Process Mechanism of Latecomer Firms' Technological Upgrading from the Perspective of Organizational Identity Change
The process of technological upgrading of latecomer firms is not a unidimensional improvement of technological capability,but a dynamic advancement of such activities guided by the continuous change of organizational identity.Although existing literature has paid attention to technological upgrading processes,it has not explained how latecomer firms actively adapt their organizational identity in highly uncertain environments,thereby guiding and supporting their technological innovation activities and ultimately achieving high-end technological development.It introduced the perspective of organizational identity change into the process of technological upgrading.Through a longitudinal case study of Cixing's transforming from a latecomer in ordinary computer flat knitting machines to the leader in full-fashioned flat knitting machines from 2010 to 2022,it finds that,in different stages of technological innovation as the forefront of innovation stage,the product and process development stage and the commercialization stage,latecomer firms' organizational identity and technological innovations evolved along the order as "domain identity generalizing,advanced technological searching,domain identity focusing,advanced technological developing,role identity rising,advanced technological promotion and optimization".Through this process,latecomer firms overcame the uncertainty of technical direction,the uncertainty of product performance and the uncertainty of markets,and finally achieved a leading position in the field of advanced technology.Thus,it puts forward an evolutionary model of organizational identity change and technological innovation in the context of latecomer firms' technological upgrading,reveals the process mechanism featuring exploratory and constructive nature in the shift to a new technological paradigm,provides a dynamic identity cognition lens for understanding latecomer firms' technological upgrading,and offers managerial insight for latecomer firms to realize successful technological upgrading.
万方数据
维普
