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Technological start-ups are significant contributor to the innovation and employment provider in an economy. Numerous technological start-ups are established every year; however, only a miniscule percentage of these technological start-ups sustain and scale up in the long run. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors that affect Indian technological start-ups’ competitiveness.

Case study analysis of two technological start-ups (namely, WayCool and Moglix) is undertaken to study the factors affecting the competitiveness of technological start-ups in India. Being a relatively underexplored theme of study in entrepreneurship and strategy, case analysis facilitates exploration and validation of factors influencing competitiveness. Information for case study analysis is drawn from secondary sources of information. The collected data undergoes deductive thematic analysis to systematically identify and examine recurring themes and patterns relevant to the competitiveness of Indian technological start-ups.

Case analysis reveals that innovation intensity, organisational agility and internationalisation influence competitiveness of technological start-ups. The importance of the role of each of these factors for entrepreneurial ventures has been highlighted in literature; however, their effect on competitiveness has not been examined in extant literature.

Being among the few studies on the competitiveness of technological start-ups in specific and start-ups in general, this study highlights the gap in the literature and suggests the need for examining the competitiveness of technological start-ups.

For the practitioners, this study reinforces the need for entrepreneurs to emphasise fundamental factors that build competitiveness. Subsequently, the sources of competitiveness shall enable the start-up to gain a competitive advantage.

This is among the few studies to have explored the competitiveness of technological start-ups in the Indian context.

The purpose of this study is mainly to investigate the stimulating effect on technology transactions of trade competition resultant from RMB appreciation.

This study uses Chinese provincial panel data from 1998 to 2015 and utilizes GMM method to estimate the stimulating effect of RMB appreciation on technical transactions through trade competition.

The results demonstrate that RMB appreciation can encourage enterprises to make use of domestic technology market resources for innovation. Specifically, the increase in imports due to the appreciation of RMB can generate technology spill-over and significantly promote technology trade. The export competition resultant from RMB appreciation can also encourage domestic and foreign enterprises to enhance export competitiveness through increased technology transactions.

The current research investigates the impact of exchange rate on independent innovation, but this study demonstrates the influence of exchange rate on technology transactions. In addition, the data in this study cover 1998–2015 in China and thus contributes to determining the effects of exchange rate appreciation in emerging countries.

Since competitiveness is crucial in international trade, this paper contributes to the literature by interrogating the information and communication technology (ICT)-trade nexus on competitiveness in Eastern and Western European countries. Does ICT usage promote or hinder the impact of trade openness on competitiveness? This study attempts to answer two questions: (1) is the interaction of trade and ICT significant in promoting competitiveness? (2) Is the effect significantly different by European classification?

With data on 17 European countries from 2007 to 2020 and using mobile phones and fixed telephone usage as ICT indicators, the study engages the bootstrapped ordinary least squares (BOLS) and method of moments quantile regression (MM-QR) techniques to probe the discourse.

The empirical findings reveal that (1) the interaction of trade and ICT boost competitiveness; (2) the effect of mobile phone is consistent across the full, East, and West European samples; (3) the interaction effect is also significant across the conditional distribution of competitiveness and (4) mobile phones and fixed broadband usage reveal “leapfrog” effect across the quantiles. Overall, the study submits that ICT usage will enhance the impact of trade, and thus, ICT is a critical enabler of competitiveness in Europe; policy recommendations were discussed.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study examining the interaction effect of trade openness and ICT usage on competitiveness in Europe. In other words, the authors attempt to analyze how ICT usage influences trade-competitiveness dynamics. To fill the gap in the literature, the authors' use a sample of 17 European countries from 2007 to 2020. The variables of interest are the competitiveness index, trade openness, and four ICT indicators (mobile phone, fixed telephone subscriptions, fixed telephone subscriptions, and Internet users).

This empirical study examines the influence of environmental uncertainty on industrial product innovation. Addresses a perceived shortcoming in the new product development literature and explores direct and moderating effects of environmental uncertainty on the development process, project organization, and on new product success. Finds that several external market and technology factors do impact new product success directly. Further, finds that several market and technological uncertainties moderate the relationship between development process, project organization, and new product success. Consequently, innovating companies benefit by adapting their development approaches to different environmental conditions and to varying degrees of uncertainty. The results of 82 product development projects indicate, among others, that under conditions of high market and technology unpredictability process compression may increase time efficiency and product profitability.

This paper aims to show how the term competitiveness has been applied and adapted since Michael Porter made it respectable in economics, strategic management and consulting. This paper connects the concept with new developments in the theory of the firm, theories of growth and, finally, with Beyond GDP literature.

This paper distinguishes between input and output competitiveness, developing a set of indictors for both. Countries are ranked according to costs, structure and capabilities (drivers of competitiveness) as well as according to economic, social and ecological performance (performance pillars). Finally, outcome competitiveness is explained by the individual drivers, using econometrics and principal component analyses.

Defining competitiveness as the ability of a country or nation to deliver Beyond GDP goals changes the policy conclusions drawn from the quest for competitiveness. Policies to reduce costs prove inferior relative to “high-road strategies” built on skills, innovation and supporting institutions. Ecological ambition and social investment are not costs, but enablers of competitiveness for high-income countries.

Connecting the well-known term competitiveness with Beyond GDP goals is a new approach. It is very different from the old concept of cost competitiveness criticized heavily by Paul Krugman. Supplying a set of indicators to measure “low-road” and “high-road” competitiveness leads to important new policy conclusions.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the status quo of China's innovation systems and contribute to the development of effective innovation policies.

