Meso-level factors in technological transitions: The development of TD-SCDMA in China

This paper uses an industry case study of technological transition from second-generation (2G) to third-generation (3G) networks in China to unfold how meso-level factors drove the development of TD-SCDMA, China's home-born 3G standard. In this purposive transitional process, under the coordination of a central authority, multiple 'regime actors' (government agencies) engaged in bargaining, negotiation and consensus building that determined the developmental directions and outcome of TD-SCDMA. TD-SCDMA proved to be a political success but an economic failure. The policy implications are profound. In particular, as the 'silo regulatory model' of policy making which focuses on a single industry is gradually replaced by a collective model involving interindustry players, issues about how to manage the collective model pose a serious challenge to policy makers in China and other emerging countries. The paper provides evidence for the importance of meso-level factors in the multi level perspective (MLP) framework of sociotechnical transitions.