A Technological Development Roadmap for Latecomer Telecommunications Companies Based on Industry-Specific Elements and Development Strategies

The telecommunications industry has been one of the main drivers of technological and economic development in the last two decades. In addition to its direct effects, this sector also generates spillover effects on other service and production sectors, aiding latecomers in their industrialization process and bridging the technology gap with industry leaders. The present research contributes to the existing knowledge in this field by creating a technological development roadmap customized for latecomer telecom companies. As telecommunications is a knowledge-intensive industry, studies on learning and capability accumulation are of critical importance for the development of latecomer countries like Iran. The proposed roadmap comprises essential components including firm-level technological capability elements, learning mechanisms, and technological development strategies, each tailored to the two sectors of the telecom industry: assembly production and technology-intensive activities. Initially, technological capability elements are extracted from the literature using thematic analysis. These elements are then customized to align with the underlying knowledge and technology of the Telecom industry. Subsequently, customized elements are clustered based on their impact on production and innovative capabilities using exploratory factor analysis. Finally, utilizing the SWARA method, elements within each cluster are ranked according to their priority. Synthesizing the findings of previous stages culminates in formulating a development roadmap for the telecom industry. In addition to making theoretical contributions to the relevant literature, the research findings offer crucial practical implications for latecomer telecom companies aiming to initiate technological development and catch up within this sector.