Technology,culture and public policy

There exists convincing evidence to suggest that radical innovations arrive in swarms or clusters. While a great deal has been written about the economic causes of innovation clustering, relatively little has been written about their fundamental societal causes. In this article we discuss a number of characteristics of technological development and attempt to assess the degree to which they each are culturally bound. We then present two “models” of the process of technological change and discuss the place of cultural factors in them. In the final section we discuss the public policy implications of the “cultural boundedness” of innovation with particular reference to the innovation diffusion process. We conclude that public policy has an important role in certain areas in stimulating the public acceptance of new technology, and that an especially potent tool in this respect is the public information programme.     

产业集群技术创新扩散机制及其促进对策

产业集群技术创新本身属性、技术创新主体及环境是产业集群技术创新扩散的三大影响因素,三者相互作用影响着产业集群技术创新扩散,形成的动态变化的有机体便是产业集群技术创新扩散机制。我国产业集群技术创新扩散过程中存在很多问题,因而要从三大影响因素入手:提高技术创新的商业化比率,加强技术创新主体的创新意识和人才培养,营造良好的中观和宏观环境。以此不断地完善产业集群技术创新扩散机制,促进产业集群的技术创新、再创新和扩散。     

创新扩散理论应用于IT领域研究综述

创新扩散理论(Innovation Diffusion Theory,简称IDT)主要研究创新在社会系统中传播扩散的过程。罗杰斯的创新扩散理论作为当前国际学术界技术创新扩散理论的重要研究成果,已被我国学者普遍了解和接受,并运用到众多研究领域。本文主要通过搜集2002-2010年期间有关创新扩散理论应用于IT领域的研究文献,分析综述。     

Building absorptive capacity to organise inbound open innovation in traditional industries

The discussion on open innovation suggests that the ability to absorb external knowledge has become a major driver for competition. For R&D intensive large firms, the concept of open innovation in relation to absorptive capacity is relatively well understood. Little attention has; however, been paid to how both small firms and firms, which operate in traditional sectors, engage in open innovation activities. The latter two categories of firms often dispose of no, or at most a relatively low level of, absorptive capacity. Open innovation has two faces. In the case of inbound open innovation, companies screen their environment to search for technology and knowledge and do not exclusively rely on in-house R&D. A key pre-condition is that firms dispose of “absorptive capacity” to internalise external knowledge. SMEs and firms in traditional industries might need assistance in building absorptive capacity. This paper focuses on the role of collective research centres in building absorptive capacity at the inter-organisational level. In order to do so, primary data was collected through interviews with CEOs of these technology intermediaries and their member firms and analysed in combination with secondary data. The technology intermediaries discussed are created to help firms to take advantage of technological developments. The paper demonstrates that the openness of the innovation process forces firms lacking absorptive capacity to search for alternative ways to engage in inbound open innovation. The paper highlights the multiple activities of which absorptive capacity in intermediaries is made up; defines the concept of absorptive capacity as a pre-condition to open innovation; and demonstrates how firms lacking absorptive capacity collectively cope with distributed knowledge and innovation.     

自主创新与合作创新的绩效比较

将自主创新与合作创新结合起来,采用协整技术和误差修正模型,就两种不同的技术创新方式对经济发展的影响进行实证分析。得出结论:两种技术创新模式和经济增长率组成的系统在长期构成一个稳定的过程,其中自主创新模式和合作创新模式均对我国经济增长在长期产生了积极的促进作用;由两种技术创新模式和经济增长率所组成的协整系统在短期内对经济增长产生了正向的调节作用,但对经济增长的作用都不是特别明显,自主创新模式对经济发展的净效应为正,而合作创新模式对经济增长的净效应不明显,甚至为负;基于此,提出相应策略以提升国家的创新能力和构筑竞争优势。     

