Research on Strategic Leading Mechanism of Latecomer Firms

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the strategy of latecomer firms leads innovation and promotes the accumulation and improvement of capability in its development with an analytical framework of “strategy-innovation paradigm-capability” and tries to sum up the internal evolution logic of strategy. Based on this, it makes a longitudinal case study of Haier Group from 1984 to 2018. Through the research, it constructs the L.S.I.C model, which reveals the key role of the strategy in the innovation and capability in the catch-up process of latecomer firms: strategy leads innovation. Innovation is the basis of forming capability. Different innovation paradigm forms different enterprise capability. At the same time, the mechanism of strategic leading innovation is supported by leadership mechanism, learning mechanism and coordination mechanism. The contributions of this paper are as follows: it enriches the theoretical basis of strategic evolution, makes a pioneering analysis of the relationship between strategy, innovation and capability, and probes into the national technology policy.