Technological learning in six firms in Southern China: success and limits of an industrialisation model

Arvanitis, Rigas and Zhao, Wei and Qiu, Haixiong and Xu, Jian-niu (2006): Technological learning in six firms in Southern China: success and limits of an industrialisation model. Published in: International Journal of Technology Management , Vol. 33, No. 1/2/3 (2006): pp. 108-125.

Abstract

This article examines the creation of industrial enterprises and the basic models of firm-level technological learning behaviour of the last 20 years in China. Six case studies of technological learning and links to external sources of know-how from the South of China in the Pearl River Delta are examined. It is shown that the learning process that has been experienced in these enterprises is similar to that of other fast growing East Asian economies. Until now enterprises have been acquiring technology through external linkages with foreign clients that become their main providers of technology. A detailed account of the enterprises allows a typology of the external technological learning. It is claimed that the growth of the South China lies in this ‘external’ interactive technological learning, as in other East Asian economies.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Asia; China; industrial development; technological learning; private enterprises; interactive learning; economic reform
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O32 - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D; L - Industrial Organization > L6 - Industry Studies: Manufacturing > L60 - General; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O14 - Industrialization ; Manufacturing and Service Industries ; Choice of Technology

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