知识产权保护与中国工业创新能力

利用省际大中型工业企业面板数据,考察了知识产权保护对我国工业创新能力的影响。结果显示,知识产权保护与新产品和专利产出均存在倒U形关系,但超过95%的样本位于拐点左侧,强化知识产权保护能够加快我国绝大多数地区工业创新能力的提升。同时,知识产权保护对发明专利的促进作用要显著大于实用新型和外观设计专利。对其影响渠道的进一步研究还表明,强化知识产权保护在激励企业自主研发、提高国外技术引进效果、促进FDI知识溢出等均发挥了正向作用,并且知识产权保护对企业自主研发的引致作用在发明专利中尤为明显。本文从多个层面证实了知识产权保护在当前我国工业创新能力特别是核心技术能力提升中的积极作用。     

技术演化Logistic模型的扩展:多种技术创新演化的选择过程分析

典型的技术演化Logistic模型描述的是当存在两种新、旧技术的竞争时,单种创新的技术随时间的演化而扩散演化的轨迹,其缺陷是没有对多种创新技术同时作用进行分析。本文考虑一个改进的创新技术的扩散模型,拓展Logistic模型的解释空间,用技术适应度、新技术选择“尝试努力”时所运行的时间、平均尝试次数、“尝试努力”成功次数的平均概率等指标,来考察在一个固定的技术选择空间内,多种技术演化的随机寻优轨迹和寻优难度;从而在一定程度上为拓展技术选择空间引入新技术,不断进行技术创新提供理论解释。     

Technology and external conditions at play: A study of learning-by-licensing practices in China

Learning-by-licensing is a widely used strategy to build technological capabilities. The previous research has often focused on the learning process from the perspective of the technology recipient based on single-level analyses at either the organizational level or the regional level. Relatively little is known about the interactions between cross-level factors. In this study, we look at both the attributes of licensed technology and the external conditions in which the licensee operates, investigating how they interact in the learning-by-licensing process. Based on a unique Chinese dataset, our empirical results reveal that the external technological conditions surrounding licensee firms exert a positive impact on the relationship between licensee innovation performance and technology attributes in terms of both technological complexity and technological generality.     

Diffusion and scale dynamics: A case study

This paper examines the relationship between the diffusion of a major process innovation, oxygen steel-making, and the growth of plant sizes. As in some previous studies, a step-wise pattern of scale increases is observed; however, there is no stable correlation of these increases to cumulative capacity expansion, maximum plant sizes appear to have stabilized, and plants of widely dispersed capacities continued to be built as oxygen steel-making became the dominant technique, world-wide. Factors responsible for scale increase are analyzed; steadily growing equipment size, the addition of equipment to existing plants, and a wide range of minor innovations and adaptations have contributed to growth in plant capacities; in most instances, scale-up continued after the beginning of operations. It is concluded that the frequently-used concept of an optimal, or maximum feasible, plant scale remains ambiguous without reference to the specific technical and economic conditions of production systems, and that plant-size increases are fully dependent on continuing technological effort.     

IMPLEMENTING PRIVATISATON : SOCIAL CHANGE AS A DISCOVERY PROCESS

Philanthropists and social change practitioners have successfully advanced privatisation worldwide over the last three decades. Social change can be thought of as a discovery process in which measures of effectiveness are an invaluable tool for creating transparency and accountability for results. These processes organise knowledge and lead to the invention of better ways of doing things. Examining privatisation as a case study opens a broader consideration of the philanthropic enterprise, including barriers to change, diffusion of innovation, and the use of products to lead change. An examination of the processes which led to privatisation also shows how entrepreneurial philanthropy has promoted privatisation.     

Strategic paradigms as a frame of explanation of innovations: a theoretical synthesis

Innovation has mainly been analysed as a rather narrow phenomenon. This has been an obstacle to a more operationally useful understanding of innovation processes. Two main approaches to explain innovation exist, namely economic innovation theory and the theory of entrepreneurship. Both are criticized in the article, the economic innovation theory for being based on a technological reductionism, the entrepreneurship theory for being based on an individualistic determinism. The two theories have not been coordinated to form a more comprehensive synthesis. The concept of technological paradigm within the economic innovation theory and the concept of entrepreneurial networks within the entrepreneurship theory mark some improvement in establishing a broader understanding of innovation, but have not yet been synthesized. The idea of paradigms is used in the article for a broader, synthesizing conception of innovations as being determined by shifts in strategic paradigms. A theoretical model of factors causing shifts in the strategic paradigm is set up.     

