Lecture 8：Latecomer Firms and Industrial Policy
2015/1/27 14:37:52
Lecture 8：Latecomer Firms and Industrial Policy Jan . 27 . 2015
“Latecomer Firms, Industrial Policy, and the Quest for Competitiveness in Global Markets:
The Case of China's Civil Aircraft Industry”
Marc Szepan
Saïd Business School
University of Oxford
Monday, April 8, 2013
10:00am –11:30 am, Room 2013, SIPA, Xinjian Building, SJTU.
Bio:
Marc Szepan is a former corporate executive currently on academic sabbatical at the University of Oxford where he is pursuing a doctorate at the Saïd Business School.
Prior to returning to school, Marc served as Senior Vice President, Airline Operations Solutions, at Lufthansa Systems AG, the IT services business segment of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. He ran a global aviation services business headquartered in Germany with over 650 software engineering and aviation professionals based in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, and the USA that served over 170 airline customers worldwide.
Previously, Marc has also held leadership roles at Lufthansa Technik AG, the aircraft maintenance and engineering business segment of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, and for two other German Fortune Global 500 companies with assignments in Germany, the Philippines, and the People’s Republic of China. In 2012 Aviation Week & Space Technology, the leading industry publication in the global aerospace and defense industry, named him one of “40 Under Forty: Rising Stars of Aerospace and Aviation”.
Marc earned a B.A. from Middlebury College, Middlebury, USA, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and an A.M. in Regional Studies – East Asia from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, where he received a Joseph Fletcher Memorial Award. He also holds an M.B.A. from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business, Durham, USA, where he completed the Global Executive MBA program.
Abstract
The present talk explores the quest of latecomer firms from emerging markets for global competitiveness by focusing on the civil aircraft industry in the People’s Republic of Chinas and the ARJ21 and C919 civil aircraft development programs.
The rise of the Chinese economy and of Chinese firms has been one of the most transformational developments in the world economy during the past three decades. In this context, many Western analysts have viewed Chinese firms as (technological) followers rather than innovators and as (industrial organization) rule takers rather than rule makers.
The present talk challenges the aforementioned notions by arguing that Chinese firms can be as much innovators as followers and as much rule makers as rule takers in global industries and that this transition from followership to leadership can be facilitated, rather than hindered, by industrial policy. The present talk concludes by offering some thoughts on the remaining challenges for China’s civil aircraft industry to achieve and maintain competitiveness in global markets.