The construct of this paper is based on a comprehensive case study in China's transportation sector. Detailed discussions and analyses follow to give implications in policy making.

Sectoral innovation capability can be enhanced in a learning environment that balances domestic innovation and international technology transfer. Government should strategically leverage various resources for innovation.

Through the analysis of case study, a conceptual framework to support sectoral innovation is proposed. The research gives insight on how to improve and prepare the conditions for future innovation.

Technological outsourcing requires possessing the technological capability level by enterprises taking the outsourced activity and further mandates build-up capabilities. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing nations such as Ethiopia are usually equipped with low level of technological capability and could benefit from government-supported or government-initiated outsourcing networks. The current study aims to preliminarily assess performance of outsourcing initiative taken by the Hibret Manufacturing and Machine Building Industry, a subsidiary of a national corporation, in developing technological capability of SMEs in Ethiopia.

The study used a qualitative research approach through interviews with the parent company officials and owners of SMEs and site visit to these SMEs. Findings are organized in a way to draw lessons to be learned from technological outsourcing examined.

Technological learning, acquisition of new technologies, market access and process innovation are few capabilities achieved by the involved SMEs. To facilitate and harness these opportunities and further assist in policy ratification, a conceptual framework has been presented and elaborated.

Further investigation into outsourcing procedure and biases are expected to shed further light onto the outsourcing initiative by the parent company. This study drew results from investigation of the SMEs involved. Additional investigation of other SMEs is expected to reveal additional insights.

There is a dearth of literature focusing on exploration of technological outsourcing in low-income developing countries, such as Ethiopia, to build SMEs’ technological capabilities. This research presents insightful contribution to strategic outsourcing to build local technological capability in developing economies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the main features of the Vietnamese economic transition and industrial development pattern analyzing the evolution of the industrial policy formulation in the light of the changes in the country’s productive specialization and competitive position in the international division of labor. The authors also aim at stressing the role exerted by different external paradigm of influence on the Vietnamese policy making and the function of selectivity as an instrument to upgrade the competitiveness of the Vietnamese production system.

The paper provides a descriptive analysis of the Vietnamese recent economic trends and structural transformation dynamics. It realizes a literature review concerning the academic debate on the role and the effects of industrial policy in Vietnam identifying a categorization between different theoretical perspectives. In addition, it implements an in-depth analysis of the main industrial planning strategies promoted by the government investigating the evolution of the lines of the country’s economic policy agenda. On the basis of the previous analyses, the paper draws out some conclusions about the application of selective criteria in Vietnamese industrial policy interventions.

An in-depth examination of the planning prescriptions suggests that the Vietnamese government has undertaken a pronounced paradigm change in the course of last 15 years. The Vietnamese planning approach displays a shift toward a systematic and extended vision concerning the role of industrial policy, which result to be in clear discontinuity with respect to the market-friendly approach supported by Washington institutions. Nevertheless, this configuration outlines several limits characterizing the Vietnamese planning activity, connected to the lack of transparency and efficiency of the governance mechanisms that risk to undermine the effectiveness of the upgrading policies.

The paper focuses on Vietnam, an emerging economy in transition whose development trajectory has been characterized by peculiar economic and policy dynamics. The hybrid character of the government policy-making approach makes it difficult to identify univocal interpretations concerning the country’s industrial development dynamics and the resulting policy implications. In this perspective, the analysis has shed light on the mechanisms conditioning the formulation of industrial policy in Vietnam, focusing on the external influences exerted on its definition and on the domestic interactions associated to its implementation.

This paper aims to examine whether foreign technology acquisition is complementary to internal technology development in the context of a developing country.

The selection model developed by Heckman (1979) was applied with the balanced panel data of manufacturing enterprises from the Annual Enterprise and Technology Surveys from 2012 to 2016 conducted by the Vietnamese General Statistics Organization.

The results indicate that foreign technology acquisition and internal technology development are complementary innovation options. Particularly, the number of patents granted for manufacturing enterprises positively affects the probability that enterprises acquire foreign technologies. This effect is stronger in cases of high-tech industries than in cases of low-tech industries.

Regarding the relationship between internal technology development and foreign technology acquisition, the findings suggest that adoption of foreign technology acquisition and priority in budget allocation for foreign technology acquisition are different in nature and that budget allocation is a more complex issue and may depend on other factors.

For developing countries, governments should adopt policies supporting domestic enterprises in acquiring technologies from advanced countries that could complement the locally developed technologies. These supports should focus on the high-tech or high-innovation rate industries.

In the context of a developing economy, the complementary effect of internal technology development and foreign technology acquisition is stronger in cases of the high-tech industries than in cases of the low-tech industries.

This is the second of two papers which examine the Italian and Spanish textile‐clothing sector. The purpose of this paper is to focuse on the key factors in the international performance of textile manufacturing companies.

In order to compare Spanish and Italian cases, the empirical study used a standardized questionnaire for collecting data. The cases analysed are respectively geographical zones with a great tradition in textile‐clothing industry in their country, Catalonian (in the Spanish case) and Lombardian business (in the Italian case).

It was found that international experience is the main factor in the export performance for both cases but investment in R&D and export experience have been the keys for explaining the major export performance of the Italian businesses.

The sample is formed basically from small textile‐clothing business (with less than 500 employees).

The paper is of value in that it provides a comparative study of the main factors that have affected the export performance of the Spanish and Italian businesses. A wide range of factors has been studied, including characteristics of the business, such as size, dispersion of sales and export experience.