Franco Malerba : "Catching up, sectoral systems and changes in industrial leadership". Le 10 septembre à Toulouse dans le cadre du workshop de l’ENEF.

Dans le cadre du Workshop annuel de l’ENEF (European Network on the Economics of the Firm) à Toulouse le 10 et 11 septembre 2015, le professeur Franco Malerba (Université Bocconi, Milan) présentera le papier "Catching up, sectoral systems and changes in industrial leadership".

Résumé :
A framework that explains why successive changes in industry leadership (called catch-up cycles) take place in a sector over time is proposed. In catch up cycles latecomer firms and countries emerge as international leaders while incumbents decline ; later on the new leaders are then dethroned by other newcomers.

In the identification of the factors at the base of catch up cycles, it is proposed to take a sectoral system view and to identify windows of opportunity that may emerge during the long run evolution of an industry. Three windows related to the specific dimensions of a sectoral system are identified : one related to changes in knowledge and technology, the second to changes in demand and the third to changes in institutions and public policy. It is the combination of the opening of a window (technological, demand or institutional/policy) and the response by firms and the sectoral system of the latecomer and incumbent country that determine changes in industrial leadership and catch up by latecomer firms. Sectors differ according to the type of windows that may open up and the responses by firms and systems.

Then, a history friendly model of successive changes in industrial leadership is briefly presented.