DIFFERENTIAL FORMS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND CATCH-UP: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA

Based on a categorization of technological change, this paper proposes three patterns of catch-up: incremental, disruptive and revolutionary. Variations in innovation forms within the three patterns of catch-up are analyzed using Chinese firm-level survey data. The innovativeness of firms evolve following an inverted U-shape in the case of the incremental pattern of catch-up, while that evolve following a linear relationship rather than the N-shape proposed by theory for the disruptive form of catch-up. In the case of the revolutionary pattern of catch-up, the evolution of innovativeness of firms follows a steep inverted U-shape indicating more significant changes than that involved in the incremental pattern.