Abstract: Adopting differentiated innovation strategies in different market contexts is the key for latecomers to catch up. The existing researches mainly focus on the catching-up problem of latecomers in the old market scenario, neglecting the catch-up strategies of latecomers in different market scenarios. Based on three types of market scenarios for disruptive innovation, this study explores the catching-up strategies and paths of latecomers in different disruptive innovation market scenarios through a multi case study method. The findings show that: (1) there are differences in the driving forces and means for latecomers to catch up in different disruptive innovation market scenarios; (2) in different disruptive innovation market scenarios, latecomers adopt different innovation strategies to catch up. In the old market scenario, latecomers mainly adopt exploitative innovation strategies, while in the new market scenario, latecomers mainly adopt exploratory innovation strategies. In the transition from the old market to the new market, latecomers successively adopt exploitative innovation strategies and exploratory innovation strategies; (3) in the context of disruptive innovation market, there are three paths for latecomers to catch up: sustained, disruptive, and compound. Therefore, the latecomers should enter the suitable disruptive innovation market scenarios according to their actual conditions and adopt their matching innovation strategies and catching-up paths.

Key words: disruptive innovation, latecomers, catching-up strategies, catching-up paths