On semi-industrialized countries and the acquisition of advanced technological capabilities

Abstract

The last decades have witnessed a breaking down of the hitherto quasi-monopoly in industrial and technological development held by highly industrialized countries. Man-made changes in comparative advantage due to rapid accumulation of human capital, development of technical institutions and public policies in support of enterprise development and innovation, have led to the emergence of advanced technical capabilities in a number of semi-industrialized countries. Study of selected instances of their technological achievement shows that they cannot be adequately interpreted as necessarily requiring the working of a well-integrated national innovation system. They seem to be instead path, or process, dependent and determined by the circumstantial convergence of requisite skills, appropriate institutions and supportive public policies.