Virtual Organization: Toward a Theory of Societal Transformation Stimulated by Information Technology,by A. Mowshowitz. Westport,CT: Quorum Books, 2002. xiii + 264 pp. $49.95. ISBN 1-56720-501-1.

Abstract

Australia's treatment of information technology (IT) has vacillated between two policy directions: laissez faire, market directed strategy on the one hand, and strong government interventionist, plan directed strategy on the other. The resultant policy mix is more a collection of individual initiatives than a coherent strategy. It produces conflict between initiatives aimed at developing indigenous information industries and those improving the productivity and competitiveness of all industry by encouraging the wider application of IT. Unlike its East Asian neighbors, Australia does not have a powerful, independent economic planning agency capable of creating and implementing industrial and technology policy. Policies must be developed through the give and take of a democratic political process, a process that can lead to fragmented, uncoordinated policies based on bureaucratic inertia, the demands of special interest groups, and short‐term political considerations, rather than long‐term strategic plans. The future of IT policy in Australia will depend upon the kinds of consensus that can be achieved on the role of IT in economic development. It will also depend on the government's skill in implementing policy and on the reactions of the private sector to whatever policies emerge.     

Turning loose the invisible hand: New Zealand's information technology policy

Abstract

Information technology (IT) policy in New Zealand has closely paralleled the broader economic policies that have prevailed in the country. Until the mid‐1980s, economic policy was inwardly oriented, marked by high trade barriers and heavy government regulation. In 1984, the Labor government responded to a balance of payments crisis with a radical program of economic liberalization. By the end of the decade, this process had fundamentally altered the New Zealand economy through deregulation, privatization, and public sector reform.

IT policy likewise moved from protectionism and centralized control to almost pure laissez faire. Tariffs on computer hardware were lowered from 40% to 10%. Government computing was moved from a central data processing bureau and placed under the control of individual departments. In terms of IT production, the government has refused to provide any significant incentives or subsidies to the fledgling software industry, feeling the industry should succeed or fail on its own.

Under laissez faire policies, New Zealand has become a heavy user of IT, ranking behind only Japan in the Asia‐Pacific region for IT spending as a percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). It has also had some success as a producer and exporter of software. However, the hands‐off approach to the industry is likely to prove problematic in an international environment in which many countries have explicit strategies to improve their infrastructure for IT production and/or directly subsidize the industry. New Zealand is unlikely to become a hardware producer, but it has a number of endowments favoring software production, particularly its well‐educated, English‐speaking workforce. However, it faces obstacles, such as a small domestic market, distance from international markets, and a shortage of venture capital. Although software may be a potential growth industry in the ailing New Zealand economy, it is unclear whether the industry can thrive without at least some government support. Even the government now seems to be considering this possibility, and is considering the creation of an IT unit within the Ministry of Commerce.     

Differences in the rates of return to R&D for European and US young leading R&D firms

This paper examines the sources of Europe's lagging business R&D performance relative to the US, particularly the role played by missing young leading innovators in high technology intensive sectors in Europe. It investigates through econometric analysis differences in the rates of return to R&D of European and US large R&D firms. It finds that, while in the US, young firms succeed in realizing significantly higher rates of return to R&D as compared to their older counterparts, including in high-tech sectors, European firms fail to generate significant rates of return, even if they are Yollies and even if they are in high-tech sectors. These findings can at least partly explain why Europe has less R&D intensive young leading innovators in high technology intensive sectors.     

Unravelling the drivers of technological innovations in the Czech Republic: Do international technological linkages matter?

This study aims to investigate the main factors driving technological innovation within firms in the manufacturing and service sectors of the Czech Republic. We apply a binary logistic regression model to cross-sectional data from 502 firms, obtained from the World Bank Enterprise Survey. The results of our empirical investigation show that certain elements of the business environment, such as the tax rate, serve as significant obstacles to firms’ product innovations. The results also confirm that international technological linkages—measured by international quality certificates and foreign technology licenses—affect technological innovations. Moreover, we found that internal R&D activities positively impact technological innovation across all sectors; contrarily, we found that process innovation in the manufacturing sector is positively influenced by foreign technology licenses and business association membership. Process innovations in the service sector are positively correlated with external R&D and financing from banking institutions. Finally, business association membership does not positively influence technological innovation in the service sector. Our findings have salient implications for firm managers, policymakers, and scholars aiming to explore and improve innovation outcomes in transitional economies.     

