Latecomer strategies for catching-up: the cases of renewable energies and the LED programme

International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development

Volumn 1, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 34-42

  Mathews, John A ^a  

^a MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

catching up; latecomer strategies; renewable energies

Indexed keywords

EID: 84859411911     PISSN: 17531942     EISSN: 17531950     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1504/IJTLID.2007.015022     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. Carlsson, B. and Eliasson, G. (2003) ‘Industrial dynamics and endogenous growth’, Industry and Innovation, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp.435–455.
2. Chandra, V. (Ed) (2006) Technology, Adaptation, Exports: How Some Developing Countries Got it Right, New York: World Bank.
3. Dahmén, E. (1950/1970) Entrepreneurial Activity and the Development of Swedish Industry, 1919-1939 (Swedish original published 1950; English translation by Axel Leijonhufvud), Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin.
4. Dahmén, E. (1989) ‘Development blocks in industrial economics’, in B. Carlsson (Ed). Industrial Dynamics, Boston/Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.
5. Gerschenkron, A. (1962) Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
6. Hobday, M. (1995) ‘East Asian latecomer firms: learning the technology of electronics’, World Development, Vol. 23, No. 7, pp.1171–1193.
7. Hobday, M. (2003) ‘Innovation in Asian industrialization: a Gerschenkronian perspective’, Oxford Development Studies, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp.293–314.
8. Humphrey, J. and Schmitz, H. (2002) ‘How does insertion in global value chains affect upgrading in industrial clusters?’, Regional Studies, Vol. 9, pp.1017–1027.
9. Lall, S. (1997) Learning to Industrialize: The Acquisition of Technological Capability by India, London: Macmillan.
10. Lall, S. and Pietrobelli, C. (2002) Failing to Compete: Technology Development and Technology Systems in Africa, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
11. Lundvall, B-A. (2007) ‘National innovation systems: analytical concept and development tool’, Industry and Innovation, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp.95–119.
12. Mathews, J.A. (2001) ‘National systems of economic learning: the case of technology diffusion management in East Asia’, International Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 22, Nos. 5/6, pp.455–479.
13. Mathews, J.A. (2002) ‘Competitive advantages of the latecomer firm: a resource-based account of industrial catch-up strategies’, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp.467–488.
14. Mathews, J.A. (2005) ‘The intellectual roots of latecomer industrial development’, International Journal of Technology and Globalisation, Vol. 1, Nos. 3/4, pp.433–450.
15. Mathews, J.A. (2006) ‘Catch-up strategies and the latecomer effect in industrial development’, New Political Economy, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp.313–335.
16. Mathews, J.A. (2007a) ‘Latecomer strategies for catching up: linkage, leverage and learning’, Development Outreach, World Bank Institute.
17. Mathews, J.A. (2007b) ‘Can renewable energies be turned to a source of advantage by developing countries?’, Revue de l’Energie.
18. Pietrobelli, C. and Rabellotti, R. (2004) Upgrading in Clusters and Value Chains in Latin America: The Role of Policies, MSM-124, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Division, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC.
19. Ravindranath, N.H., Somashekar, S.I., Dasappa, S. and Jayasheela Reddy, C.N. (2004) ‘Sustainable biomass power for rural India: case study of biomass gasifier for village electrification’, Current Science, Vol. 87, No. 7, pp.932–941.
20. UNIDO (2002) Industrial Development Report 2002/2003: Competing through Innovation and Learning, Vienna: United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
21. World Bank (2007) Country Economic Memorandum: Mauritius. Report 36196-MU, Washington, DC: World Bank, Available at: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2007/02/16/000310607_20070216094917/Rendered/PDF/361960MU.pdf.
22. This paper draws in part on Mathews (2007a). The insights provided by Fabio Nehme, Project Officer for the ‘Lighting the Bottom of the Pyramid’ project at the International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, are gratefully acknowledged.
23. For some successful cases, see the World Bank report, Technology, Adaptation, Exports: How Some Developing Countries Got It Right (Chandra, 2006); the cases covered span India, China, Malaysia, Chile, Kenya and Taiwan.
24. See Gerschenkron (1962) for the application of the concept of latecomer to firms, see Hobday (1995, 2003) and Mathews (2002, 2005, 2006).
25. See Humphrey and Schmitz (2002) for a general exposition. On clusters in Latin America, see Carlo Pietrobelli and Roberta Rabellotti, ‘Upgrading in clusters and value chains in Latin America: The role of policies’, MSM-124, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Division, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC, 2004 where clear policy implications are drawn for the Latin American region.
26. See the UNIDO report Industrial Development 2002/03 for an application of these ideas.
27. For an exposition of the notion of national system of economic learning see Mathews (2001); it is contrasted with the national system of innovation (for a review, see Lundvall, 2007).
28. On these technology capability-enhancing institutions, see Lall (1997) and Lall and Pietrobelli (2003), as examples from a large literature.
29. For the case of Mauritius, see the World Bank’s Country Economic Memorandum (2007) especially the last chapter on ‘How Mauritius can become a more innovative, knowledge-based economy’.
30. See Mathews (2007b).
31. We need each other’: Why Lula is backing a Latin axis but will shun the populist path, by Richard Lapper and Jonathan Wheatley, Financial Times, 12 July 2006, p.9.
32. In India, the biomass gasifier projects have been led by public R&D institutions, such as the Centre for Sustainable Technologies (CST), Indian Institute of Science, at Bangalore. For an example of CST’s work with gasifiers, see the paper by Ravindranath et al. (2004).
33. See Dahmén (1950/1970) and Dahmén (1989).
34. Carlsson and Eliasson (2003) have taken up the concept of development bloc and renamed it competence bloc - to emphasise that such a collective capability is needed to support and sustain technological innovation. If the technological system represents the supply side of industrial dynamics, then the development bloc or competence bloc represents the demand side. Both are necessary in the business of seeding and growing industries in developing countries.
35. See the IFC webpage on the LED program at: http://www.ifc.org/led.
36. See Robyn Meredith, ‘Philips plans LED plant in Singapore’, Forbes.com, 9 April 2006.
37. See the DENG company webpage at: http://www.deng-ghana.com/.