In Sustainability Transitions and Technological Catch-up: Guidance of Search as a Strategic Mechanism for Leapfrogging, Xiao-Shan Yap and Bernhard Truffer explore how developing countries can seize emerging technological opportunities while simultaneously addressing sustainability challenges. Published as Globelics Working Paper No. 2018.07, the paper bridges the fields of innovation systems, sustainability transitions, and economic catch-up to explain how latecomer economies can leapfrog established technological trajectories rather than simply imitate advanced countries.
The authors argue that conventional catch-up theories often emphasize technology acquisition, capability building, and learning from technological leaders. While these factors remain important, they are insufficient to explain why some countries successfully emerge as leaders in new sustainable technologies. Instead, the paper introduces the concept of Guidance of Search, drawn from the Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) framework, as a strategic mechanism through which governments, firms, research organizations, and other actors shape expectations, investment decisions, and technological priorities. By influencing the direction of innovation, countries can create favourable conditions for new industries to emerge and mature.
To illustrate this perspective, the paper examines the development of membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology in China’s urban water management sector. Despite entering the field later than many industrialized countries, China rapidly became a global leader in the deployment and production of this advanced wastewater treatment technology. Drawing on extensive empirical research, including 44 in-depth interviews and multiple secondary data sources, the authors show that this transformation was driven not only by technological learning but also by coordinated policy interventions, changing environmental regulations, market demand, and strategic collaboration among public and private actors.
A central contribution of the paper is its explanation of leapfrogging as a systemic process. Rather than occurring by chance, leapfrogging results from the interaction of technological capabilities, institutional support, policy direction, and evolving market conditions. The authors argue that sustainability transitions create new “windows of opportunity” in which latecomer countries can bypass established technological paths and develop competitive advantages in emerging green industries. Successfully exploiting these opportunities requires governments to actively shape innovation systems through long-term strategic vision, investment in research and development, regulatory support, and collaboration across sectors.
The paper concludes that sustainability challenges should not be viewed solely as environmental constraints but also as opportunities for industrial transformation and technological leadership. By integrating sustainability transition research with innovation systems theory, Yap and Truffer provide a richer framework for understanding how developing economies can combine environmental objectives with economic catch-up. Their work offers valuable insights for researchers and policymakers seeking to promote green industrialization, technological upgrading, and sustainable development in an increasingly competitive global economy.
