Innovation Dynamics in Catch‐Up Firms: Process, Product and Proprietary Capabilities for Development

Innovation culture in small Tunisian ICT firms

“…Hence as Forbes and Weild (2008) suggest, the process of innovation in catch-up countries is fundamentally different from that of developed countries. Moreover, the industrial structure is dominated by small firms (Coronado et al, 2008).…”

Open Innovations and International Collaboration in the Context of Emerging Economies

“…Therefore we might expect pharmaceutical firms in an emerging economy to progress in terms of innovation capability as shown in Figure 2. Theoretically, firms can choose between two options for technological development and innovation: they can catch up with the technology in advanced economies through international collaboration, or they can try to create their own technologies through investing and developing in-house R&D. Much of the literature argues that firms are more likely pursue the first option (Forbes & Wield, 2008). Teece (2000) argues that the disadvantages associated with poor market and asset positions can be overcome if there is an organizational commitment to acquire technology developed elsewhere.…”

“…Using the examples of the East Asian electronics firms, Hobday (1995) chronicled the gradual transition where local firms move from learning to produce efficiently, to improvement of production and improvement of the products performance and specification, through building an intermediate level of technological capability (eg, designing or contributing to design, alone or in partnership with a foreign company, and learning product innovation skills), and finally an advanced level of technological capability (eg, designing and conducting R&D for new products). Similarly, Forbes and Wield (2008) propose a model mapping a firm's situation (its current assets and capabilities) and path/trajectory (where the firm has come from and where it might go), with multiple case study evidence from different developing countries (eg, India, Mexico, and Tanzania), and different sectors (eg, breweries, pharmaceutical, cement, etc). Forbes and Wield (2008) argue that with innovative catching up, firms initially innovate through building process innovation capability, but later may move beyond competing on price to competing on product features, eg, quality or higher value-added products.…”

“…Similarly, Forbes and Wield (2008) propose a model mapping a firm's situation (its current assets and capabilities) and path/trajectory (where the firm has come from and where it might go), with multiple case study evidence from different developing countries (eg, India, Mexico, and Tanzania), and different sectors (eg, breweries, pharmaceutical, cement, etc). Forbes and Wield (2008) argue that with innovative catching up, firms initially innovate through building process innovation capability, but later may move beyond competing on price to competing on product features, eg, quality or higher value-added products. They argue that firms that innovate at the advanced level are those that are able to develop a distinctive capability having a 'proprietary' capability (eg, mechanical engineering know-how, process and routines), or through owning some intellectual property forms (eg, patents, trademarks, designs, etc).…”

“…Firms in emerging economies tend to catch up with the technology frontier in advanced economies through formal and informal knowledge transfer channels (Forbes & Wield, 2008). Whilst the empirical support for open innovation is growing, there are still many questions regarding the role and limits to its application in different contexts and cases (Trott & Hartmann, 2009;Wang et al 2011).…”