From leverage to learning: latecomer trade-offs between technology purchase and imitation

This study focuses on what latecomers can leverage to drive their learning; moreover, it examines how domestic customer demands and latecomers’ internal capabilities affect their preferences for external technology acquisition. Using a policy-capturing technique, this study shows that customer demand and latecomers’ absorptive capacity are positively related to their preferences for technology purchase and imitation. R&D capabilities negatively affect latecomers’ preferences for technology purchase. Furthermore, customer demand allows latecomers to prefer technology purchase over technology imitation; absorptive capacity drives latecomer preferences for technology imitation over technology purchase; and latecomers with high R&D capabilities are more inclined to ‘NOT purchase’ rather than ‘NOT imitation’.