Overview

Editors:

Shulin Gu
School of Economics and Management
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Mark Dodgson
Technology and Innovation Management Centre
University of Queensland Business School, Australia

After 15 years of negotiation, China's accession to WTO membership on December 11, 2001 has rapidly demonstrated price competitive impacts on OECD economies. However, with globalization China must itself innovate, develop environments for innovation and learn to protect and develop the outcomes of its innovation.

This unique volume of research papers focuses on the role of China's innovation systems in its remarkable economic development. Leading Chinese and Western scholars examine the historical roots, strengths, weaknesses and future challenges of China's innovation. Grouped into sections on learning and innovation, development and learning in high-tech and traditional industries, regional innovation systems and the role of foreign direct investment, foreign technology and absorptive capacity, a dozen refereed papers review, critique, comment and make recommendations on the role of innovation in China's economic development.

Regional case studies include the development and innovation in consumer-goods manufacturing clusters in China, local cluster learning in the context of the global value chain, Chinese cell phone manufacturers' regulation, technology, market, skills and competence, mass customization of life and health insurance, and Shanghai (China) and Bangalore's (India) regional innovation systems for generating economic development.

The development of Hong Kong from trade hub to innovation hub is explored in the role of Hong Kong's innovation system in linking China to global markets. The role of institutions in promoting technology transfer is explored in regional agro-innovation systems. The global Chinese diaspora network is examined as entry point to knowledge-based development in local economies. And the much examined role of FDI in human capacity building and technology spillover is viewed from its impact on regional development in China.

However, China is learning intellectual property rights' lessons from the West in its own way: in small firm-dominated manufacturing clusters, producers act collectively in the regulation and management of innovative knowledge through intellectual property rights; while the majority of the enterprises are still in imitation stage of 'latecomer learning', recent growth is noted in the generation of invention, patent application and management.

Policy implications from the papers indicate that China's development strategy, built on enhanced quality of products and services, requires new forms of organisation that promote learning in connection with production - both experientially and scientifically. Innovation policy to build experience-based learning has implications for internal organisation of firms, for inter-organisational networks and for development of social capital and trust.

While affected by globalisation, China, through its size and growth has become significant in the globalisation process. With China's 'superpower' status in the new world economy, this volume concludes with the need to understand the responsibilities its role imposes upon the design of China's industrial and innovation strategies.

Table of Contents

Preface

China's innovation system and the move toward harmonious growth and endogenous innovation
Shulin Gu and Bengt-Åke Lundvall

Learning and innovation: The key to long-term successful development

Regional innovation systems in Asian countries: a new way of exploiting the benefits of transnational corporations
Bjorn Asheim and Jan Vang

Work globally, develop locally: Diaspora networks as springboards of knowledge-based development
Yevgeny Kuznetsov and Charles F Sabel

Twin innovation systems, intermediate technology and economic development: History and prospect for China
Andrew Tylecote

Development and learning in high-tech industries

The evolving role of research consortia in East Asia
Mark Dodgson, John Matthews and Tim Kastelle

The interaction between regulation and market and technology opportunities: A case study of the Chinese mobile phone industry
Hengyuan Zhu, Yan Yang, Marin T Tintchev and Guisheng Wu

Policy design and intervention in the innovation diffusion process: The cases of China's communication sector
Jiang Yu and Xin Fang

Development and learning in traditional industries

Learning in local cluster in the context of global value chain: A case study of the Yunhe wood toy cluster in Zhejiang, China
Yanwei Zheng and Shihao Sheng

Institutional innovation for technology transfer: Some new patterns of regional AIS in China
Jun Tu

Enterprises patenting in Zhejiang
Minghua Xu, Jinqi Chen and Haibo Bao

'Patent Pool' initiatives in manufacturing clusters in Zhejiang
Haibo Bao, Minghua Xu and Shulin Gu

Regional innovation systems

China's consumer goods manufacturers - with special reference to Wenzhou Footwear Cluster
Jici Wang

Regional innovation performance: Evidences from domestic patenting in China
Xibao Li

From trade hub to innovation hub: The role of Hong Kong's innovation system in linking China to global markets
Erik Baark and Naubahar Sharif

Appendix

Innovation with Chinese Characteristics: Towards Harmonious Transformation