Management and Policy Concerns over Shifts in Innovation Trajectories: The Case of the Japanese Robotics Industry

Innovation related network systems would need to be re-aligned and adapted within major technological shifts and their capability to re-align themselves determines the dynamic capabilities of a national innovation system. In this paper, we present a particular phenomenon in industrial evolution, which we call a shift in the 'innovation trajectory', taking the case of the Japanese robotics industry that now undergoes major shifts in many respects. We consider activities directly involved with innovation in the entire value chain from invention to commercialization, and identify the structural changes in the national systems due to the shifts in innovation trajectory. Having utilized the basic framework of ''Techno Economic Network'', this paper analyzes six different structural shifts, which are related to product, technology, market, actor, competitive and socio-economic structures. This paper draws attention to the fundamental management and policy level concerns over the emerging shifts at four different decision making hierarchical levels. With concrete empirical evidences and results from interviews, this paper concludes that a new set of approaches is needed to shape these emerging innovation shifts.     

Management and Policy Concerns over Shifts in Innovation Trajectories: The Case of the Japanese Robotics Industry

Innovation related network systems would need to be re-aligned and adapted within major technological shifts and their capability to re-align themselves determines the dynamic capabilities of a national innovation system. In this paper, we present a particular phenomenon in industrial evolution, which we call a shift in the 'innovation trajectory', taking the case of the Japanese robotics industry that now undergoes major shifts in many respects. We consider activities directly involved with innovation in the entire value chain from invention to commercialization, and identify the structural changes in the national systems due to the shifts in innovation trajectory. Having utilized the basic framework of 'Techno Economic Network', this paper analyzes six different structural shifts, which are related to product, technology, market, actor, competitive and socio-economic structures. This paper draws attention to the fundamental management and policy level concerns over the emerging shifts at four different decision making hierarchical levels. With concrete empirical evidences and results from interviews, this paper concludes that a new set of approaches is needed to shape these emerging innovation shifts.     

Optimal Timing of Climate Change Policy: Interaction Between Carbon Taxes and Innovation Externalities

This paper addresses the impact of endogenous technology through research and development (R&D) on the timing of climate change policy. We develop a model with a stock pollutant (carbon dioxide) and abatement technological change through R&D, and we use the model to study the interaction between carbon taxes and innovation externalities. Our analysis shows that the timing of optimal emission reduction policy strongly depends on the set of policy instruments available. When climate-specific R&D targeting instruments are available, policy has to use these to step up early innovation. When these instruments are not available, policy has to steer innovation through creating demand for emission saving technologies. That is, carbon taxes should be high compared to the Pigouvian levels when the abatement industry is developing. Finally, we calibrate the model in order to explore the magnitude of the theoretical findings within the context of climate change policy.      

美国马萨诸塞州机器人产业创新系统研究

美国马萨诸塞州形成了具有本地特色且构成完备的机器人产业创新系统,其技术创新和产业效益全球领先。该创新系统包含了三个子系统,在政策子系统中充分利用了联邦和州层面的一系列战略和政策部署;在创新主体子系统中包含了世界知名研究型大学以及一批独具特色中小型企业;在创新扩散子系统中包含了专业服务机构和活跃的风险投资。总结该州经验可得,我国未来应当抢先部署前沿机器人技术、充实机器人人才队伍和完备相关服务机构等。     

Cities mediating technological transitions: understanding visions,intermediation and consequences

Approaches to technological transitions and their management have generated considerable interest in academic and policy circles in recent years. The development of this body of work may be seen as a response to the complexities, uncertainties and problems which confront many western societies, in organising ‘sustainably’ various aspects of energy, agricultural, water, transport and health systems of production and consumption; problems which are seen as systemic and entwined or embedded in a series of social, economic, political, cultural and technological relationships. For all the light that transitions approaches shine on such processes they say little explicitly about the role of places. In this paper we address this through looking at the way in which London is currently beginning to shape a systemic transition in its energy infrastructure. We outline and discuss key aspects of the roles of strategic intermediary organisations, which have been strategically set up to intervene between technological possibilities and the territorial context of London. We draw on the case of London to highlight an emblematic example of a city's attempt to systemically re-shape its energy infrastructure and the lessons to be drawn from this. We also outline the particularity of London in this respect, the limitations of the transferability of experiences in London and highlight directions for future research in this area.     

Assessing emerging technologies—Methodological challenges and the case of nanotechnologies

Technology Assessment reflecting on R&D and technological trends in the area of nanotechnology and its implications is confronted with the problem that most scientific endeavours of nanotechnology can be allocated to basic research while most of the technological visions related to nanotechnology are far (> 10 years) in the future. Since technology assessment has to integrate the socio-economic context of a technical product in order to be comprehensive, in the case of nanotechnology a preparing step is necessary which connects the ongoing basic research with the visions communicated either by the scientist themselves or by the media. In this paper we propose to adapt the well known tool ‘roadmapping’ to contribute to the solution of this problem. This poses new challenges for roadmapping methodology in terms of level of aggregation and timeframe.     

