Technological Catch-up Conceptualization Processing in the Maritime Defense Sector

Scientific development is the prerequisite for economic development in developing countries and is fulfilled through the catch-up process. It is a process in which a late-developed country, in attempt to reduce its income gap or increasing technological capabilities, attempts to lessen the technological gap with developed countries in different aspects, such as defense section and military organizations. In this path, the goal of this study is to conceptualize the technological catch-up processing in the defense maritime defense sector. Regarding the objective, this research is exploratory and qualitative. The data were obtained through interview with academic experts and the content analysis was performed using MXQDA software. The findings show that, considering the technological catch-up concept, nine main factors are ‘learning’, ‘knowledge base’, ‘systems and innovation network’, ‘technological regime’, ‘institutional regime’, ‘market regime’, ‘explanation and implementation of local development model’, ‘governmental supportive mechanisms’, and ‘human resource’.