Fostering entrepreneurship: Changing role of government and higher education governance in Hong Kong

The rise of the knowledge economy has generated new global infrastructures with information technology playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. The popularity and prominence of information technology not only changes the nature of knowledge but also restructures higher education, research and learning. It is in such a wider policy context that an increasing number of institutions of higher learning are being established with new missions and innovative configurations of training, serving populations that previously had little access to higher education. Apart from accommodating a larger number of students, higher education institutions are required to improve their administrative efficiency and accountability in response to the demands of different stakeholders like government, business, industry, and labour organizations, as well as students and parents. The present article sets out in this wider context to examine how and what strategies universities in Hong Kong have adopted to promote entrepreneurial spirit and practices by encouraging academic staff to venture in industrial, business and commercial fields. In addition, this article examines how universities in Hong Kong reform their curricula to make students more creative, innovative and international. More specifically, this article reflects upon the role of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR, hereafter) in promoting entrepreneurship, with particular reference to the interactions between the government, the private sector and the tertiary education sector in promoting a vibrant and dynamic economy.     

The R&D-growth paradox arises in fast-growing sectors

Several notions of a R&D paradox can be found in the literature. In the Swedish Paradox version, the emphasis is normally on high and growing levels of business R&D connected to comparatively low GDP growth rates. This paper examines whether this pattern is consistent over time and, more importantly, which sectors drive the aggregate patterns. Based on an investigation of the entire Swedish economy 1985-2001, there is clear evidence that the paradox occurs only in fast-growing manufacturing and service sectors. Fast-growing sectors show an increasing gap between R&D and value-added growth, while the slow-growing sectors do not. This paradox is not interpreted as a sign of failure of the national innovation system, as the largest gap would then be for the slow-growing sectors, failing to transform R&D to economic growth. The gap between R&D and GDP is consistent with the idea of diminishing marginal returns to R&D investment in high-investing sectors. The evidence does not rule out, however, that rendering the innovation system more effective could yield better outcomes. As the findings of a gap are quite consistent over time, it seems fair to conclude that businesses have good reasons for their high R&D investments, despite not being on par with their production growth.     

Industrial R&D as a national policy: Horizontal technology policies and industry-state co-evolution in the growth of the Israeli software industry

The Israeli software industry has been an indisputable success since the 1990s. This paper utilizes the development of the Israeli industry to empirically explore the argument of the horizontal technology policies (HTP) framework on the impact of neutral science and technology policies on industrial development. The paper micro-analyzes the Israeli software industry and compares its unique historical development pattern with other emerging countries. It describes (1) the rise of this industry as one outcome of the development of the entire IT industry in Israel; (2) the reasons behind the industry's ability to conduct and focus on intensive R&D activities; (3) the industry's success in becoming an integral part of the American financial and IT industrial sector. It argues that only by understanding the intricate co-evolution of state-industry relations and the specific HTP regime employed in Israel can we understand the current behavior, conditions, business models, and capability of the industry. Therefore, the argument is that Israel's industrial science and technology developmental agencies did not aim at creating a software industry, but rather at the development of novel products R&D-based industry. However, the software industry has been significantly influenced throughout its development by the specific system of innovation which these policies fostered. Thus, the paper argues that public policy is one of the main reasons why the industry has focused almost entirely on product R&D activities. In addition, the paper suggests that the state's science and technology industrial policy has propelled the industry into its intimate relationship with the American financial sector.     

科技资助促进企业R＆D研究

本文从科技活动的溢出效应出发，分析科技资助政策的合理性。通过对直接科技拨款促进企业R＆D过程中可能发生的互补和挤出关系分析研究，从整体上确认科技资助政策在促进企业R＆D投入、提高企业R＆D能力、提高国家创新能力等方面的作用。     

Profiting from innovation in the digital economy: Enabling technologies,standards, and licensing models in the wireless world

The value-capture problem for innovators in the digital economy involves some different challenges from those in the industrial economy. It inevitably requires understanding the dynamics of platforms and ecosystems. These challenges are amplified for enabling technologies, which are the central focus of this article. The innovator of an enabling technology has a special business model challenge because the applicability to many downstream verticals forecloses, as a practical matter, ownership of all the relevant complements. Complementary assets (vertical and lateral) in the digital context are no longer just potential value-capture mechanisms (through asset price appreciation or through preventing exposure to monopolistic bottleneck pricing by others); they may well be needed simply for the technology to function. Technological and innovational complementors present both coordination and market design challenges to the innovator that generally lead to market failure in the form of an excess of social over private returns. The low private return leads to socially sub-optimal underinvestment in future R&D that can be addressed to some extent by better strategic decision-making by the innovator and/or by far-sighted policies from government and the judiciary.The default value-capture mechanism for many enabling technologies is the licensing of trade secrets and/or patents. Licensing is shown to be a difficult business model to implement from a value-capture perspective. When injunctions for intellectual property infringement are hard to win, or even to be considered, the incentives for free riding by potential licensees are considerable. Licensing is further complicated if it involves standard essential patents, as both courts and policy makers may fail to understand that development of a standard involves components of both interoperability and technology development. If a technology standard is not treated as the embodiment of significant R&D efforts enabling substantial new downstream economic activity, then rewards are likely to be calibrated too low to support appropriate levels of future innovation.     