Asian development pathways and sustainable socio-technical regimes

Rapid industrialisation in Asia is generating a significant new demand for raw materials and pressure on local, regional and global environments. In the future these demands and pressures are expected to increase markedly. These concerns are models of development that assume that economic growth follows a pattern leading to a convergence between the structure, growth and productivity of economies over the long run. In these models, the structure of industries and sectors, technological capabilities and consumer preferences are regarded as converging towards patterns established in more advanced economies. By extension, convergence is also assumed to hold for the resource intensity and environmental pressure associated with growth in industrialising countries. This paper argues for greater attention to the resource and environmental quality of development. It argues that by applying ideas from an emerging literature on ‘systems innovation’ it becomes possible to envisage the emergence of new, more resource-efficient socio-technical systems as the basis of more sustainable development pathways in developing Asia. Such sustainable socio-technical systems will emerge in the context of interaction between domestic and globalised markets, knowledge flows and governance. Key issues for a research agenda are set out.     

Environmental Policy and Technological Change

The relationship between technological changeand environmental policy has receivedincreasing attention from scholars and policymakers alike over the past ten years. This ispartly because the environmental impacts ofsocial activity are significantly affected bytechnological change, and partly becauseenvironmental policy interventions themselvescreate new constraints and incentives thataffect the process of technologicaldevelopments. Our central purpose in thisarticle is to provide environmental economistswith a useful guide to research ontechnological change and the analytical toolsthat can be used to explore further theinteraction between technology and theenvironment. In Part 1 of the article, weprovide an overview of analytical frameworksfor investigating the economics oftechnological change, highlighting key issuesfor the researcher. In Part 2, we turn ourattention to theoretical analysis of theeffects of environmental policy ontechnological change, and in Part 3, we focuson issues related to the empirical analysis oftechnology innovation and diffusion. Finally,we conclude in Part 4 with some additionalsuggestions for research.     

Joint research and development projects as technology training ventures

This paper presents an empirically derived model of the process through which industrial firms that lack internal resources in a particular technology area to implement certain research and development (R&D) projects on their own, initiale nad implement them jointly with not-for-profit research institutions. Such joint R&D projects are typically initiated by smaller, technologically less advanced firms in developing countires, with the underlying objective of training themselves in the relevant technology area and acquiring new technological resources from more advanced local research institutions, while simultaneously and rapidly completing the immediate R&D project. This process model has been developed by drawing from and synthesizing several in-depth case studies of such projects. In developing countries, joint R&D projects of this nature are important, as they can be more effective than formal technology training programmes for not-for-profit research institutions to fulfil their charter by transerning their advanced technical knowledge to the relatively less advanced local industrial firms. Participating firms that seek to their immediate interest, and therefore learn it rapidly and effectively. This paper adds to the scarce literature on ht process of organizational knowledge acquisition through contractual arrangements such as joint projects. It also enables both firms and research institutions to understand effective proceses for initiating and implementing such mutually beneficial joint R&D projects.     

基础研究是否推动我国先进制造技术向国际前沿收敛——基于追赶阶段与技术子领域差异的分析

为探究加速我国先进制造技术差距收敛的有效途径，以技术追赶过程的阶段性和先进制造技术不同子领域的结构化差异为切入点进行实证研究，揭示基础研究在先进制造技术追赶过程中的作用机制。研究发现：相较于追赶阶段，基础研究在后追赶阶段显著促进我国先进制造技术差距收敛；基础研究知识成果产出吸引企业进行研发活动，推动我国先进制造技术差距收敛。进一步讨论发现，先进制造技术结构化特征影响基础研究对技术差距收敛的促进作用。因此，在后追赶阶段，准确把握技术追赶阶段变迁带来的机会窗口，强化基础研究是推动我国先进制造技术向国际前沿收敛的必要手段。     

Technology and regional policy: a case study of Northern Ireland

The importance of technical change, through the innovative activity of industry, has received a lot of attention in the regional economic literature. Regional policy has now begun to reflect the changing emphasis in the recent literature, and especially the key role of inventive activity in achieving long-run self-sustaining regional growth. This paper concentrates on research activities in terms of inventive inputs (R&D) and innovative outputs (especially patented innovations). In general the results suggest that there is a low level of technological activity in Northern Ireland, especially in industries that are characterized as being technologically advanced. This is partly because external ownership reduces R & D activity which in turn reduces innovation outputs but there is also a problem in that companies in Northern Ireland are relatively unsuccessful at producing new products and processes of the type and quality required in the market place. The availability of government-sponsored R & D grants since 1977 has begun to redress the imbalance in terms of R & D activities but there is, as yet, little information to show that the level of technological success has increased.     

