IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unm/unuint/200301.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Deregulation, Entry of MNCs, Public Technology Procurement and Innovation Capability in India's Telecommunications Equipment Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Mani, Sunil

    (United Nations University, Institute for New Technologies)

Abstract

India has a sizeable telecom equipment manufacturing industry. The industry, which was originally dominated by just one state-owned corporation, has now been deregulated. Currently the industry consist of twelve SMEs, which manufacture small and medium switches and seven large firms (of which five are TNCs) manufacturing large switches). The country has a history of extreme dependence on foreign technology imports through essentially the licensing route to manufacture large switching equipment. These imported technologies were shown to be inappropriate to the usage pattern prevailing in the country. Consequent to this, considerable investments were effected through in-house R&D to adapt this inappropriate technology to local usage conditions. However some systematic efforts towards building up of local innovation capability through 'green field R&D projects' were initiated only around the mid-1980s. The paper defines innovation capability in telecoms equipment in terms of the ability to conceptualise, design, and manufacture state-of-the-art tecommunications equipment coupled with the ability to keep pace with important technological changes. This definition of innovation capability is operationalised in terms of an index of R&D. By taking three cases of telecoms technologies namely (a) main automatic local exchanges; (b) a Wireless in Local Loop access technology; and (c) telecom software exports, it is demonstrated that the country has a growing innovation capability in this sector. A survey of the various contributory factors identifies public procurement as the main instrument that has stimulated this activity. But with the opening of the telecoms carrier industry to private sector providers, this may become less of an effective instrument in the years to come

Suggested Citation

  • Mani, Sunil, 2003. "Deregulation, Entry of MNCs, Public Technology Procurement and Innovation Capability in India's Telecommunications Equipment Industry," UNU-INTECH Discussion Paper Series 2003-01, United Nations University - INTECH.
    • Handle: RePEc:unm:unuint:200301
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/discussion-papers/2003-1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Malerba, Franco, 2002. "Sectoral systems of innovation and production," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 247-264, February.
    2. Fransman, Martin, 0. "Mapping the evolving telecoms industry: the uses and shortcomings of the layer model," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(9-10), pages 473-483, October.
    3. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Jean Tirole, 2001. "Competition in Telecommunications," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262621509, April.
    4. Mani, Sunil, 2000. "Exports of High Technology Products from Developing Countries: Is it Real or a Statistical Artifact?," UNU-INTECH Discussion Paper Series 2000-01, United Nations University - INTECH.
    5. James, M.J., 2003. "Sustainable internet access for the rural poor? Elements of an emerging Indian model," Other publications TiSEM 8ef7a517-434c-460d-be5e-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. C. Niranjan Rao, 2004. "The role of intellectual property rights in information and communication technologies," Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad Working Papers 61, Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, India.
    2. Sunil Mani, 2007. "Keeping Pace with Globalisation: Innovation Capability in Korea’s Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Springer Books, in: Jörg C. Mahlich & Werner Pascha (ed.), Innovation and Technology in Korea, pages 255-286, Springer.
    3. Sunil Mani, 2004. "Coping with globalisation: Public R & D projects in telecommunications technologies in developing countries," Centre for Development Studies, Trivendrum Working Papers 364, Centre for Development Studies, Trivendrum, India.
    4. C Niranjan Rao, 2004. "The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in Information and Communication Technologies," Microeconomics Working Papers 22406, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    5. Mani, Sunil, 2004. "Coping with Globalisation An Analysis of Innovation Capability in Brazilian Telecommunications Equipment Industry," UNU-INTECH Discussion Paper Series 2004-03, United Nations University - INTECH.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mazzucato, Mariana & Robinson, Douglas K.R., 2018. "Co-creating and directing Innovation Ecosystems? NASA's changing approach to public-private partnerships in low-earth orbit," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 166-177.
    2. Havas, Attila, 2007. "The Interplay between Innovation and Production Systems at Various Levels: The case of the Hungarian automotive industry," MPRA Paper 52744, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Muñoz-Acevedo, Ángela & Grzybowski, Lukasz, 2023. "Impact of roaming regulation on revenues and prices of mobile operators in the EU," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Baldwin, Carliss Y. & Bogers, Marcel L.A.M. & Kapoor, Rahul & West, Joel, 2024. "Focusing the ecosystem lens on innovation studies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(3).
    5. Bassanini, Anna & Pouyet, Jerome, 2005. "Strategic choice of financing systems in regulated and interconnected industries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 233-259, February.
    6. Steffen Hoernig, 2006. "Should uniform pricing constraints be imposed on entrants?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 199-216, August.
    7. Dezhong Duan & Qifan Xia, 2022. "From the United States to China? A trade perspective to reveal the structure and dynamics of global electronic‐telecommunications," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 823-847, June.
    8. Gual, Jordi, 2003. "Market Definition in the Telecoms Industry," CEPR Discussion Papers 3988, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Petersen, Alexander M. & Rotolo, Daniele & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2016. "A triple helix model of medical innovation: Supply, demand, and technological capabilities in terms of Medical Subject Headings," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 666-681.
    10. Antonio Estache & Marco Manacorda & Tommaso M. Valletti, 2002. "Telecommunications Reform, Access Regulation, and Internet Adoption in Latin America," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Spring 20), pages 153-218, January.
    11. Fixson, Sebastian K. & Park, Jin-Kyu, 2007. "The Power of Integrality: Linkages between Product Architecture, Innovation, and Industry Structure," Working papers 37154, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    12. Paolo Seri, 2014. "The role of proximity in retrospective: organizations, ICT and human resources in Italian traditional districts? firms," Working Papers 1404, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2014.
    13. Matteo Migheli & Giovanni B. Ramello, 2013. "Open Access, Social Norms & Publication Choice," ICER Working Papers 03-2013, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    14. Rachel Levy & Pascale Roux & Sandrine Wolff, 2009. "An analysis of science–industry collaborative patterns in a large European University," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 1-23, February.
    15. Ronald Fischer & Pablo Serra, 2004. "Efectos de la privatización de servicios públicos en Chile: Casos sanitario, electricidad y telecomunicaciones (Effects of privatization on public services in Chile: The case of the sanitary, electric," Documentos de Trabajo 186, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
    16. Sanjib Pohit & Sanjukta Basu, 2012. "High Technology Merchandise Exports: Where does India Stand?," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 13(2), pages 183-206, September.
    17. Konstantinos Koasidis & Anastasios Karamaneas & Alexandros Nikas & Hera Neofytou & Erlend A. T. Hermansen & Kathleen Vaillancourt & Haris Doukas, 2020. "Many Miles to Paris: A Sectoral Innovation System Analysis of the Transport Sector in Norway and Canada in Light of the Paris Agreement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-37, July.
    18. Antonelli, Cristiano, 2017. "Digital knowledge generation and the appropriability trade-off," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(10), pages 991-1002.
    19. Singh, Anuraag & Triulzi, Giorgio & Magee, Christopher L., 2021. "Technological improvement rate predictions for all technologies: Use of patent data and an extended domain description," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    20. Pradeep Racherla & Munir Mandviwalla, 2013. "Moving from Access to Use of the Information Infrastructure: A Multilevel Sociotechnical Framework," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 709-730, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unm:unuint:200301. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ad Notten (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/meritnl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.