The developmental path of networking capability of catch-up players in Korea's semiconductor industry

With respect to technological learning, networking and globalization, and the subsequent development of technological capability, this study examines the developmental path of catch-up players in Korea's semiconductor industry. It in particular deals with the important aspects of local and global networking of catch-up players accumulating technological capability. This paper also argues that networking capability plays a critical role in the development of the technological capability of catch-up players in developing countries, and that their networking patterns are changed along the global technological trajectory that they face. That is, on the basis of the Korean case analysis, this study reveals that global hierarchical networking with global leaders is provoked in the vertical cooperative phase when global mature technologies are involved in international technology transfer. Next, the quasi-global networking with overseas sister companies and their professionals is strengthened in the discordant phase when growing technologies are involved. Reciprocal networking with global players is encouraged in the strategic phase when emerging technologies are involved. In addition, this paper addresses the development path of other aspects of technological capability, i.e., production, investment, and innovation capability, of Korea's semiconductor players. Furthermore, it discusses the relevance of Korea's development path to other countries and firms.     

Technology analysis and R&D management

Technology analysis is a new field of knowledge aimed at creating a fuller understanding of the technological setting within which business operates. It provides a macro-discipline and is specifically aimed at improving the effectiveness of management of technology. As such it is of direct relevance to R&D management.
The essential tools of technology analysis constitute a set of analytical frameworks covering aspects such as: (i) a common approach to describing individual technological artefacts, (ii) a taxonomy of technologies, (iii) a classification of technological trends, (iv) a chart of technological limits, and (v) a socio-technical preference profile.
These frameworks help the R&D manager to dissect and debate typical R&D management problems such as: (i) selecting R&D projects, (ii) setting broad R&D objectives in the case of a given project and (iii) setting specific R&D goals to meet the said objectives. The frameworks also help the R&D manager to portray and present research achievements within a simple and intuitively appealing framework.     

Internationalisation in the telecommunications services industry: Literature review and research agenda

A review of 356 publications addressing internationalisation aspects of the telecommunications services industry (TSI) shows a growing body of contributions, mainly covering research themes like settlement and regulation policy, strategic alliances and incumbents’ reactions to deregulation as well as opening of markets in-depth until recently. Wireline telephony TSI has been the dominant segment in most contributions, while the mobile or broadband Internet segments only featured in more recent work. Segment characteristics like non-uniform barriers to entry, different reasons for alliances and non-uniform levels of internationalisation differentiate these TSI segments pose a number of additional questions concerning telecom firms’ internationalisation strategy and success promising for future research.     

Conflicts and value co-creation in project networks

The present study aims to (i) extend knowledge of the nature of conflicts and of their influence on value co-creation in project networks and (ii) contribute to the management of conflicts to enable value co-creation.This work is based on an action research methodology conducted during a five-year case study of a firm operating in the Information and Communication (IT) industry. Three dimensions of conflicts are identified: (i) types, (ii) timing and (iii) effects. An understanding of these dimensions facilitates the management of conflicts. Two levels of intervention are isolated: (i) the strategic level and (ii) the operational level. The paper offers a new understanding of conflicts that should precede their management, which is crucial to enabling project network value.     

Ubiquitous technologies and 5G development. Who is leading the race?

The introduction of the fifth generation of mobile technology (5G) is expected to bring disruptive changes. These changes will be much more pervasive than any previous introduction of new mobile ‘generations’ and they are expected to influence the whole economy. For this reason, the global rush for 5G technology is not only considered crucial in economic or technological terms, but also for its implications in terms of geopolitics, international policy and national security.This paper presents an analysis of the patents in the most relevant fields of specialization connected to the 5G development. The period under investigation is from 2010 to 2019, and the data are extracted from the European Patent Office (EPO) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database. The analysis shows how the technologies and the specialisations needed to develop 5G are in the hands of a few countries around the globe, and how single European countries, taken in isolation, are not among those leading players. However, Europe, considered as a whole, competes well with the US and Asia in terms of patented innovations, suggesting the economic and strategic relevance of strengthening cooperation within the EU.     

