Latecomer Advantage, Disruptive Innovation, And Industry Growth In Developing Countries

摘要

Industry growth strategy for developing countries has been a major issue in industrial economics and strategic management. Despite the apparent disadvantages and inferiorities of developing countries, latecomer advantage stream emphasizes the benefits of the "late arrival" in the industry arena and the "leapfrog" along the development trajectory. Disruptive innovation theory argues that firms in developing countries should adopt disruptive technology to gain the foothold, and then through sustaining innovation along a redefined trajectory to move to "upper market". Through the comparison of these two theories in six aspects, we find that the disruptive innovation serves better to guide the industry growth in developing countries.