The applied research entitled “Explaining early entry into path-creation technological catch-up”, by professors Paulo N. Figueiredo and Marcela Cohen, at the Nucleus for Research in Technological Learning and Industrial Innovation of FGV’s Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (EBAPE), explores the strategies that enable companies from emerging economies to accumulate technological capabilities for innovation at the international level and dethrone the technological and commercial leadership of companies from advanced economies.

One of the main characteristics of this study is that, as opposed to common sense, which associates technological catch-up only with the idea of ​​imitating and following the same steps as global technological leaders, the research examines catch-up in the path-creation mode. In this mode, the emerging-economy company creates an unprecedented path of technological development at the international level.

Another feature of the research is that it explores the real nature of the innovation strategies that drive companies from emerging economies to global leadership. These strategies involve, on the one hand, a combination of the efficacy of the various mechanisms of technological learning and, on the other hand, the manner in which companies respond to four components of windows of opportunity: demand, technological, institutional, and idiosyncratic problems.

While a number of emerging-market companies are able to engage in the creation of proprietary technologies, some companies attain global leadership while others become followers. Those achieving international leadership are characterized by the development of innovation strategies based on a high degree of effectiveness of the various external and internal mechanisms of technological learning, proactively responding to changes in the windows of opportunity. According to the study, governments play a key role in shifting certain components of windows of opportunity through a number of public policies.

Advances in international border research

“This research is a substantial advance in relation to what we knew about these innovation strategies. Until then, the international literature had indicated that the attainment of technological and commercial leadership by companies from emerging economies depended on the combination of responses to windows of opportunity and efforts in technological learning. Our research, however, takes a further step by exploring the real nature of these innovation strategies, particularly changes in the effectiveness and relative importance of the various internal and external mechanisms of technological learning and their impacts on the accumulation of capacity for innovation,” said Professor Paulo N. Figueiredo.

Practical applicability of the research

The study also notes that the accumulation of technological capabilities by companies at the world-leading level contributes decisively to the country’s economic growth and development, as well as to the diversification of its industrial structure. According to Professor Figueiredo, an applied and state-of-the-art study such as this one provides managers with inputs and practical recommendations that are important for the design and implementation of strategies, at the level of industry and government, aimed at strengthening competitiveness and industrial innovation.

The research involved 10 years of fieldwork and coverage of 50 years of evidence.

“It was an exhaustive, but extremely gratifying research work thanks to the robustness of the results obtained,” commented Professor Paulo N. Figueiredo, head of the study.

The research was funded by CNPq and has been recently published in the Research Policy journal, considered the most important journal in studies on innovation at the international level.