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Successful catch-up is an important channel to achieve sustainable development for emerging economies; however, it is a great challenge to catch up in complex products and systems (CoPS). Studies show limited evidence on how successful catch-up occurred in CoPS for emerging economies. This study holds the view that CoPS catch-up means a narrower gap in the innovation ecosystem between latecomers and leaders. This study disentangles the CoPS innovation ecosystem and uses China’s high-speed railway (HSR) as a longitudinal case with abundant data to explore how successful catch-up in CoPS is achieved. The results show that the CoPS innovation ecosystem presents a dynamic evolution in the technology innovation subsystem, the value creation subsystem, and the habitat. Four types of forces from the innovation ecosystem mix together to drive CoPS catch-up. Finally, this study proposes a CoPS catch-up process model following the basic logic of start point, activities, and performance, and CoPS industrial standards are used to measure CoPS catch-up performance. The study on CoPS catch-up from an innovation ecosystem perspective provides new insights and useful implications for governments and entities in CoPS of emerging economies.

Innovation is increasingly decentralized, traded and transferred internationally. Specialized suppliers of knowledge-intensive business services have emerged, enhancing the international transfer of knowledge and technology. This has important implications for the global geography of technological and innovative capabilities. This paper focuses on the role of European KIBS providers for the catch-up process in the Chinese wind turbine industry. Drawing on in-depth studies of three central technology domains in wind turbine research and development, it shows how the recent catch-up in the Chinese wind turbine industry was closely connected to organizational changes taking place in the incumbent wind turbine lead markets in Europe. The paper suggests that access to knowledge through KIBS can unlock rapid but bounded latecomer development in emerging markets.

The world is in the early stages of a paradigm transition toward a global green economy. In this article, we propose the notion of green windows of opportunity, highlighting the importance of institutional changes in the creation of new opportunities for latecomer development. We emphasize how demand and mission-guided technical change influence the directionality of latecomer development and highlight the important role emerging economies may attain in the global green transformation. We provide important insights regarding opportunities for green development in emerging economies, how these opportunities emerge in different renewable energy sectors and their implications for the global green economy.

This paper develops a history-friendly model of the process of catch-up by Chinese firms in the mobile communications industry. It aims to explain how the sectoral environment in terms of segmented markets and generational technological change facilitated the catch-up of domestic firms with respect to foreign multinationals. Segmented markets provided a nurturing environment in peripheral markets for the survival of domestic firms starting with low level capabilities in their infant stage. Generational technological change opened windows of opportunities for domestic firms to catch-up with foreign multinationals in new product segments. Segmented markets and generational technological change allowed domestic firms to leverage their initial advantages in peripheral markets to catch-up in core markets. Counterfactual simulations highlight that the process of catch-up was facilitated by relatedness across technological generations. This paper contributes to the literature on catch-up and industry evolution by illustrating the role of technological change and market regimes in the process of catching-up.

Over the last 20 years, the rapid development of high-speed Chinese trains has provided valuable guidelines to countries and companies eager to develop their complex product and system (CoPS) sectors. CoPS refers to the high cost and technology-intensive systems, networks, infrastructure and engineering constructs, and services. Although established studies highlight the importance of CoPS to the economy and development of a country, especially those that have yet to develop high-speed rail, scholars have not paid much attention to investigating the catch-up of CoPS industries from the windows of opportunity perspective. We aimed to fill in this research gap by analyzing the successful catch-up of Chinese high-speed trains. Based on a longitudinal case study of this industry, we analyzed and detailed the mechanisms of the catch-up process of a typical CoPS sector and its development. Our results enrich the literature of the catch-up process, CoPS, and the studies of windows of opportunity. In particular, we show that the windows of opportunity that emerge in the catch-up process of CoPS have the characteristics of endogeneity, asymmetry, and relevance. Moreover, our study further indicates that the endogenous windows of opportunity regarding policy result in the development of later windows of technology and demand. We also find that the technology’s windows of opportunity consist of the window to broaden the technology width and the window to deepen the technology depth of latecomers. In addition to theoretical contributions, our findings can help policymakers of latecomer countries better formulate CoPS industrial policies, followed by a gradual progress in successfully catch-up with the leading countries.

