An authoritative examination of how small firms in developing countries acquire technological capability - the knowledge and skills required to operate technology effectively and to adapt it to local conditions. It fills a gap in the established literature on technological capability, which has neglected the small-scale sector in spite of the important role it plays in employment generation. The author develops a methodology for a quantitative assessment of the learning process, using case material from the small-scale capital goods sector in Pakistan's Punjab Province.

Economic and social progress requires a diverse ecosystem of firms that play complementary roles. Making It Big: Why Developing Countries Need More Large Firms constitutes one of the most up-to-date assessments of how large firms are created in low- and middle-income countries and their role in development. It argues that large firms advance a range of development objectives in ways that other firms do not: large firms are more likely to innovate, export, and offer training and are more likely to adopt international standards of quality, among other contributions. Their particularities are closely associated with productivity advantages and translate into improved outcomes not only for their owners but also for their workers and for smaller enterprises in their value chains. The challenge for economic development, however, is that production does not reach economic scale in low- and middle-income countries. Why are large firms scarcer in developing countries? Drawing on a rare set of data from public and private sources, as well as proprietary data from the International Finance Corporation and case studies, this book shows that large firms are often born large—or with the attributes of largeness. In other words, what is distinct about them is often in place from day one of their operations. To fill the “missing top†? of the firm-size distribution with additional large firms, governments should support the creation of such firms by opening markets to greater competition. In low-income countries, this objective can be achieved through simple policy reorientation, such as breaking oligopolies, removing unnecessary restrictions to international trade and investment, and establishing strong rules to prevent the abuse of market power. Governments should also strive to ensure that private actors have the skills, technology, intelligence, infrastructure, and finance they need to create large ventures. Additionally, they should actively work to spread the benefits from production at scale across the largest possible number of market participants. This book seeks to bring frontier thinking and evidence on the role and origins of large firms to a wide range of readers, including academics, development practitioners and policy makers.

Innovation manifests itself as a key driver of improved productivity and sustainable growth in today’s global economic landscape. This book • brings together perspectives and case studies from across the world; • discusses frameworks and actual conditions required for innovation; and • examines a variety of themes, such as technology innovation, research & development, team and human resource management, product and process creativity and entrepreneurship development to augment strategic and competitive advantage. It will prove essential to those in business and management, entrepreneurship, economics and development studies, particularly those interested in innovation, strategic planning and business leadership.

This authoritative and enlightening book focuses on fundamental questions such as what is innovation, who is it relevant for, what are the effects, and what is the role of (innovation) policy in supporting innovation-diffusion? The first two sections present a comprehensive overview of our current knowledge on the phenomenon and analyse how this knowledge (and the scholarly community underpinning it) has evolved towards its present state. The third part explores the role of innovation for growth and development, while section four is concerned with the national innovation system and the role of (innovation) policy in influencing its dynamics and responding to the important challenges facing contemporary societies.

This book highlights a number of issues at the leading edge of both research and policy making, such as knowledge generation/production, knowledge distribution/transfer, knowledge spillovers, learning, knowledge management, information logistics, industrial clusters, industrial networks and regional innovation systems. This book will appeal to academics and researchers of knowledge management, technology and innovation and industrial organisation. Policy makers and planners in international organisations, national and regional governments - in particular those dealing with R & D policies, industrial policies and regional policies - will also find much to engage them.

One of the key ingredients of success in building internationally competitive industries lies in amassing a sizeable pool of competent suppliers of parts, components and accessories. This monograph examines how in developing countries suppliers of mechanical components at the low end of the technological trajectory build up key capabilities over time. The focus is on Vietnam’s motorcycle industry, which was rapidly transformed from a small, highly protected market to the world’s fourth largest motorcycle producer. This rare success resulted from intense competition between leading Japanese motorcycle manufacturers and local Vietnamese assemblers of imported Chinese components both attempting to gain supremacy in the emerging market. In particular, the book analyzes how local Vietnamese suppliers of motorcycle components exploited participation in contrasting types of value chains developed by the two groups of leading manufacturing firms, referred to here as Japanese and/or Vietnamese–Chinese chains, for accumulating strategic know-how. On the basis of historical evidence and recent empirical data collected through repeated rounds of in-depth fieldwork the analysis finds first, those suppliers’ learning trajectories evolved over time resulting in a divergence in learning performance extending across suppliers in later phases of industrial development. In the later stage, high-performing suppliers amassed basic innovative expertise, constituting the bedrock of this fast-growing industry. Second, the analysis finds that the diverging performance can be explained by the combination of roles played by lead firms in inducing and facilitating supplier learning and those of suppliers in mobilizing their own sources of knowledge. These conclusions not only provide dynamic, insightful accounts of supplier learning in developing country contexts but also make key theoretical and methodological contributions to the research on value chain participation and supplier learning.

This title was first published in 2002. Bringing together a wide range of theoretical and empirical case studies from Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, Turkey, China, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Poland, South Africa, Japan, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, this book addresses these neglected issues, in particular, contemplating the vitally important nexus between industry, environment and the knowledge economy.Throughout the book, four key themes and issues are explored: institution building strategies; agglomeration as territorial context; sustainable industrial-environmental processes and policy initiatives; globalization, learning and industrial location dynamics. The book concludes with an outline of future research directions within the paradigm.

Why are poor countries poor and rich countries rich? How are wealth and poverty related to changes in nutrition, health, life expectancy, education, population growth and politics? This modern, non-technical 2005 introduction to development studies explores the dynamics of socio-economic development and stagnation in developing countries. Taking a quantitative and comparative approach to contemporary debates within their broader context, Szirmai examines historical, institutional, demographic, sociological, political and cultural factors. Key chapters focus on economic growth, technological change, industrialisation, agricultural development, and consider social dimensions such as population growth, health and education. Each chapter contains comparative statistics on trends from a sample of twenty-nine developing countries. This rich statistical database allows students to strengthen their understanding of comparative development experiences. Assuming no prior knowledge of economics the book is suited for use in inter-disciplinary development studies programmes as well as economics courses, and will also interest practitioners pursuing careers in developing countries.

Originally published in 1993, this book contains 4 studies on Asia: Bangladesh, India, South Korea and Sri Lanka. The studies reflect 4 different patterns of technological transformation. India, with its large populaiton has made considerable progress but its overall development has been slow until recently. At the other extreme, South Korea which had a very low per capita income in the 1950s registered a quantum leap in technological transformation within a short span of 30 years. The heritage of Bangladesh's past has constrained its progress in overcoming structural weaknesses but in comparison, Sri Lanka displays a very different pattern. The sources used draw upon research in development economics, economic history, technology and studies in general and country studies in particular.