From technological catch-up to innovation-based economic growth

technological catching-up and their ongoing transition towards innovation-based economies. It is found that South Korea’s former high-debt and chaebol-dominated model inclined it to pursue a Schumpeterian scale-based technological development, while Taiwan’s former pro-stability, small- and medium-sized-enterprise (SME)-based model tended to favour its emphasis on a neo-Marshallian network-based technological development. It will be argued that the state’s approach to economic liberalisation and firms ’ demand for capital for technological upgrading are the major factors that have underpinned the adjustment efforts of these two countries. I