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This paper seeks to explore the evolution of a third generation mobile communications (3G) industry based on TD‐SCDMA technical standard in China through the lens of network analysis.

The authors argue that inter‐firm alliances help companies gain and integrate internal and external resources and foster technical innovation. The paper analyzes alliance governance structures and governance mechanisms in particular, and shows how they protect and improve network‐based innovation capabilities and competitive advantages during a ten‐year period with the method of social network analysis and case studies.

The authors offer a theoretical model that incorporates cooperation among organizations, the maturity of the industrial chain, and the accumulation of organizational knowledge and social capital.

The paper offers a theoretical model of factors that contributes greatly to the development of technical innovation.

This paper aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the process of standards setting based on the case of long-term evolution time division duplex (LTE TDD) deployment in China.

Using actor-network theory (ANT) as a theoretical framework, multi-level analyses are presented to explain the process of adoption of LTE TDD at a global level.

Findings identified the complex interaction between the social and technical aspects of fourth-generation (4G) by highlighting the co-evolving nature, diversity and interface that constitute the next-generation network environment.

ANT provides a framework of ideas for describing the process of technology adoption and for developing stories that explain it.

The findings shed light on a critical insight of the interrelationships between TD-SCDMA and LTE TDD and identify the policy successes and failures of 4G mobile networks.

This paper aims to provide an analytical account of the process by which China has developed its complex and infrastructural information and communication technology (ICT) systems over the last three decades, with the result that today it has become a key player in the global ICT sector. This paper discusses the role of the Chinese government in supporting and coordinating large-scale ICT system deployments and implementation, by-passing dilemmas that have beset more laissez-faire economies.

This paper is based on two case studies in China: public digital switching systems in the 1990s and 3G mobile standards recently. The former is a typical complex system and the latter exemplifies infrastructural technology. From the tradition of science and technology studies, it incorporates historical approach into a socio-technical discourse of the process and examines the operational practices of the Chinese government in different stages.

The paper demonstrates the pivotal role of government in the case of a latecomer country like China in developing and implementing complex and infrastructural ICT systems. While development of such socio-technical systems has presented challenges in many countries, the findings show the transition of socio-technical context in China has provided the best operational platform for the government to perform its roles.

Most research into innovation capabilities focuses on technological matters, while this paper also addresses the social context, institutional mechanisms and roles for coordinating different resources and players involved. In this way, it raises questions for conventional thinking in the West that market systems can perform the best in innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to show that, since China's accession to the WTO in 2001, standards have emerged as an effective means to protect and promote domestic industries, especially in the ICT sector. China has made several attempts to set its own technological standards – different from international standards – within its own territory and world‐wide. This paper seeks to examine two cases of China's attempts to set its own standards in the ICT sector. By comparing similarities and differences in these cases, it aims to identify motivations and strategies of China's standards‐setting attempts in the ICT sector.

The paper examines the cases of wireless LAN security (WAPI) and 3G mobile communications (TD‐SCDMA). It draws on a set of concepts from the study of national technological innovation systems: techno‐nationalism and techno‐globalism. Data were collected from media and standards‐related institutions.

Despite similarities, each case has a distinguished orientation in terms of techno‐nationalism and techno‐globalism: WAPI is aligned with techno‐nationalism and TD‐SCDMA with techno‐globalism.

China's recent attempts regarding its own standards in the ICT sector are not one‐off occasions, but China's standards policy towards international standards will continue. This research will be a foundation for further inquiry in this increasingly important area of study. A longitudinal follow‐up study tracking the development of each standard over time is required.

Despite the significance of these standard‐setting attempts for China's trade, technology policy and economic development, on the one hand, and for the world economy, on the other hand, there has been little research in this area. The paper offers an enhanced understanding of China's standards policy.

This paper aims to identify the sources of innovation in the current business environment of China. With the set target of transforming China into an innovative society by 2020, the Chinese government has taken dramatic measures to foster the nation’s innovation capability. Whether this Chinese model of promoting innovation has been successful and can be sustainable are controversial issues which need to be analyzed from an academic perspective. In recent years, there have been successful cases of innovation driven by grassroots entrepreneurs, especially in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. Therefore, it is time to analyze their success factors from the perspectives of both corporate strategy and government policy.