Indicators of development or dependency in disguise? Assessing domestic inventive capacity in South Korean and Chinese infrastructural ICT standards

Domestic infrastructural information and communication technology (ICT) standards can be items of assertion for newly industrialised countries as they signal a capacity for breaking dependence on foreign technology and potentially drawing revenue from international export. This paper asks, with an in-depth study of a selection of recent South Korean and Chinese infrastructural ICT standards, to what degree it is warranted to correlate the production of standards with dependency-breaking technological capacity. A composite picture is found. On one side, a large portion of promoted domestic standards are creative imitations of foreign technologies with limited, if any, proportions of embedded domestic patents. This indicates a lack of capacity for challenging technological dependence. On the other side, several of the technologies studied signal emerging South Korean and Chinese capacity for embedding cutting-edge patents in infrastructural ICT standards when participating in global standardisation consortiums.     

Role of formal standards in transition to the technology frontier: Korean ICT systems

According to traditional wisdom, latecomer countries improve their technological capabilities in reverse of the product cycle, that is from mature towards new technologies. However, improvement of standards capabilities in this process has not been revealed clearly. This paper confirms similar patterns for improving formal standards capabilities as for the technological capabilities, but records some possible differences in the rate of catch-up when latecomers approach the technology frontier; a forward moving position where technology leaders (typically advanced countries) develop or conceptualize new technologies before being turned into products or systems. A number of case studies of South Korean ICT systems reveal that transition to the technological frontier is increasingly related to how they target and carry out formal standardization. The common elements driving differences in rates of successful catch-up for ICT systems standards are not only limited to generic standards capabilities, but also rely on characteristics of technology trajectories, national strategic focus, and organizing for standardization.³ This implies that a nation should not be discouraged by slow progress in standards-setting during earlier stages. Once a minimum level of capabilities is achieved, a nation pro-active in standards from the beginning may attain higher rates of catch-up near the technology frontier.     

后危机时期世界经济格局的动态转换

始于2007年的金融危机,使全球经济遭到了历史罕见的巨大冲击。世界经济的各种力量对比开始发生此消彼长的变化,世界经济格局处于动态转换之中：世界经济结构加快调整,全球经济治理机制深刻变革,科技创新和产业转型孕育突破,发展中国家特别是新兴市场国家整体实力步入上升期,世界多极化深入发展。我国应科学认识世界经济格局变化特点,准确把握经济发展的战略机遇期,加快实施经济结构战略性调整,争取在未来的全球经济合作竞争中建立更大的比较优势。     

Principles of innovation to build nutrition-sensitive food systems in South Asia

Innovations within global food systems have contributed to the predicament known as the triple burden of malnutrition – the co-existence of hunger and micronutrient deficiency with the diseases of overnutrition, such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. We use the case of the triple burden in South Asia to demonstrate analytically that innovation is a double-edged sword, with positive and negative potential, rather than a simple good. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals that target food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture (e.g. SDGs 2, 3 and 12), the countries of South Asia need more innovation, but, first, they would also benefit from some intelligent reflection about what innovation means, the directions it should take, and its risks and downsides alongside its benefits. In the present juncture, South Asian countries have an opportunity to learn from the experiences of other developing nations, and choose from alternative options to steer their own course. In this paper, we discuss how innovation has contributed to the present situation and ask how alternative kinds of innovation may enable South Asian countries to escape from the triple burden. We describe a conceptual framework that may be useful for thinking about how innovation pathways can be created and directed towards the goal of improving nutritional outcomes in South Asia. The framework draws attention to the direction of socio-technical change, the distribution of technologies and their risks and benefits, and the diversity of possible innovation pathways (STEPS Centre, 2010). We illustrate these points using examples of innovations in the areas of agricultural production, value chain interventions, and policy and institutional reforms.     

