Shifting Wealth II in Chinese economy. The effect of the horizontal technology spillover for SMEs for international growth

Abstract The convergence of technology upgrading such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and digital and social networking platforms provides new directions and solutions for companies. The proposed research seeks to capitalise on and critically interrogate such convergence, how it works and the challenges connectivity brings for internal local life and external global markets of small to medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs have been considered the most innovative oriented businesses in developed countries even in emerging markets acting as pioneer in the digital transformational word. It has been widely recognised that local SMEs can get advantages from multinational enterprises spillover. However, studies on the horizontal technology spillover between SMEs are scarce. In fact, there is a need to explore the effect of horizontal technology spillover on SMEs for international growth. Therefore, the research offers quantitative metrics such as technology upgrading, knowledge spillover, and technology transfer to explore this effect in the Chinese market. Especially, the empirical research is conducted on a sample of 80 SMEs in Beijing from technology – intensive industry. It critically interrogates how digital, social and transformational technologies impacts SMEs' competitiveness to produce points of digital convergence that connect, co-create and drive local to international growth via structural equation modelling.

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