Co-evolution of technological regime and industrial clusters: The catching-up of Dounan’s flower industry in China

Abstract

This paper re-investigates the trajectory of technological innovation focusing on the agricultural sectors of catching-up economy with the emphasis on the co-evolution of technological regime and industrial clusters. Dounan’s flower industrial clusters of south west China are chosen as a specific case for analysis because it began from zero and now turns to be the be the largest flower industrial clusters of Asia with more than 30 new flower varieties with independent intellectual property right in 25 years. A reverse double-boom evolutionary model is developed to explore the formation of Dounan’s flower industrial clusters and the dynamics of its technological innovation. It seeks to answer the following questions: what are the main characteristics of its technological innovation as the growth of industrial clusters; why Dounan’s flower industrial clusters could smoothly evolve and catch up while others eventually erode; what are the driving forces for technological trajectory moving from market-pull to technology-push?

This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 - The Reverse Double-boom Evolutionary Model. Discusses the interaction of industrial clusters development and technological regimes. Section 3 - Examines the catching-up process of Dounan’s flower industrial clusters based on the conceptual framework of section 2. Section 4 - Summarizes the main results and discusses policy implications.