Int. J. Technology Management, Vol. 29, Nos. 1/2, 2005 1 Competitive strategies of Asian high-tech firms: the challenge of late-industrialisation Poh-Kam Wong* Business School, National University of Singapore E-mail:
[email protected] *Corresponding author John Mathews Macquarie Graduate School of Management Macquarie University, Australia E-mail:
[email protected] Biographical notes: Poh Kam Wong is currently Associate Professor, Business School and Director, Entrepreneurship Centre, National University of Singapore. He obtained two BS degrees, an MS and a PhD from MIT. He has published in numerous international journals on innovation strategy/policy and technology entrepreneurship, including Organization Science, Journal of Business Venturing, Information Systems Research, and IEEE Trans. Eng. Management. He has also consulted widely for international agencies such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, various government agencies in Singapore, and many high-tech firms in Asia. John A. Mathews is Professor of Management at Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, Sydney, where he teaches strategic management, and competition and strategy (in programs at Sydney, Singapore and Hong Kong). He has a long-standing interest in industry dynamics and Schumpeterian processes, particularly with respect to latecomer development, publishing two books on the topic (Tiger Technology and Dragon Multinational) and several papers in the refereed literature. His PhD was in systems science at Imperial College, London. In September 2004 he was a Rocketfellar Foundation scholar at the Bellagio Center, Italy. His website can be found at: http://www.gsm.mq.edu.au/facultyhome/john.mathews. 1 Introduction Over the last two decades, indigenous firms from several non-Japanese East Asian economies, especially Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, and India, have become increasingly competitive in a growing range of global high-tech industries from semiconductor, computer, wireless and software.