Swimming against the stream in Argentina: ’Contrarian’ paths to latecomer catch-up under adversity

Abstract

This article examines two unexpectedly successful latecomer firms which emerged from Argentina, a crisis ridden developing economy where the vast majority of firms have languished behind the technology frontier set by global leaders. By comparing the experience of these two unusual firms with that of general trends among successful, mainly Asian latecomers, we hope to throw light on the opportunities facing other firms struggling under adverse economic and policy conditions. Through appreciative theorising we aim to incorporate some ideas from evolutionary economic theory to hopefully extend ‘normal’ (mainly Asian based) latecomer catch-up conceptualisation. The empirical findings, based on a unique and original dataset, suggest that in order to catch-up with global competitors the two latecomer firms were forced to develop strong entrepreneurial capabilities to follow a ‘contrarian path’ in terms of corporate strategy, organizational structures and technological and management capabilities, when policy incentives and macroeconomic conditions pointed them in the opposite direction. The article introduces a new framework to analyse latecomers within the macroeconomic and policy context and raises questions for future latecomer theory, policy and research on latecomer firms’ strategies under adversity.