Innovation and government intervention: A comparison of Singapore and Hong Kong

Government is one of the determinants for innovation capacity although its role and degree of involvement in innovation is debatable. Government intervention can be vital in supporting R&D and innovation as market alone cannot provide adequate incentives for knowledge production. Degrees of government intervention, however, vary in different economies and range from directive intervention by actively advising industrial policy and investing in selected areas, to facilitative intervention by creating positive environment and providing public goods for industry. This study uses Singapore and Hong Kong as two cases to explore the influence of government intervention on innovation performance. Singapore is known for strong government intervention while Hong Kong is famous for its positive non-intervention policy that minimizes the power of government in influencing the market. The comparison shows that innovation activities in Singapore are largely policy driven and dominated by big players, while in Hong Kong industry innovation is less active but the local industry has a dynamic innovation base contributed by small firms. Using a difference-in-differences analysis of USPTO patents filed by Singapore and Hong Kong, we find evidence for the effectiveness of government intervention on enhancing the technological significance and scope of innovation. The findings could shed light on the implication of government involvement in innovation.     

Open service innovation and the firm's search for external knowledge

The concept of open innovation captures the increasing propensity of firms to work across their traditional boundaries of operation. This phenomenon has largely been studied from the viewpoint of manufacturing businesses while services have received much less attention despite the predominant role they play in advanced economies. This paper focuses on open innovation in services, both as a subsector of the economy and as a component of the activities of manufacturing firms. We study the open innovation practices of business services firms and then consider the implications for open innovation of the adoption of a service inclusive business model by manufacturing firms. Our analyses are based on a unique dataset with information on open innovation activities amongst UK firms. Overall, engagement in open innovation increases with firm size and R&D expenditure. Business services are more active open innovators than manufacturers; they are more engaged in informal relative to formal open innovation practices than manufacturers; and they attach more importance to scientific and technical knowledge than to market knowledge compared to manufacturing firms. Open innovation practices are also associated with the adoption of a service inclusive business model in manufacturing firms and service-integrated manufacturers engage in more informal knowledge-exchange activities. The paper contributes towards a reconceptualisation of open innovation in service businesses and a deeper evidence-based understanding of the service economy.     

Governments as partners: The role of alliances in U.S. cleantech startup innovation

Accelerating innovation in clean energy technologies is a policy priority for governments around the world aiming to mitigate climate change and to provide affordable energy. Most research has focused on the role of governments financing R&D and steering market demand, but there is a more limited understanding of the role of direct government interactions with startups across all sectors. We propose and evaluate the value-creation mechanisms of network resources from different types of partners for startups, highlighting the unique resources of government partners for cleantech startups. We develop and analyze a novel dataset of 657 U.S. cleantech startups and 2,015 alliances with governments, firms, research organizations, and not-for-profit organizations from 2008 to 2012 and analyze short-term firm outcomes from the different alliances. Our findings highlight the importance of governmental partners in technology development alliances to catalyze cleantech startup innovation (the patenting activity of cleantech startups increases by 73.7 percent with every additional governmental technology alliance when compared to those startups that did not engage in such alliances) and as quality signals to private sector investors for licensing alliances (private financing deals increase by 155 percent for every additional license from a government organization). Overall, these findings extend the alliance perspectives on innovation, contribute to the emerging research on entrepreneurial ecosystems, and underline the need to develop empirical evidence in different sectors.     

Manufacturing dynamics and spillovers: The case of Guangdong Province and Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (HKMT)

In this paper we characterize the extent of economic integration between Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (HKMT). We do not find, for the period of 1999-2003, consistent evidence that economic activity on the part of HKMT-funded companies contributed to productivity growth in Guangdong domestic manufacturing firms. Furthermore, HKMT-funded companies were less active than Guangdong domestic companies in pursuing research and development (R&D) and innovation activities. Given that HKMT-funded companies in Guangdong are dominated by companies from Hong Kong, we end by linking our results to a discussion of recent innovation policy actions, both in Hong Kong SAR and Guangdong province.     

