Progression Through Secondary Innovation

This chapter examines Geely’s technological advancement before the publication of the Ningbo Declaration, and from the development of the vehicle-system and core module technology, respectively, it discusses how it was able to achieve a breakthrough in its technological capability. Specifically, the evolution process of Geely’s technological capability presents typical characteristics of “secondary innovation,” i.e., from imitation innovation to creative imitation, and then to incremental innovation. The organizational learning model is also based on the process of “secondary innovation,” which specifically includes learning by doing, hiring, and cooperating, respectively. At the same time, Geely’s complementary asset utilization ability is evolving amidst the non-linear growth of “secondary innovation.” Moreover, it considers the following three aspects: (1) through process innovation, the localization of imported technology can be mastered; (2) through product innovation, the potential and synergy of imported technology can be tapped; and (3) through the integration of more novel technologies, the innovation ability can be qualitatively improved.