Reducing the Technological Gap in the Home Appliances Industry: Lessons Learned from the Catch-Up Experiences of Iranian Firms

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Associate Professor, Department of Domestic Business Studies, Institute for Trade Studies & Research (ITSR), Tehran, Iran

10.22034/jstp.2026.12295.2044

Abstract

Technological catch-up, as a process of narrowing the gap with forerunners, is considered one of the pillars of international competitiveness in the industrial sector. This paper aims to develop a localized framework for technological catch-up by analyzing the successful experiences of Iranian firms in the home appliance industry over a five-year period. The present research is applied in orientation and exploratory in terms of objective. In the first step, through the analysis of financial statements and market share, seven top firms that had successfully introduced new high-tech products were purposefully selected. In the second step, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with managers and industry experts, as well as qualitative content analysis of firms' executive plans, leading to the extraction of 15 key factors affecting catch-up. In the third step, using confirmatory factor analysis based on 54 questionnaires, a structural equation model was developed to explain the relationships between latent and observed variables. The results show that success in technological catch-up results from the simultaneous interaction of four main dimensions: "technology regime" (including short development cycles, access to external knowledge, and reverse engineering), "institutional environment" (including supportive government interventions, import bans, and facilitation of university-industry linkages), "catch-up strategy" (including following the path of forerunners and taking advantage of windows of opportunity), and "firm-level capabilities" (including technological, innovative, and production capabilities). While consistent with international models, the obtained model highlights the more prominent role of institutional interventions and the specific contingencies of Iran's economy. Successful firms have followed the catch-up path in accordance with the reverse life-cycle pattern, moving from reverse engineering and gradual design toward new product development. The proposed four-dimensional framework provides implications for policymakers to design stage-based supports and strengthen firm-level capabilities.

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References

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