Developing high-technology latecomer firms to compete internationally: A three-sector growth model

In contrast to the mainstream approach, which focuses exclusively on how foreign multinational enterprises move into developing countries, this paper researches how high-technology latecomer multinational enterprises grow from the domestic institutional context into the international market. It draws on the economic development theory and the dynamic capabilities perspective to present a three-sector growth model to understand how high-technology latecomer firms establish themselves in international competition through the interplay of the social sector, the state, and the market. The three sectors may work together when they are pushed by external threats or pulled by internal interests. High-technology latecomer firms, at the stage of “getting there,” would call for the caring hand of the social sector; at the stage of “staying there,” would need the competition of the market; and between these two stages, the discipline of the state.