全球价值链与中国地方产业集群的供应链式整合--以苏浙粤纺织服装产业集群为例

地方产业集群的发展不仅需要全球价值链嵌入和耦合的推动,同时集群的供应链式整合(即地方产业集群在同一地域形成完整或近乎完整的价值链)也是地方产业集群升级的关键,这样才能保证地方产业集群在与全球价值链耦合时获取价值链中高附加值、核心战略环节的竞争优势。文章阐述了全球价值链与地方产业集群的供应链整合的三种模式,并以中国纺织服装产业为实例,通过苏(横扇镇)、浙(织里镇)、粤(沙溪镇)三地的纺织服装产业集群,来分析在面对纺织服装产业“后配额时代”的到来,如何将全球价值链与进行集群供应链式整合并实现产业升级;在此基础上说明中国纺织服装产业集群在供应链式整合和嵌入全球价值链过程中所面临的障碍;最后提出地方产业集群的升级思路和途径。     

Technological Diversification, Coherence, and Performance of Firms

Technological diversification at the firm level (i.e., the expansion of a firm's technology base into a wide range of technology fields) is found to be a prevailing phenomenon in all three major industrialized regions,—the United States, Europe, and Japan—prompting the term multitechnology corporation. Whereas previous studies have provided insights into the composition of technology portfolios of multitechnology firms, little is known about the relationship between technological diversification and firms' technological performance. Against a backdrop of the technology and innovation management literature, the present article investigates the relationship between technological diversification and technological performance, taking into account the moderating role of technological coherence in firms' technology portfolios. Hereby, technological coherence is defined as the degree to which technologies in a technology portfolio are technologically related. To measure the technological coherence of portfolios, a measure of technological relatedness of technology fields is constructed based on patent citation patterns found in 450,000 European Patent Office (EPO) patent grants. Two hypotheses are presented here: (1) Technological diversification has an inverted U‐shaped relationship with technological performance; and (2) technological coherence moderates the relationship between technological diversification and technological performance positively. These hypotheses are tested empirically using a panel data set (1995–2003) on patent portfolios pertaining to 184 U.S., European, and Japanese firms. The firms selected are the largest research and development (R&D) actors in five industries: pharmaceuticals and biotechnology; chemicals; engineering and general machinery; information technology (IT) hardware (i.e., computers and communication equipment); and electronics and electrical machinery. Empirical results, obtained by fixed‐effects negative binomial regressions, support both hypotheses in the present article. Technological diversification has an inverted U‐shaped relationship with technological performance. Technological diversification offers opportunities for cross‐fertilization and technology fusion, but high levels of diversification may yield few marginal benefits as firms risk lacking sufficient levels of scale to benefit from wide‐ranging technological diversification, and firms may encounter high levels of coordination and integration costs. Further, the results show that the net benefits of technological diversification are higher in technologically coherent technology portfolios. If firms build up a technologically coherent diversified portfolio, the presence of sufficient levels of scale is ensured and coordination costs are limited. At the same time, technologically coherent diversification puts firms in a better position to benefit form cross‐fertilization between technologies. The present article clearly identifies the important role of technological coherence in technology diversification strategies of firms.     

Pawn to Save a Chariot,or Drawbridge Into the Fort? Firms' Disclosure During Standard Setting and Complementary Technologies Within Ecosystems

Research summary: W ithin an ecosystem, standard setting coordinates development of complementary technologies across firms. But each firm can itself own multiple of these complementary technologies. We study how a firm's own complementary technologies influence its disclosure inclination during standard setting. We identify a tradeoff: disclosure increases value‐creation of the firm's non‐disclosed complementary technologies, but also heightens expropriation risk. Using data on the U.S. communications equipment industry 1991–2008, we show that the firm's complementary technologies increase its disclosure inclination when its technological areas are less crowded, but decrease such inclination when there are SSO members with strong expropriation abilities. Findings stress that disclosure involves but a piece of the firm's portfolio; a systemic perspective of the entire portfolio provides a more comprehensive picture of value‐creation during standard setting . Managerial summary: W hy should a firm disclose its key technology to participate in standard setting within an ecosystem? We urge managers to think beyond “disclosing to ensure compatibility with other firms' complementary technologies within the ecosystem” as a motivation, to also consider how disclosure affects the firm's own complementary technologies within its portfolio. Disclosure in one technological area makes the firm's nondisclosed complementary technologies in other areas more valuable to itself, especially with fewer rivals competing in these other areas. But disclosure also renders the firm susceptible to losing these complementary technologies to rivals, especially when rivals have strong expropriation abilities. Analyzing disclosure decisions by communication equipment firms, we show that this tradeoff is indeed a relevant consideration in managers' strategic calculations when participating in standard setting . Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lead-farmer extension and smallholder valuation of new agricultural technologies in Tanzania

