Determinants of profiting from innovation activities: Comparisons between technological leaders and latecomers

Abstract

While the remarkable economic growth of the East Asian latecomers reflects the success of technological catching-up strategies, few researchers have explored the extent to which the profits of innovation have been created and managed in their social contexts and how those profits are secured differently from that of technological leaders. This pioneer study offers empirical evidence and insights by exploring how different rents (value) were secured within the existing global technological regime by technological leaders and by latecomers over the period 1990 to 2009. Our results demonstrate that technological regimes, including technological congruence and social capabilities, affect technological leaders and latecomers in different ways resulting in a relationship where the two play complementary roles. The accumulation and utilization of social capabilities are essential for developing state-of-the-art technologies and securing profit from innovations in the global market. The insights and implications for both technological leaders and latecomers are discussed and elaborated. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.