Table Of ContentVarieties and
Alternatives of
Catching-up
Asian Development in the Context of the 21st Century
Edited by
Yukihito Sato
and Hajime Sato
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Yukihito Sato • Hajime S ato
Editors
Varieties and
Alternatives of
Catching-up
Asian Development in the Context
of the 21st Century
Editors
Yukihito Sato Hajime Sato
Interdisciplinary Studies Center, Area Studies Center, IDE-JETRO
IDE-JETRO Chiba , Japan
Chiba , Japan
IDE-JETRO Series
ISBN 978-1-137-59779-3 ISBN 978-1-137-59780-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-59780-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016942403
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Preface and Ack nowledgments
Our project began with a question that was raised by Shingo Ito, who is
also a contributor to this volume: ‘Has Taiwan completed catching-up
yet?’ Th is question sounded quite simple at fi rst, but after brief consid-
eration proved to be broad and deep, and some fundamental questions
struck us. Taiwan seems to have already graduated from catching-up.
If so, when did it graduate? And what indicators show that Taiwan has
already graduated? Th ese questions suggested that we needed to recon-
sider and refi ne not only our understanding of Asian development based
on the conventional catch-up industrialization theory but also the theory
itself.
We asked researchers who had studied industrialization in Asian coun-
tries to join the project. Th e countries that they researched included
South Korea, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and India. Th eir broader pic-
ture of Asian development contributed to expanding the scope of our
study. Th e early latecomers Taiwan and South Korea attained high-speed
growth through catch-up industrialization and then started to gradu-
ate from catching-up. However, late latecomers such as Southeast Asian
countries, China, and India have not simply followed the early latecom-
ers but have begun to seek development paths diff erent from catch-up
industrialization, considering changing conditions under globalization.
Th eir deviation from catch-up industrialization was integrated into our
study.
v
vi Preface and Acknowledgments
S tarting the project, we immediately found that our questions were
much more complicated than we had initially thought and that our
approach to the questions varied widely. Accordingly, we spent a long time
discussing the problems in building and consolidating a common ana-
lytical foundation. Should we argue on the level of the macro- economy,
industries, and sectors, or fi rms? Should we focus on the reductions that
have occurred in disparities between Asian latecomers and advanced
countries in income, technology level, or some other factors or should
we focus on the mechanisms that brought about the reductions? How
should we address the relationship between catch-up industrialization
and other development mechanisms, which are intimately connected?
As the Introduction shows, we agreed that we should examine indus-
try/sector-level catching-up, focus on the mechanisms, and distinguish
catch-up industrialization from other mechanisms and investigate their
interactions as a central research topic. A more detailed explanation is
provided in the Introduction.
O f course, we have not solved all the problems, and in fact, there are
many more unsolved problems than solved ones. Furthermore, solv-
ing one problem often creates new problems. For instance, our study
includes contrasting cases—one chapter shows an industry that success-
fully graduated from catching-up and another shows an industry that
failed to graduate. Although the respective chapters demonstrated the
process and mechanism in each case, we were still unable to integrate the
case studies and clarify all the factors that caused the diff erences between
them.
Th e many remaining questions signify that the catch-up industrializa-
tion theory, which was presented by Gerschenkron more than half a cen-
tury ago, is not yet exhausted and we can derive new research questions
from the theory if we extend and modify it. Th e discovery of the theory’s
potential may be the most signifi cant contribution of our study, and we
wish to realize this potential in future work. We also hope that our work
will encourage other researchers to study Asian economic development.
Th is work is the result of our two-year project ‘Catch-Up Industrialization
in the 21st Century’ from 2013 to 2015, sponsored by the Institute of
Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO). We completed our research proj-
ect thanks to the support, advice, and encouragement of many people.
Preface and Acknowledgments vii
We would like to express our deep gratitude to all of them. Many people
in Asian countries gave interviews and off ered valuable information and
insightful views based on their plentiful experience. Our study was also
refi ned by suggestions from many scholars in this research fi eld. In par-
ticular, Dr Akira Suehiro, Dr Hitoshi Hirakawa, Dr Ryoshin Minami,
and Dr John Humphrey shared their profound thoughts on catch-
up industrialization and provided useful comments. Our colleagues,
Ms Taeko Hoshino, Dr Momoko Kawakami, Mr Yasushi Ninomiya, and
Dr Byeongwoo Kang, attended many meetings and discussed our work,
which contributed greatly to deepening it. Th e support of IDE’s editorial
and administrative staff helped us to conduct our projects. We also highly
appreciate the assistance provided by our editors at Palgrave Macmillan.
Chiba, Japan Yukihito Sato
30 November 2015 Hajime Sato
Contents
1 Introduction: Varieties and Alternatives of Catching Up:
Asian Development in the Context of the Twenty-First
Century 1
Yukihito Sato and Hajime Sato
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Background 2
1.3 Goals, Tasks, and Approach 5
1.4 Preceding Studies on Catch-Up Industrialization 8
1.5 Research Results and Concluding Remarks 16
References 24
2 Innovations Derived from Backwardness: Th e Case of
Taiwan’s Semiconductor Industry 27
Yukihito Sato
2.1 Introduction 27
2.2 Research Questions and Analytical Approach 28
2.3 Pure-Play Foundry Model in the Fabrication Sector:
Innovation Induced by Backwardness 32
2.4 MediaTek’s Success in the Design Sector: Innovation
Emerged from Following 43
ix