Encouraging the widespread adoption and use of new on-farm technologies is an important part of productivity-led strategies to promote agricultural transformation. While many interventions have been designed to promote adoption through extension and education, little is known about how these efforts influence farmer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for new technologies. We use a Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism to elicit farmer WTP for two improved seed varieties and a new seed treatment product, Apron Star, under two different lead-farmer extension treatments in Tanzania: (i) a demonstration plot showcasing the technologies within a village; and (ii) a demonstration plot coupled with distribution of trial packs enabling some farmers to test the technologies on their own land. In the BDM, farmers were presented with six products – the two bean varieties: without Apron Star, with Apron Star already applied, and with a sachet of Apron Star for the farmer to treat the seed him/herself. Our results suggest that neither extension treatment significantly affects WTP for these technologies. However, we find that farmers are willing to pay more for seed that is pre-treated with Apron Star than for seed bundled with a sachet of Apron Star for self-treatment.     

ICT diffusion and production in ASEAN countries: Patterns,performance, and policy directions

ICT has become an increasingly crucial catalyst for economic development, but the transition to more sophisticated technologies is a challenging process requiring prudent vision, strategy, and policy. This paper investigates the dynamics of ASEAN countries’ performance on embracing the ICT revolution for development. Several findings stand out. First, ASEAN experienced a faster pace of convergence, compared to the rest of the world, in level of ICT diffusion over the past 10 years. Second, all ASEAN countries, including Singapore – the leading player, face increasing challenges in competing with income-level peers on ICT diffusion performance. ASEAN is a global hub of ICT hardware production and a fast-growing center of ICT services exports. In terms of revealed comparative advantage, ASEAN as an economy is strong in ICT hardware but remains weak in ICT services. The paper discusses policy insights drawn from the study and proposes a strategic policy framework to guide ASEAN’s concerted efforts to embrace the ICT revolution for development.     

Contingency view on technological differentiation and firm performance: evidence in an economic downturn

Although the importance of strategy for firm performance has been studied, little evidence has been offered regarding this linkage in hostile environments characterized by a lack of exploitable market opportunity and fiercer competition. This study aims to examine the viability of strategic postures of technological differentiation in such a setting using data from 1,054 samples across 32 industries in 30 countries during 2001–2002, when global economies suffered a downturn. The empirical results show that differentiation-oriented firms underperformed efficiency-oriented ones during this period. However, in the face of deteriorating market conditions, a strategic orientation toward technological differentiation, in concert with an internal commitment to R&D investment or external munificence toward technological opportunity, yields better performance. Finally, this study finds that firms with tight coupling between differentiation and efficiency outmaneuver those with a pure strategy or no strategy at the time of an economic downturn.     

Resource complementarity and value capture in firm acquisitions: The role of intellectual property rights

Extant literature holds that firm acquisitions create value through innovation if the knowledge bases of the acquirer and the target complement each other. Little is known about the value that patents associated with a target's knowledge convey to the acquirer, i.e., their value in securing market exclusion and freedom to operate in R&D. We argue that such property rights hold preemptive power allowing firms to capture the value from combining complementary technologies and to realize gains from trade in strategic factor markets. Our results for a sample of 1,428 acquisitions indicate that—controlling for technological value—acquired preemptive power is an important determinant of the acquisition price, particularly when the acquirer is technology intensive and acquired patents are highly related to the acquirer's knowledge base. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A demand‐based perspective on sustainable competitive advantage

