Chinese Firms' Catching-Up Via Corporate Entrepreneurship Strategy of Network

Catching-up is a concept originally developed in the economic study field at a nation level.  In the managerial field, catching-up at a firm level, especially in emerging countries has not been sufficiently studied. In this study, we proposed a catching-up framework based on the theories of national catching-up, corporate entrepreneurship, network, and network social capital. This framework is tested by a thorough case study on Huawei Technology Co.Ltd. In this work, we identify that a successful catching-up firm must be social advanced and plays as an entrepreneurial firm with purposes of growth- and opportunity-orientation. To be social and technical advanced, catching-up requires firms to accumulate social capital for facilitating knowledge transfer through corporate entrepreneurship (CE) strategies. Third, CE strategy of network is argued as an all-round approach for filling up firm’s resource gap and accumulating social capital. In methodology, we analyze Huawei’s catching-up with its three layers of network (intra-, inter-, and industrial) throughout three catching-up stages (pre-, catching-up, and post-catching-up).

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Dr. K. Dittrich
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