Research on Catching up Path Choice of Latecomer Firms Entering into Strategic Emerging Industries from the Perspective of Value Network Theory: Based on the Smartphone Industry

Strategic emerging industries have characteristics of technical complexity, market uncertainty and high risks, so latecomer firms are difficult to achieve tremendous development rely on their own resources, and they need to involve in a value network to integrate complementary resources, and promote their ability to catch up.Based on value network theory, the article builds a theory framework of latecomer firms' catching up paths entering into strategic emerging industries, namely firms' capability of catching up determines firms' position in the value network, firms' position in the value network determines firms' choices of surpassing strategy, firms' surpassing strategy determines firms' choices of catching up paths. On this basis, the article takes Apple inc. and MI in the smartphone industry as examples to explore the catching up paths of the latecomer firms. Results show that: Latecomer firms with relative weak resources and ability to catch up should use value network to promote open complementary innovation, implement technological and market breakthroughs, and achieve tremendous development. In the process of catching up, latecomer firms with weaker ability to catch up should choose edge surpassing strategy, and implement market breakthrough leading path, to meet the needs of low-end market, integrate into the value network, and gradually occupy the center of the value network; Latecomer firms with stronger ability to catch up should choose center surpassing strategy, and implement technological breakthrough leading path, to dominate the development of the value network, and lead the demand of mainstream market.