The methodology used in this research is a comparative case analysis, and several high-profile cases in China’s ICT industry have been selected for this comparative study. Information used in the analysis comes from publicly available sources such as business school case studies and industry and news media reports. The authors have been following the evolution of China’s ICT industry for more than a decade; insights from their prior research and knowledge gained through industry contacts are also used in the analysis.

Generally speaking, the types of innovation in China’s ICT industry can be categorized into a top-down or a bottom-up approach. For the top-down approach of innovation driven by the government, the authors analyzed the case of the Chinese government’s effort to build an industry value chain through fostering the Chinese indigenous third-generation mobile communications standard time division–synchronous code division multiple access. In comparison, the authors use several success cases, including the ecosystem built around the highly successful XiaoMi mobile phone and Tencent’s mobile portal WeChat, as it showcases of the bottom-up approach of innovation driven by grassroots entrepreneurship. The comparison of these two approaches suggests that massive government-sponsored projects are unlikely to generate genuine innovation in the highly competitive and dynamic ICT sector. The government’s role should be to foster entrepreneurship and to create a fair business environment.

This research uses the method of comparative case studies to identify the source of innovation in a highly dynamic and uncertain business environment. Findings of this study shed light on the government policy toward innovation in the ICT industry and on the business firms’ strategy on innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a multiple‐perspective model for technology assessment, apply it to mobile broadband technologies selection in China and give recommendations based on the assessment results.

A multiple‐perspective model for technology assessment using HDM is developed based on literature review and experts suggestions. Data are collected from a survey on China telecom experts.

TD‐SCDMA got the highest score because of its potential political and social effects, and WCDMA and CDMA2000 following with close scores. While for WiMAX and 4G, Chinese experts showed relatively lack of confidence.

This paper presents a new multiple‐perspective model that can be generally applied to technology assessment problems at organizational level.

The purpose of this paper is to identify why and how organizational network legitimacy facilitates firms' access to knowledge networks and reciprocal knowledge exchange between stakeholders.

The study involves a managerially oriented inductive interpretative research, with empirical evidence sourced from a single in‐depth case study, complemented by hands‐on experience with the industry.

Subsidiaries of multinationals operating in China's politically sensitive and protective mobility technology market have stronger proactive and collaborative aspirations towards exploiting emerging technological opportunities in the external environment and developing technological capabilities because they are more inclined to pursue organizational network legitimacy initiatives.

How organizational network legitimacy is produced, where does it become manifest, and at what administrative layers within China's politically sensitive and protective telecommunications are systematic empirical research questions that could be examined in the future.

Internalizing, driven only by market and/or technology legitimacy, falls short of realizing the organizational network legitimacy goal. It must also include cognitive understanding of the net sum of relational, investment and social legitimacies, as these are cognitively binding as well as benefiting with respect to subsidiaries of multinationals in accessing knowledge networks.

The paper underscores the importance of studying organizational network legitimacy and how it impacts on firms' access to knowledge networks, in a politically sensitive and protective Chinese mobility technology market.

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 explore the core elements and their constitutive activities of innovation of high-technology enterprises (HTEs) in the context of China to embrace effective management processes for dealing with standards setting.

The basic methodology of the empirical investigation is a single case study of ZTE Corporation (ZTE), a leading Chinese manufacturer in the telecommunication industry. Interviews were conducted from November 2008 to July 2009 with ZTE’s managers and senior R&D employees, as well as with R&D personnel from ZTE’s partners. Interviews were carried out face to face or by emails and supplemented by telephone calls and online communications. Secondary data provide complementary information.

The key to innovation for HTEs pursuing dominant positions in high-technology industries is standardization-oriented innovation. To deal with special requirements raised by the peculiarities of standardization for HTEs’ innovation management, HTEs need to emphasize three core elements in innovation, i.e. strategic innovation planning, internal R&D practices and external co-operative innovation, and focus on their key component activities. Moreover, through the case study of ZTE, three enabling factors for standardization-oriented innovation – intellectual property rights (IPR) management, market focus and co-operation along industry chains – are identified.

This paper is an attempt to understand and configure key innovation activities within a standards setting. It proposes a model for innovation management of HTEs in the Chinese economy, with three critical elements and their key constitutive activities being highlighted and three enabling factors being identified.