Capabilities of leapfrogging and catching up of a developing country – policy implications from theory and practice

The paper deepens the phenomenon of catching up and leapfrogging drawing from the experiences of East Asian countries while taking an attempt to provide the implications for other developing countries, in particular those from Sub-Saharan Africa. The ability of a developing country to leapfrog older technolo-gies and catch up with developed and technologically advanced ones through specialisation in higher value added production was examined as technical change was recognized as one of the central factors in industrial development. Additionally the lower level of development and productivity is believed to ena-ble countries to catch up at the higher speed or leapfrog. The possibilities of a developing country to catch up and leapfrog are identified in an emerging indus-try where the conditionality might be lower thus enabling a country the techno-logical advancement and effective leap. In-depth theoretical and empirical anal-ysis showed that a successful leapfrogging is determined by technological capa-bility building process where the complex innovation system and interplay be-tween different actors is necessary. The paper further indicates the role of the regional dimension in development and technological advancement, which seems to be important for a long term perspective enabling countries to move up the value chain, providing the market for technologies at different value added, em-powering diversification of regional division of labour and consequently moving to higher level of industrialisation and wealth.