We develop an approach to analyzing the sustainability of competitive advantage that emphasizes demand‐side factors. We extend the added‐value approach to business strategy by introducing an explicit treatment of how firms create value for consumers. This allows us to characterize how consumer heterogeneity and marginal utility from performance improvements on the demand side interact with resource heterogeneity and improving technologies on the supply side. Using this approach, we address a variety of questions including whether technology substitutions will be permanent or transitory; the sequence in which new technologies attack different market segments; how rents from different types of resources change over time; whether decreasing marginal utility and imitation give rise to similar rent profiles; the extent of synergies within a firm's resource portfolio; the emergence of new generic strategies; and the conditions that support strategic diversity in a market. Our focus on consumer utility and value creation complements the traditional focus in the strategy literature on competition and value capture. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analyzing the relationships between information technology, inputs substitution and national characteristics based on CES stochastic frontier production models

This research examines four interrelated issues at the country level: the value of information technology (IT), inputs substitution and complement, the complementarity phenomenon created by IT and national characteristics, and the productivity paradox, jointly and critically from a global perspective, using the so-called productive efficiency as the performance measure. To that end, we develop the three-factor constant elasticity of substitution (CES) stochastic production frontier model and apply it to a set of panel data from 15 countries over the period 1993–2003, along with the traditional two-factor CES models, within the one- and two-equation frameworks. In the two-equation setting, six national characteristics are selected as the contributing factors of the productive efficiency. The findings include: (i) the value of IT as measured by the productive efficiency is duly recognized: (ii) the productivity paradox is found to be absent from the production process in a majority of developed and developing countries considered, rejecting the existing argument that the paradox exists only in developing economies but does not exist in developed countries; however, the developed countries have used IT capital in their production systems more productively efficiently than the developing nations; (iii) traditional capital (non-IT capital), traditional labor, and IT capital are not pairwise substitutable, contrary to the notion that they are pairwise substitutable at the firm level; (iv) constant returns to scale, as commonly assumed, are not supported by the data; (v) different national characteristics affect a country's output (represented by gross domestic product or GDP) and its productive efficiency differently; and (vi) the complementarity phenomenon is observed in most of the countries (developed and developing) under study.     

Motivations and obstacles to university industry cooperation (UIC): a Mexican case

Within the context of linkage between universities and the productive sector in Mexico, this article seeks to answer the following questions: i) which are the principal motivations for researchers at universities to carry out technological research and to seek ties to industry? ii) which are the main motivations for industrial entrepreneurs to establish cooperation with universities to develop technology? and iii) which are the main barriers to a healthy relationship between both institutions? Our answers are based on data from two sources: (a) an exploratory survey of 31 researchers at the National University of Mexico and of 28 Mexican entrepreneurs, half of whom had previous experience in collaborative projects; and, (b) a subsequent panel discussion among questionnaire respondents designed to elicit in-depth qualitative data concerning motivations and obstacles to university-industry cooperation. The authors present the factors identified in the study as key elements in the development of liaisons between the two sectors in Latin American countries, and argue the need to rethink our conceptions of motivations and barriers within a theoretical framework of interinstitutional communications and organizational cultural change.     

Strategic orientations,marketing proactivity and firm market performance

Guided by strategic orientations, firms must continuously deliver superior value in order to maintain a strong position in the market over the long-term. This study explores how two prominent strategic orientations (i.e., market and technological orientations) influence a firm's marketing proactivity and performance, with marketing proactivity being the key to delivering continuously superior value. Specifically, we examine how the cultural (i.e., a proactive market orientation) and the behavioral (i.e., market pioneering) dimensions of marketing proactivity, and the interaction between them, affects a firm's market performance. A structural equation modeling analysis of survey data from 109 firms shows that a proactive market orientation and market pioneering have a significant positive impact on the sales per employee and the growth rate of a firm. Our findings suggest that market pioneering strengthens the positive relationship between proactive market orientation and sales per employee and growth rate. A firm's technological orientation is positively related to both its proactive market orientation and market pioneering. However, the responsive market orientation of a firm only has a significant positive effect on proactive market orientation, and not on market pioneering. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.