完善政府采购,促进企业自主创新

自主创新能力是我国企业继续发展和参与全球竞争的关键因素。近几年来,我国企业自主创新能力不断加强,但与发达国家企业相比还有一定差距,存在机构不健全、投入不足、缺少核心技术和自主品牌以及科技成果转化率底等问题。促进企业自主创新已成为政府工作的一项重要内容,完善政府采购是促进企业自主创新的一个重要途径。     

论中小企业技术创新

我国中小企业技术创新活动具有多样性和广泛性,它们的技术创新在许多行业占据了主导地位,研究中小企业的技术创新问题对经济发展和社会进步具有重要意义。文章围绕中小企业的技术创新概念、企业与技术创新的关系、内外部环境分析进行讨论,提出新形势下中小企业技术创新的对策。     

The interaction of multiple champions in orchestrating innovation networks: Conflicts and complementarities

In networked or open innovation processes, so-called innovation communities have been identified in the innovation champion literature, in which innovation champions from different levels in the innovation system supposedly act as a team. It has however not been studied in detail to what extent and how different champions in innovation communities complement each other and act as a team. Applying the concept of innovation network orchestration to analyze the role and position of different kinds of champions as brokers in innovation networks, the purpose of this paper is to unravel the interaction between champions and what this entails in terms of role complementarities and conflicts as regards innovation network orchestration. This is done by using an explorative multiple case study approach in which three innovation journeys are analyzed. The results indicate that a distinction can be made between primary innovation communities, who act as aggregated orchestrators of the overall innovation network, and who in turn orchestrate secondary innovation communities in certain sub-networks. Here different kinds of champions complement each other and act as a team, but these complementarities are not a given: they are negotiated over time in interaction, and lack of reflection on each other’s roles may result in role conflicts. The main conclusion is that an oversimplified notion of innovation communities as a unified team of champions should be avoided: innovation communities themselves need a form of orchestration.     

浅谈中小企业技术创新

文章阐述了中小企业技术创新的概念,分析了湖南省中小企业技术创新的现状和影响因素,为完善湖南省中小企业技术创新政策环境提供一些思路。     

On forecasting of innovations

The forecasting of basic technological innovations is focused. Clarification of the involved key concepts and an analytical framework are given. The forest industry serves as a background and illustration to the discussion. Considerable uncertainty prevails with respect to strategic investments in production in this industry. Industries, technological products, etc. have empirically been shown to pass similar phases of development over time. This life cycle starts with a basic innovation following on a previous invention. Due to competetion from more recent basic innovations the final phase is one of decline. Basic innovations are suggested to be exogenously determined and to cause structural change. The choice of forecasting strategy is suggested to be made dependent on the type of innovation, knowledge base, and life cycle position.     

创新方法在科技园区和众创空间的推广与应用成效评估

创新方法是科学思维、科学方法和科学工具的总称。世界科技的发展表明,重视创新思维的培养,超前部署创新方法研究和推广,加强以科学仪器、标准、设备等科学工具的自主研发,是提高自主创新能力的根本举措。创新方法不仅是解决发明创造问题强有力的理论工具,还是加快创新进程,缩短产品研发时间、减少创新成本的有效手段。     

广东农业龙头企业——温氏集团科技创新的STS分析

科技创新与社会发展具有高度的相关性。在推进农业产业化的过程中,广东温氏集团起到了引领和示范作用。研究表明:科技创新是其持续发展的保障和重要的推动力之一。运用STS理论,通过对广东温氏集团近30年科技创新与社会发展历史进程的考察,我们得知温氏集团逐步形成了以产业技术创新为中心,以产学研为主体,以公共技术服务体系为支撑的科技创新体系,旨在对发展广东省农业现代化有所借鉴,对我国农业产业化可持续发展有所启示。