Product combines function and form. This research focuses on the evolution of the product form and its corresponding system at national and international level. With the rise of the intangible economy, the evidence in this study presents that the global economy during the past decades has witnessed the transfer of design capability for product form from high-income countries to catch-up countries. However, product form as an intangible asset has been neglected by innovation policy makers in middle-income countries. Managers and policy makers thus need to depart from the traditional wisdom that product function is the main driver of product innovation and also to recognize product form as one of most significant complementary intangible assets to other related intellectual property schemes (e.g. trademark) in the new global economy context. Specifically, for the first time, the identification of “design-intensive industries” globally based on publicly available data becomes possible. This study further developed a new model on the measurement of the national design system – The National Design System 2.0. The research method employed in this study for the identification of the new model is the practitioner research method. Furthermore, semi-structural interviews with policy makers have been conducted in order to test the new model’s validation. Specifically, by innovatively incorporating the national design system framework into the theory of evolutionary economics, a comparative analysis of four groups of economies (namely the United States and China, catch-up economies, the developed economies and the middle-income economies) has been conducted to observe the different evolutionary patterns of their national design system. The cavern curve has been compiled according to the ranking of the GDP per capital for individual countries as well as the generalization for the classification of the four groups of economies. A strong similarity between their GDP per capital growth and national design system evolution in catch-up economies (Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, China) has been observed. The value and benefits of this research are that it developed a new measurement model - the national design system 2.0 – which could help policy makers in latecomer countries to focus on product form in a global context. Also, the global country dashboard and analytical framework provide empirical analysis tools for innovation policy makers to grasp design- driven growth opportunities in the new global economy context., United Nations General Fund

Based on a newly compiled set of Chinese data, this paper puts established assumptions on the role of technological variety in perspective. It does so from two main angles. First, by documenting whether, in China, the technological variety has played a similar role for regional development as in Western economies. Second, by exploring how, more recently, this may change as China transitions towards an innovation-driven economy. In summary, its findings suggest that, while technological variety has indeed so far mattered differently for China's regional development, more recently, first traces of systemic change can be identified in both evolution of related variety and its emerging impact on aspects of regional development.

The role that emerging economies, and China in particular, play in the global energy transition appears to be transforming. Transition literature to date characterizes the formation of cleantech sectors in emerging economies as being heavily dependent on foreign inputs of knowledge and other key resources. This article argues that in the, currently unfolding, next phase of the global energy transition, Chinese actors may play a more central role in global niche development for high-tech industries, including in constructing innovative and effective socio-technical configurations. This argument is illustrated with a case study of the Chinese Concentrated Solar Power industry, which is found to have developed largely independently of foreign resources. The case is used to highlight a number of specificities of the Chinese environment that set it apart from niche formation environments in OECD countries, and may allow China to open up technological trajectories unlikely to develop in those OECD countries.

Background The cost-effectiveness of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in women pre-sexual debut has been demonstrated in many countries. This study aimed to estimate the cost-effectiveness of a 3-dose bivalent HPV vaccination at ages 12 to 55 year in both rural and urban settings in China. Methods The Markov cohort model simulated the natural history of HPV infection and included the effect of screening and HPV vaccination over the lifetime of a 100,000 female cohort. Transition probabilities and utilities were obtained from published literature. Cost data were estimated by Delphi panel using healthcare payers’ perspective. Vaccine cost was assumed Hong Kong listed price. Vaccine efficacy (VE) was based on the PATRICIA trial data assuming VE irrespective of HPV type at all ages on incident HPV. Costs and outcomes were discounted at 3 %. Cervical cancer cases and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) for vaccination and screening compared with screening alone were estimated for each vaccination age. Reduced VE in women post-sexual debut were investigated in scenario analyses. Results With 70 % vaccination coverage, a reduction of cancer cases varying from 585 to 33 in rural and 691 to 32 in urban were estimated at ages 12 to 55, respectively. The discounted ICERs of vaccination at any age under 23 years in rural and any age under 25 years in urban were lower than the current threshold. Scenario analyses with lower VE post-sexual debut confirmed the results with age 20 in rural and 21 in urban had consistent lower ICERs. The more ‘catch-up’ cohorts vaccinated at the start of a program, the more cancer lesions are avoided in the long-term. Conclusions Vaccination at any age under 23 years old in rural and any age under 25 years old in urban were cost-effective. Catch-up to the age of 25 years in rural and urban could still be cost-effective. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-016-2207-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The integrated circuit (IC) industry is the foundation of the information industry, and its level of development is an important manifestation of the economic and technological strength of a country. At present, the IC industry is primarily monopolised by developed countries. Although China is the world’s largest consumer of semiconductors, it has a disproportionately small international market share of production and a very low domestic chip self-sufficiency rate, lagging far behind Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea. The process of promoting the development of China’s IC industry ecosystem is discussed based on a case study of Tsinghua Unigroup and the observation and analysis of its recent international mergers and acquisitions. The resulting conclusions suggest valuable mechanisms that could benefit the technological improvement of late-developing countries and help them close the gap with more developed countries. Relevant theory for the industrial ecosystem is enriched, providing a useful reference for the development of the IC industry in late-developing countries.

