmental institutions and firms is more developed, the impact of country-specific advantages on firm-specific advantages is more favourable. This assumes that the government espouses an ideology that is favourable to corporate entrepreneurship.

Utilises recent advances in the evolutionary theories of the firm to analyse the competitive strategies of small Chinese family firms in Asian latecomer economies such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Nangyang. Begins with an examination of the distinctive features of a Chinese family firm. Argues that the unique features of these establishments form firms’ resource bases and contribute to their competitive advantages. The two notable competitive advantages are: the capability to maintain a high degree of flexibility; and reducing transaction costs. These arguments are analysed from two aspects: first, the organisational structure and internal communication methods (internal capabilities), and second, the subcontracting networks (external capabilities). Furthermore, given the organisational structure and the resource bases, most Chinese family firms choose not to upgrade their technological bases within global competition. Rather, they tend to pursue guerrilla entrepreneurship, imitative follower‐my‐leader and specialise in international co‐ordination. These strategies enable them to compete and survive in the world market.