The object of this dissertation is to gain an understanding of the speed of entry into high-tech industries by "latecomers," private and national firms from late-industrializing countries. While entry is traditionally measured with R&D performance, we have approached it from the perspective of skill formation. Accordingly, we have investigated how some latecomers have quickly learned new skills and connected their existing technical knowledge with a new stock of knowledge, defining the speedy (latecomer) entrant as the first latecomer (for an initial entry) and the first-to-market (for subsequent entries), respectively. Specifically, we have conceptualized that a fast entry requires a continuous search for new markets and adaptation to a new environment. In this regard, the speed of entry into the high-tech industries, based on the experience in the mid-tech industries, indicates of dynamic capability and, accordingly, becomes a competitive asset in the context of late-industrializing countries. Theories in economics, management, or geography, which our hypotheses for speed of entry are drawn from, have explained factors or mechanism that enable a firm to perform better. We have first examined how literature envisages the effects of business groups, a form of firms prevalent particularly in late-industrializing countries, in association with speed of entry. However, relevant theories tend to compete and the overall theoretical predictions are not clear. Second, we have further reviewed literature in technology management and expected integration to occur both externally and internally when entry is executed. Third, given that the relevant theories highlight geographic proximity for generating externalities, we have suggested different measurements of geographic proximity for international learning, a distance from the headquarters of the partner firm and an international joint venture.