Applying distance-to-frontier analysis, we have used 2.9 million patents and population data to assess whether the relative capacity of world countries and major regions to create new knowledge and technology has become globally more equal or less equal between 1990 and 2010. We show with the Gini coefficient that the global distribution of inventors has become more equal between major countries and regions. However, this trend has been largely due to the improved performance of only two major countries, China and India. The worst performing regions, totalling a population of almost 2 billion, are actually falling behind. Our results suggest that substantial parts of the global population have fallen further behind countries at the global frontier in their ability to create new knowledge and inventions, and that the catch-up among the least developed and middle-income countries is highly uneven, prompting questions about the nature and future of the global knowledge economy.

The paper focuses on the role of technological capabilities in pushing regional catch-up in China. A leading force behind its fast economic growth has been the government action in reforming rules and institutions and supporting structural change in the long run. The local clustering process of technological capabilities represents an important piece in this strategy. The regional endowment of technological capabilities is approached by the geographical distribution of innovation activities among prefectures. The analysis aims to verify if there is convergence among the prefectural income levels and technological capabilities positively affect the intra-national catching-up process. Accordingly, this contribution presents a growth convergence estimation model that includes four indexes for innovation systems already adopted in literature. Indicators refer to the information about Chinese patent applications at EPO in the period 1996-2010 (OECD REGPAT and Citations databases, January 2014). In order to fit the research questions, patent data have been restricted, reorganized and originally regionalized by the authors running a semantic search of prefectures' names in the "address" field associated to each Chinese inventor. Main results show that anabsolute convergence process already started, although disparities decline slowly, and the accumulation of technological capabilities can foster this dynamic.

This paper analyses the forces determining per capita income levels of nations over the past millennium and the prospects to 2030. In the year 1000, Asian countries were in the lead. By 1820, per capita gross domestic product in Western Europe and the USA was twice the Asian average. The divergence had grown much bigger by 1950, but by the 1970s, several Asian countries - Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore - had achieved considerable catch-up. Since then, there has been a major surge in China and the beginning of a similar phenomenon in India. As a result, the Asian share of world income has risen steadily and, by 2030, will be fairly close to what it was in 1820. I conclude by comparing my projections for 2030 with those of Goldman Sachs, Perkins and Rawski, and Fogel.

This thesis analyses the Chinese catch-up process from an institutional-historical perspective. It follows a gerschenkronian inspired approach and its purpose is to identify some of the unique characteristics of this experience and the understanding of its importance for the success of the catch-up. The specific pattern of gradual political and economic transition and the acting profile of the Chinese Communist Party in leading the process render a particular design to the Chinese experience. They are subject to specific history and institutions and give rise to institutional arrangements unprecedented in history. The huge dimensions of China, the diversity among regions and the impossibility of controlling and coordinating all the economic actions, together with other important elements which characterize the environment in which the Chinese enterprises are inserted (including those which derive from a deliberate action by the Party-State) create a fertile field for the accomplishment of experiments and the raising of innovating and creative initiatives which are rapidly spread, giving place to the development of complex industries with increasing levels of productivity and technological autonomy. The thesis is comprised of three articles which are, to some extent, independent in themselves. On the other hand, they are complementary to the effect that the subject of the two first ones constitutes a conceptual reference to the approach of the third article. The first article deals with the institutional-historical framework. The second one brings forth discussions and contrasts regarding concepts of catch-up and convergence. The third article deals with the Chinese catch-up experience. Esta tese analisa o processo de catch-up chin?s a partir de uma perspectiva hist?ricoinstitucionalista. Seguindo uma abordagem de inspira??o gerschenkroniana, o objetivo ? identificar algumas caracter?sticas ?nicas dessa experi?ncia e compreender sua import?ncia para o sucesso do catch-up. O padr?o espec?fico de transi??o pol?tica e econ?mica gradual e o perfil da atua??o do Partido Comunista Chin?s na condu??o deste processo imprimem um desenho pr?prio ? experi?ncia chinesa. S?o condicionados por uma hist?ria e por institui??es espec?ficas e d?o origem a arranjos institucionais sem precedente hist?rico. A enorme dimens?o da China, a diversidade entre regi?es e a impossibilidade de controlar e coordenar todas as a??es econ?micas, junto a outros elementos importantes que caracterizam o ambiente em que as empresas chinesas est?o inseridas (inclusive aqueles que decorrem da a??o deliberada do Estado-Partido) criam um campo f?rtil para a realiza??o de experimenta??es e para o surgimento de iniciativas criativas e inovadoras que s?o rapidamente difundidas, dando ensejo ao desenvolvimento de ind?strias complexas e com n?veis crescentes de produtividade e de autonomia tecnol?gica. A tese est? organizada em tr?s artigos que s?o, em parte, independentes entre si. Por outro lado, s?o complementares, na medida em que os temas dos dois primeiros constituem referencial anal?tico para a abordagem do terceiro. O primeiro artigo trata do marco conceitual hist?rico-institucionalista. No segundo s?o discutidos e contrastados os conceitos de catch-up e de converg?ncia. O terceiro artigo examina a experi?ncia chinesa de catch-up.