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The transition process from building a minimum knowledge base to deploying the first strategic capabilities is a neglected issue in the literature on technological accumulation in Latin American firms. This paper analyses three organisational processes that may affect this stage and discusses the role of an unstable firm's technology strategy in influencing such processes. Based on a detailed case study of Vitro S.A., one of the largest and most successful Mexican industrial groups, this paper argues that a context characterised by macroeconomic instability and distortions, and the lack of vision of the firm's top management about the role of technology in competitiveness, contribute to explaining the instability of the firm's technology strategy. This, in turn, is a major factor that negatively influences the conversion of individual into organisational learning, the coordination of different learning strategies, and the steadiness of the knowledge-creation process. The weaknesses in these processes make the deployment of strategic capabilities and the completion of the transition process more difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this special issue, we focus on critical issues associated with organisational learning involving external sources, with particular emphasis on the process of external learning and its implications on firm performance. The papers that constitute this special issue are eclectic, yet an interrelated mix of conceptual, exploratory research, and empirical research that examine several key aspects of learning from external sources. In this introductory article, we synthesise the key issues for pursuing an external learning strategy, discuss the contributions that this special issue makes to the literature that addresses these issues, and offer a framework for guiding further theory development, and empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the linkage among the industry and policy environment, firm-level resources and capabilities, and the success of learning strategies in China's handset makers. Within a particular context — characterised by a large domestic market, disintegrated technological regime, established foreign firms and supportive government policies — these firms were able to exploit their own specific advantages and were also able to acquire new resources and capabilities, quite rapidly emerging as serious competitors in the domestic market vis-à-vis global incumbents. These latecomers have tightly linked their product innovation efforts to the local market characteristics and have created competitive advantages through their distribution channels. Our findings have strategic implications for new entrants in other industry and national contexts, and also for research on the critical conditions and processes supporting successful technological learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the viewpoint of the whole organisation, the capabilities of a firm can be classified into technological capability and organisational capability. Nowadays, how to accelerate the rate of building up and accumulating technological capabilities is of vital importance to the latecomer companies in order to catch up with technological frontier companies. Technological capability encompasses the Information Technology (IT) capability and other technical but non-IT capabilities. In this paper we focus on the IT capability and its effect on a firm's performance and propose an integrated framework that provides the latecomer firms with a roadmap to build up their capabilities and improve their performance. The purpose is to advance an understanding of the relationship among IT capability, organisational capability, and firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]