Main Characteristics of World-first Innovation in Catching-up Countries

Purpose - Through examining the development of the video compact disc player industry in China, this article aims to explore the main characteristics of world-first innovation and identify four success factors for innovation followers to launch world-first products in catching-up countries.

Design/methodology/approach - This article takes the form of a case study

Findings - The main characteristics of world-first innovation in catching-up countries include: from the demand side, innovation is mainly pulled by the local market, rather than technology-push; from the supply side, innovation cannot isolate itself from the rest of the world - suppliers of key technologies in advanced countries play an important role; inter-firm alliances are an increasingly important way to generate world-first innovation; and downstream integration capabilities are required for followers to mix pieces of technologies together at competitive pricing. The success of followers from catching-up countries to launch world-first products hinges on the four critical factors: strengths of complementary assets; figuring out ways to meet local market demand without relying on large R&D spending; emphasizing untapped innovation opportunities by multinationals; and positioning themselves on the proper points of the globally coordinated network for innovation.

Originality/value - This article identifies the main characteristics of world-first innovation and points out four success factors for innovation followers to launch world-first products, which could be significant to managers in catching-up countries. Findings of this paper are more relevant to large catching-up countries such as India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia where a large domestic market could serve as important launch markets for the world-first innovation.