Cracking the Chinese SME Innovation Frontier: Crossing the Imitation Chasm

Kim Hua Tan and Leanne Chung
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Kim Hua Tan: Nottingham University Business School, United Kingdom
Leanne Chung: Cardiff Business School, United Kingdom

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Abstract: On product development capabilities, many researchers argue the development stages of early Japanese and Korean manufacturing industry could be summed up as ‘from imitation to innovation’. But, will Chinese manufacturers follow the same product innovation development path? This paper aims to identify the Chinese SMEs’ unique product innovation development stages. Specifically, this paper addresses one key research question i.e. what are the unique Chinese SMEs product innovation development stages? The results identified that Chinese SMEs’ product innovation development can be catogoried into three unique stages that are distinguished from the Japanese and South Korean path. The results provided interesting insights into how SMEs in different industries cultivated their skills and knowledge under their unique innovation development stages. This study contributes to the SMEs literature especially on the product innovation development stages in China, and other developing countries.

Keywords: Chinese innovation; SME; product development; imitation; absorptive capacity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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