Technological catch-up in the Iranian steel industry: Integrating regime-based and complex product systems approaches

Researchers in the technological catch-up field have recently directed their attention toward a regime-based approach and Complex Product Systems (CoPs) streams. Within this context, studies on each stream demonstrate how industry-specific frameworks in developing countries influence technological catch-up dynamics. This study explores these dynamics by analyzing market and technological regimes within Iran's steel industry as semi-CoPs, comprehensively. The study utilizes historical and content analyses to delineate five capability-building waves and extract themes and dimensions from documents and expert interviews conducted within the steel industry. The findings show that Iran's steel industry catch-up strategy is based on a path-following in which synthesizing overseas technology transfer with indigenous technological developments occurs. That is, firms enrich their indigenous capabilities through reverse engineering of established technologies like MIDREX, progressing to re-engineering existing technologies in iron-making. The enhancement of capabilities, coupled with the employment of opportunity windows, has paved the way for the path-creation in minor technology that has ultimately resulted in the advent of PERED technology. Finally, the findings are further compared with other domestic industries and insights are sought from international counterparts for researchers and participators.