Learning from Technologically Successful Peers: The Convergence of Asian Laggards to the Technology Frontier
研究发展中国家落后企业能否通过向技术成功的同行学习来缩小与发达国家领先企业的技术差距，发现这种学习能加速技术进步，但过度依赖会带来边际收益递减。
This paper investigates whether firms from developing countries that lag the global technological frontier can learn from technologically successful peers as a means of closing the technological gap with leaders from developed countries. We define technologically successful peers as those that hail from similar home countries, operate in the same industry, and have achieved a certain degree of success in closing the gap with the global technological frontier. We argue that technologically successful peers represent an important reference group for lagging firms and, as such, offer opportunities for lagging firms from developing countries to hasten technological development. We find that lagging firms from developing countries that build upon the knowledge of technologically successful peers achieve higher rates of technological improvement. Moreover, learning from technologically proximal successful peers helps even further with technological improvement. However, there are limits to such learning, with diminishing marginal returns to lagging firms that over rely on successful peers.