Innovation In The Asia Pacific

This book promotes the creation of advanced knowledge-based economies driven by innovation networks and the continuous development of human capital and capability. It provides valuable insights into the growing emergence of knowledge-based industries of the Asia Pacific, and highlights research on: modes of creativity and innovation; intellectual property; the components of national innovation systems such as firms, education and training; knowledge and technical infrastructure; and public policy. The Asia Pacific region is currently in the process of transforming from being the manufacturing centre of the global economy to a centre of innovation for the knowledge economy, with the successful IPO of Alibaba in 2014 being a prime example of this shift. From a neo-Schumpeterian perspective, the region is increasingly engaged in shortening and intensifying cycles of innovation. The historic agreement at the Beijing APEC meeting between China and the US to radically reduce carbon emissions indicates that one imperative of this innovation is to contribute to sustainability. The fact that the US Government is moving away from this historic commitment, while the Chinese Government is endorsing the commitment, indicates an emerging opportunity for Asia to lead the world technologically in a vital industrial sector of the future.

Existing accounts of East Asia’s meteoric growth and structural change has either been explained as one dictated essentially by markets with strong macroeconomic fundamentals, or a consequence of proactive governments. This book departs from such a dichotomy by examining inductively the drivers of the experiences. Given the evolutionary treatment of each economic good and service as different, this book examines technological catch up with a strong focus on the industries contributing significantly to the economic growth of the countries selected in Asia. The evidence produced supports the evolutionary logic of macro, meso and micro interactions between several institutions, depending on the actors involved, structural location and typology of taxonomies and trajectories. The book carefully picks out experiences from the populous economies of China, India and Indonesia, the high income economies of Korea and Taiwan, the middle income economies of Malaysia and Thailand, and the transitional least developed country of Myanmar. Chapters 1-7 of this book were originally published as a special issue of Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy.

This book provides a brief overview of the recent trends in innovations. Early inventions/innovations that began in Asia (i.e., compass, paper, gunpowder and printing) spread to the Atlantic (Europe and USA) by land and sea routes. However, with population growth, economic expansion, availability of skilled researchers and lower cost of research in Asia Pacific, there has been a shift in innovation activities in this region. There has been a discernable trend of innovation (R&D) in countries like Japan, Korea, China, India and Singapore. This book attempts to create awareness of this trend and hopes to motivate business leaders and policy makers to take advantage of this shifting trend, as well as to encourage more global collaboration in innovations to face societal challenges in the 21st century.

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 Asia Pacific has emerged as one of the most dynamic regions in the world, presenting a variety of social and economic experiences and responses to global pressures. In this book twelve country case studies explore the ways in which national science, technology and innovation policies are evolving in response to globalization. The editors argue that the national innovation system (NIS) perspective is driving policy regimes toward new approaches in policy intervention. Underlying the new policy agenda is a concern with reframing the role for science, technology and innovation institutions including higher education and integrating local community, national and global technology objectives.Presenting a broad analysis, the book will be of great interest to policy analysts and practitioners concerned with science, technology and innovation policy. It will also appeal to academic and postgraduate students concerned with innovation and industrial development, as well as scholars and practitioners engaged in regional development and international business in the Asia pacific region.

The Study calls for governments to put in place action-orientated science, technology and innovation (STI) programmes aligned to development strategies to meet the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It proposes a conceptual framework for STI that is bound by the principles of openness, inclusivity and collaboration, and moves the focus beyond the economic to integrate the social and environmental pillars of sustainable development. The Study concludes by recommending areas for action by Member States to create an enabling environment for STI, fully integrating the three pillars in to STI policy, and to facilitate regional STI collaboration.

'Demographic transition, along with the economic and geopolitical re-emergence of Asia, are two of the largest forces shaping the twenty-first century, but little is known about the implications for innovation. The countries of East Asia have some of the oldest age structures on the planet: between now and 2050, the population that is age 65 and older will increase to more than one in four Chinese, and to more than one in three Japanese and Koreans. Other economies with younger populations, like India, face the challenge of fully harnessing the "demographic dividend" from large cohorts in the working ages. This book delves into how such demographic changes shape the supply of innovation and the demand for specific kinds of innovation in the Asia-Pacific. Social scientists from Asia and the United States offer multidisciplinary perspectives from economics, demography, political science, sociology, and public policy; topics range from the macroeconomic effects of population age structure, to the microeconomics of technology and the labor force, to the broader implications for human well-being. Contributors analyze how demography shapes productivity and the labor supply of older workers, as well as explore the aging population as consumers of technologies and drivers of innovations to meet their own needs, as well as the political economy of spatial development, agglomeration economies, urban-rural contrasts, and differential geographies of aging.'--Publisher description.

This book clarifies the direction of business innovation using new ICT such as the Internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones, and cloud computing through a series of case studies on successful trials and advanced businesses in the Asia-Pacific where many industry sectors have been growing successfully in the 21st century. ICT has been playing an important role in value creation for customers and in profit generation for providers, contributing to various service innovation and business innovation. Now, digitalization using IoT and AI provides solutions to address various issues in the human society, which is transforming services and businesses in the 21st century. “What is the direction of the business innovation using new ICT?” is a highly concerned question for business researchers and practitioners. Aiming to answer the question, this book conducts a number of cases studies in the Asia-Pacific region, including the Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, as well as Australia. Among the studies, there are 4 cases from ICT providers, 4 cases from traditional and services, and 6 cases from new ICT applications and businesses. Each case analyzes social needs and human desires, new value created, roles of new technologies, processes and difficulties in developing new businesses, the relationship among customers, providers, and stakeholders, value chain co-creation and optimization, factors of success, and business models. Finally, the direction of business innovation with new ICT in the Asia-Pacific is suggested by summarizing the findings from the case studies through the lens of the theoretical analysis in service science.