ABSTRACT
Historically, the East Asian newly industrialising economies (NIEs) shared common characteristics with many other developing countries in that they were all lateindustrialising countries in the global economy (Hikino and Amsden 1994). These countries face two common problems in terms of developing high-tech industrial capability: first, they were typically distant from the leading user markets in North America, Europe and Japan; secondly, they were also far away and disconnected from the leading sources of innovation in advanced countries. Despite these disadvantages, however, the East Asian NIEs have managed to achieve significantly faster high-tech industrial growth over the last three decades than other developing countries. By the mid-l 990s, many indigenous firms from these countries had achieved remarkable technological 'catch-up', and, in some cases, had even pulled ahead of market leaders from the advanced Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. How did these firms from the East Asian NIEs manage to become competitive in a wide range of high-tech industries?
