The success of Asian economies (first Japan, then Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and, more recently, China and India) has made it tempting to look for an Asian model of development. However, the strength of Asian development lies less in strategies that reproduce successful national systems of innovation and more in the capacity for institutional change to open up new development trajectories with greater emphasis on knowledge and learning. The select group of contributors demonstrate that although there are important differences among Asian countries in terms of institutional set.

The innovation systems (IS) approach emerged as a theoretical framework in the industrialized world in the mid-1990s to explain innovation and growth in the developed world. This Handbook is the first attempt to adapt the IS approach to developing countries from a theoretical and empirical viewpoint. The Handbook brings eminent scholars in economics, innovation and development studies together with promising young researchers to review the literature and push theoretical boundaries. They critically review the IS approach and its adequacy for developing countries, discuss the relationship between IS and development, and address the question of how it should be adapted to the realities of developing nations. Spanning national, sectoral and regional innovation systems across Asia, Latin America and Africa, and written by the world s leading scholars within the field, this comprehensive Handbook will strongly appeal to academics, researchers and students with an interest in innovation and technology in developing countries.

In several parts of the world, countries are undergoing economic, social, and political transitions, enhanced and accelerated by the forces of globalization. These transition economies can serve as laboratories for understanding the innovation process. This volume features original theoretical and empirical research. It offers the first comprehensive view of innovation system development in the context of small catching-up economies. Smallness, path dependency, and latecomer status of such economies create some inherent limitations for their innovation systems, but these special characteristics can offer advantages as well. For example, smallness is often related with increased flexibility and shorter reaction times, while latecomers can benefit from earlier experiences of their more advanced neighbors. Path-dependency highlights the fact that the innovation system development processes are considerably influenced by the past experience of a particular country or region. By incorporating these features into an integrated analysis, the authors address such questions as: · What special features characterize the innovation system development in small catching-up economies? · What are the causes for innovation success or failure? · How do organizational capabilities and internationalization tendencies relate to company level innovations? · What is the role of human capital and social factors in the innovation process? · How can various policies support innovation in an integrated manner? Drawing from research about Europe, Asia, and Latin America, the authors provide readers with a systemic view of the innovation system development in small catching-up economies. They discuss the unique features of this development and contribute to an in-depth understanding of various determinants and their impacts on the innovation process. The policy implications will offer a set of normative guidelines for enhancing innovation system development.

This volume looks at the role of universities in the National Innovation Systems in economies of the Asia Pacific. It examines the tremendous growth of human and knowledge capital made possible by teaching and research excellence in major universities, along with how universities are being re-positioned as frontiers of innovation in the National Systems of Innovation. The chapters assess the impact of globalisation and innovation together with the emergence of ‘new’ knowledge sites extended to the Asia Pacific region. With contributions by experts and academics and key case studies, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers in higher education, development studies, public policy, economics, business and resource management, Asian studies as well as policymakers.

The result of an expert consultation, this publication examines ‘innovations systems’ – a concept suggested as underpinning industrial development – as a strategy for agricultural development. Innovation systems approaches conceptualise change as a long-term, socially-embedded process, and recognise the important role policy plays in shaping the parameters within which decisions are made. Providing a collection of papers and commentaries from the world’s top scholars and practitioners, this book looks at the strengths – but also the weaknesses and challenges –

Analyses the current state of science around the globe as well the trends that have emerged since the previous report published in 2005.

This book argues that intellectual property (IP) management development and innovation are fundamental to economic development , especially in newly emerging economies which often hold vast reserves of natural resources and human knowledge that remain unprotected. It sheds light on countries that are gradually realising this situation, with examples from many parts of the world, including Eastern Europe, Africa and especially Asia including India, where a great deal is being made of innovation and intellectual property to stimulate economic growth. These case studies are seen within the theoretical context of the future of cross-border IP which is slowly becoming a reality. Specific examples go beyond the patent prosecution highway, to which China has also recently signed up, and India’s development of generic drugs at lower costs. Experts in the field including practising IP lawyers explain and criticise current and new models being tested in emerging economies concerning IPR. Original case studies of hitherto little understood breaches of African trademarks by the US and Japan, and patenting mistakes in relation to little known Indian forest plants all damage emerging economies and their native people's lives. While proper implementation of IP laws by emerging economies themselves can lead to positive outcomes for all involved, the key is an independent judiciary coupled by thoughtful and thoroughly understood implementation of IP laws within the context of cross border IP. The book shows through models how different emerging economies are at various levels of developing their IPR and what paths they are taking to do this. Finally, it provides a comprehensive assessment of the ways in which innovation, protection and enforcement of IP laws can help newly emerging economies achieve economic growth without destroying natural and human resources, while moving ahead from the current global financial crisis.

This book brings together scholars from different disciplines to examine the evolving patterns of economic organisation across Northeast and Southeast Asia against the backdrop of market liberalisation, political changes and periodic economic crises since the 1990s. More specifically, it provides an interdisciplinary account of variations, continuities and changes in the institutional structures that shape business systems and practices and govern innovation patterns, together with analyses of their impact on established systems of economic coordination and control. In line with this analytical focus, the project has three different yet interrelated objectives. In the first place, building on the comparative business systems framework, it elucidates the nature and properties of business system changes and continuities in Asia since the 1990s. Second, it develops novel theoretical propositions concerning the primary causes of these changes and continuities, representing a collective effort to theorise the changing varieties of Asian economic organisation. Finally, it explores the causal pathways through which the changing institutional structures governing business systems have shaped and reshaped innovation strategies and trajectories across the national, sectoral and firm levels of analysis.

What are the challenges that small countries face concerning innovation and what are the effects of globalization on their innovation systems? In this very interesting, rich and timely book, Edquist and Hommen compare ten different small national innovation systems from the Asia Pacific and Northern Europe that are rather advanced in their development. The answers that the authors give are convincing and relate not only to the unique characteristics of each national system that shapes innovative activity, but also to some commonalities that exist across these countries. Franco Malerba, Bocconi University, Italy This major book presents case studies of ten small country national systems of innovation (NSIs) in Europe and Asia, namely, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden and Taiwan. These cases have been carefully selected as examples of success within the context of globalization and as new economies where competition is increasingly based on innovation. To facilitate comparative analysis the ten studies follow a common structure, informed by an activities-based approach to describing and analysing NSIs, which addresses the critical issues of globalization and the consequences of innovation for economic performance. The final chapter compares fast growth and slow growth countries, concentrating on issues of innovation policy. The results illustrate the usefulness of an activities-based approach to studying NSIs, point to distinctive national roles within an increasingly differentiated international division of labour and address the key themes of selectivity and coordination in innovation policy. This valuable book presents one of the most significant, comprehensive and comparative country studies of NSIs in the last decade. It will have great import and should be widely read by every serious student and scholar of innovation studies.