Leveraging knowledge: a recipe for success for junior technology imitators

Technology innovation has been viewed as an essential source of business success in high technology industries, which demand intensive resource allocation of research and development. Previous researchers have identified that late market entry and lack of critical resources may inhibit the accumulation of corporate technical capabilities. Therefore, the shortage of essential technical capacities may threaten the long-term growth of fledging technology-intensive ventures. However, it takes more than sophisticated technical capabilities to achieve business success. More recent technology management research has pointed out that general management practices are essential sources of sustainable competitive advantage when technical and nontechnical capabilities of firms are well leveraged by general management practices. The fundamental objective of this article is to investigate how general managerial activities contribute to the successes of late-entry technology-intensive ventures. By profiling a leading Taiwanese Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) manufacturer, Compeq Manufacturing Co., Ltd., this article will describe how a junior technology imitator outperforms incumbent market leaders in today's highly competitive information industry. The author argues that the success of Compeq can be attributed to its longitudinal commitment to mapping and cultivating knowledge from internal and external sources while avoiding heavy reliance on a single product line.