Moving Toward Innovation: Analyzing Iran's Steel Industry Experience in Technological Learning Using the Windows of Opportunity

Abstract

Technological learning and the drive for innovation in different industries emphasize the role of companies, especially large companies, and the acquisition of knowledge from external sources. Given the large corporations on the one hand and the long-term historical partnerships with foreign large firms on the other, the country's steel industry is also a good place to study in this field. On the other hand, some of the industry's successes, such as sustainability under sanctions, the country's second-largest source of non-oil export earnings, and some recent breakthroughs, particularly in the registration of the PERED technology brand, show that learning efforts have been somewhat successful. This study, which examines the learning processes and outputs of the country's steel industry (especially in policy, engineering and large steel companies) in the post-revolutionary era, has attempted to use a qualitative (case study) approach for drawing the path of technological development in the industry. For this purpose, 18 interviews with executives and policymakers, academics, engineering firms and specialists from large steel companies were conducted. Analyzing the content of these interviews and using the analytical framework of the Windows of opportunities path to innovation in the industry is described. The results show that dependence on the path of incremental innovation and falling into the success trap, lack of focusing on technology development across the steel value chain and the lack of a proper national strategy for technology development are the most important factors that make the industry successful in innovation process in some aspects of value chain.

Keywords

• technological learning
• imitation to innovation
• windows of opportunity
• steel industry