Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0 
Author-Name: Zhong, Sheng
Author-Email: zhong@merit.unu.edu
Author-workplace-name: UNU-MERIT
Author-Name: Verspagen, Bart
Author-Email: verspagen@merit.unu.edu
Author-workplace-name: UNU-MERIT & SBE, Maastricht University
Title: The role of technological trajectories in catching-up-based development: An 
	 application to energy efficiency technologies
Abstract: We argue that the analysis level of a technological trajectory is very 
	 suitable to analyse the decisions of firms in latecomer countries with 
	 regard to the technological area that they should focus on. 
	 Technological trajectories are the main focal points along which 
	 technological innovation develops, and they are more detailed than the 
	 common sectors, like electronics of pharmaceuticals, that are used in 
	 the analysis of catching-up based growth. We present a collection of 
	 methods that has been proposed in the literature to identify 
	 technological trajectories. These methods use patent citation networks, 
	 and are applied to two separate fields in energy efficiency 
	 technologies. We identify the relevant technological trajectories, and 
	 analyse how the main countries active in these fields can be classified 
	 as either latecomer or incumbent countries. We then present a measure 
	 for how much patents from a particular country contribute to the main 
	 technological trajectories in the field, and to what extent they are 
	 derived from these trajectories. We use an explorative regression model 
	 to establish that latecomer countries tend to contribute to a lesser 
	 extent than incumbents to the main technological trajectories in the 
	 fields we investigate.
Keywords: technological trajectories, patent citation networks, latecomer
	 innovation strategy
Classification-JEL: O31, O33, O47
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20160329
Number: 2016-013
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2016/wp2016-013.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2016013