Telematics and development

Abstract

Developed countries are rapidly evolving into information economies, and given the increasing internationalization of trade and interdependence, developing countries will also have to become information economies if they are to achieve higher economic growth rates. The essence of the information economy is that information is now the main capital input into manufacturing industry and as such is the key input to economic development. The activities of enquiring, communicating, evaluating, and deciding have become the activities absorbing the major proportion of national resources, with the need to know of the business decision‐maker as the main driving force. In developed information economies, industrial firms have become learning systems and a new division of labor in the economic productive system has evolved. The government‐controlled primary information sector is the source of much of the information input and the provider of the means of information transfer. Developing countries must develop their own primary information sectors as an integrated part of the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. The problems of developing countries are highlighted in the isolation on the one hand of their information generating sectors from the productive sector and on the other of the native small firm sector from all sectors of information. Telematics, as the integration of computing, communication, and information services offers the means to integrate national resources with international and supply the required inputs to local agricultural and industrial development.     

德国科技创新经验对粤港澳大湾区建设国际科技创新中心的启示

全球经济受到新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情的严重冲击,坚持创新驱动发展战略是中国恢复经济和实现高质量发展的必然要求。基于对国际科技创新中心(以下简称"国际科创中心")的内涵和政府功能的梳理,从科技发展战略、支持尖端技术研究、科技创新的金融支持系统、直接推动企业实施创新创造和帮助高科技企业提升国际化管理等5个方面总结德国建设欧洲乃至全球科技创新中心的一系列政策经验,并阐释其对粤港澳大湾区建设国际科创中心的启示,即制定粤港澳大湾区国际科创中心规划,避免各自为政;坚持基础研究和应用研究并重,为科技创新中心提供长久动力;以建设国际科技创新大平台为抓手,提升协同创新效率;加大政府对科技金融的扶持,避免过度市场化;以提升实体经济质量为着力点,建设国际产业科技创新中心。以期为粤港澳大湾区建设国际科创中心提供参考。     

阿里商业生态系统及平台运作模式探究

伴随互联网在我国的兴起与发展,生态系统在电子商务领域呈现出新型业态,阿里巴巴网络技术有限公司（简称阿里巴巴集团）以核心电子商务平台、用户群和合作机构组成完整的开放系统,成为进军银行业、IT行业、物流业等多行业领域重要推动力。围绕阿里巴巴集团商业系统中电商核心业务和支撑电商体系的金融业务,研究其如何利用互联网技术配套本地生活服务、健康医疗等基础设施,并融入游戏、视频、音乐等泛娱乐业务和智能终端业务,形成自身完整的商业生态圈。通过实证研究阿里巴巴集团的产业链发展水平和产业创新能力的耦合机制,探析阿里巴巴商务生态系统的协调发展水平,为更多电子商务类企业布局发展提供可借鉴模式。     

Characteristics of research and development performing firms in Canadian manufacturing

The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the salient characteristics of R&D performing firms in Canadian manufacturing. The paper begins by presenting a brief overview of recent trends in R&D in the Canadian economy. The next section analyzes the main characteristics of those firms which undertake research and development activities in Canadian manufacturing industries. Various aspects are examined in this section including the R&D expenditure patterns of industries in the research-intensive and non-research-intensive sectors, R&D by size of firm and by size of program, levels of R&D intensity in terms of small, medium and large R&D performing firms. The importance of foreign ownership and its implication for the level of R&D activity is also considered. The paper concludes by summarizing the highlights of R&D performing firms and draws some implications for the structure of Canadian manufacturing based on the findings.     

从信息技术的发展态势看新经济

在实现经济转型和产业升级的过程中,新技术能否形成新动能,新动能能否带动新经济,已成为政府部门、产业界和学术界普遍关心的问题。文章从信息技术发展态势的角度判断新经济的前景和风险,指出信息技术是未来15—20年发展新经济的主要动力;人机物融合的智能技术是最有引领性的新技术;对于培育经济新动能,技术积累与技术创新同等重要。我国工业控制领域技术积累薄弱,国家应增加智能工控领域的科技投入,大力培养工控领域的科技人才。     

The dispersion of technology and income in Europe: Evolution and mutual relationship across regions

The first part of this article explores whether convergence has occurred in technology and income across EU regions during the period 1990-2002. The second part evaluates whether these two processes of convergence are related to each other. With respect to the first question, we find that all R&D indicators and patents have converged among regions during the 1990s and this has ran parallel to a real convergence in income per capita levels. Regarding the second question, we have identified a strong relationship between the distribution of technology indicators and the distribution of regional income in Europe. Our main result is that convergence in business R&D leads to convergence in patents, which in turn leads to convergence in income per capita. Although, we identify a role for government R&D and higher education spending in this process, the policy implications for these two variables are less clear.     

香港制造业结构国际竞争力研究

制造业是一个国家国民经济发展基础。制造业强弱,在一定程度上决定着国民经济综合竞争力的高低。将香港、新加坡和上海制造业结构进行比较研究,讨论香港制造业国际竞争力强弱,同时对香港制造业发展提出建议。