Abstract

This paper posits that the combination of changes in a forerunner's industry legitimacy and a latecomer's efforts to endogenise windows of opportunity allows the latecomer to evolve from a turnkey importer to a global exporter. Our theoretical assertions are supported by analysing Korea as a latecomer in the nuclear power industry. We show that both an increase and a decrease in a forerunner's industry legitimacy provides exogenous windows of opportunity for the latecomer to access a forerunner's knowledge base. In particular, the decrease in a forerunner's industry legitimacy provides a critical opportunity for the latecomer to acquire core technology. In addition, our analysis shows some interesting findings on the latecomer's endogenisation of windows of opportunity through the lens of technological innovation systems. This study advances a more fine-grained view on catch-up theory by shedding new light on the implications of transnational industry legitimacy dynamics and windows of opportunity for a latecomer's catch-up in complex product systems.

Highlights

  • Complex product systems (CoPS) are considered socio-technical systems (Geels, 2004, 2006; Gil et al, 2012; Walker, 2000) that are the deliverables of very costly and technology-intensive mega-projects (Hobday et al, 2005)

  • In addition to exogenous windows of opportunity derived from the changes in forerunners’ industry legitimacy to which latecomers can merely or passively ‘respond’ in a transnational context (Yap and Truffer, 2019), we investigate how latecomers in a domestic context actively endogenise windows of opportunity by considering the six core functions of technological innovation systems (TIS) for successful industry formation and catch-up (Carlsson and Stankiewicz, 1991)

  • Our longitudinal analysis shows that transnational industry legitimacy dynamics and domestic industry formation efforts influenced

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Summary

Introduction

Complex product systems (CoPS) are considered socio-technical systems (Geels, 2004, 2006; Gil et al, 2012; Walker, 2000) that are the deliverables of very costly and technology-intensive mega-projects (Hobday et al, 2005). Disruptive changes in a forerunner's industry legitimacy that cause industrial crisis can create exogenous windows of opportunity for latecomers to acquire and absorb technologies released by the forerunners (Mathews, 2005; Lee and Mathews, 2012; Lee and Malerba, 2017). In addition to exogenous windows of opportunity derived from the changes in forerunners’ industry legitimacy to which latecomers can merely or passively ‘respond’ in a transnational context (Yap and Truffer, 2019), we investigate how latecomers in a domestic context actively endogenise windows of opportunity by considering the six core functions of technological innovation systems (TIS) for successful industry formation and catch-up (Carlsson and Stankiewicz, 1991). Our approach for distinguishing between exogenous and endogenous windows of opportunity is meaningful, as the extant literature has treated windows of opportunity as exogenous to the actors in latecomer countries (Yap and Truffer, 2019)

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