Market dynamics, dynamic resource management and environmental policy in the context of (strong) sustainability

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between market dynamics, dynamic resource management and environmental policy. In contrast to static market entry games, this paper draws attention to the effects of market dynamics on resource dynamics et vice versa, because (1) we show that feedback processes are necessary for obtaining a better understanding of what drives the dynamics between the evolution of common-pool resources and the number of harvesters and more importantly, (2) this analysis provides an environment discussing sustainability in an appropriate inasmuch dynamic way. The paper makes the following points: based on a co-evolutionary model, which incorporates resource and market dynamics simultaneously, it is shown that an increasing number of harvesters does not necessarily imply a lower stock of the common-pool resource in the long run. Further it is shown that a tax-scheme establish an output-sharing solution for coping with the overuse of common-pool resources. This results is in contrast to the prevailing literature, which mainly discusses tax-schemes and out-sharing as substitutes rather than as complements for solving the commons-problem. This conclusion holds even if we additionally assume harvesting-cost-reducing technological progress. On the other side if policy interventions ceased, strong resource sustainability in the sense of resource conservation is not possible, given technological progress is a relevant issue.     

The Three Faces of Labor: Sustainability and the Next Wave of Automation

This article develops a model of three faces of labor from Figart, Mutari, and Power’s three faces of wages. This is integrated with sustainability models to locate the process of human and social capital formation and explore issues arising from technological change. The latest wave of automation, involving robotics and artificial intelligence, is expected to be an even greater challenge for worker well-being than globalization and immigration. The model supports a new narrative around labor that incorporates the caring economy as well as a framework for thinking about labor issues and long-term well-being.     

政策支持、创业激情与技术创业成功：政策感知的调节作用

为了厘清政策支持对技术创业成功的作用机制,将创业激情作为中介变量、政策感知作为调节变量,构建政策支持影响技术创业成功的理论模型,并结合云南地区291家技术创业企业数据开展实证研究。结果表明：政策支持促进技术创业成功;政策支持通过激发技术创业者创业激情进而促进技术创业成功;政策感知强化政策支持对技术创业成功的正向影响,同时增强政策支持对创业激情的正向影响,对创业激情的中介过程具有调节作用,即在不同水平政策感知下,创业激情的中介效用存在明显差异。     

家庭幸福的概念与指标体系的构建

家庭幸福是家庭发展的高级阶段。对家庭幸福领域进行研究,有助于构建相关的社会政策,保护家庭发展能力,提升家庭的幸福感受。将家庭幸福界定为家庭客观层面的状况映射到个人意识层面的主观感受,认为家庭幸福可能具有整体性、互动性等特性。在明晰界定的基础上,构建了家庭幸福的衡量框架,并利用调查数据作了实证分析。     

Competition, Imitation and Growth with Step-by-Step Innovation

Is more intense product market competition and imitation good or bad for growth? This question is addressed in the context of an endogenous growth model with "step-by-step" innovations, in which technological laggards must first catch up with the leading-edge technology before battling for technological leadership in the future. In contrast to earlier Schumpeterian models in which innovations are always made by outsider firms who earn no rents if they fail to innovate and become monopolies if they do innovate, here we find: first, that the usual Schumpeterian effect of more intense product market competition (PMC) is almost always outweighed by the increased incentive for firms to innovate in order to escape competition, so that PMC has a positive effect on growth; second, that a little imitation is almost always growth-enhancing, as it promotes more frequent neck-and-neck competition, but too much imitation is unambiguously growth-reducing. The model thus points to complementary roles for competition (anti-trust) policy and patent policy.     

Designing knowledge chain networks in China — A proposal for a risk management system using linguistic decision making

Designing Knowledge Supply Networks (KSN) with universities and research institutes has become a key source of technological innovations in Mainland China. In order to explore the key design principles, we first present typologies within KSN and explain the factors that can push, guide, or support the innovation process in such a network. Second, we identify and classify the particular risks that prevail when KSN are designed in an emerging region. To assess these risks, we next propose an advanced method that takes into consideration typical problems in group decision-making processes by applying linguistic operators derived from the field of decision theory and fuzzy-sets theory. The risk evaluation method is illustrated with a case study. Fourth, we offer advice on the mitigation of risks in KSN. Finally, we provide insights into the implementation of the risk evaluation method and its automation using Stakeholder Information Systems.     

Technological Innovation and High-Quality Economic Development

Linking technological innovation with high-quality economic development is a complex process. So far, there has been little academic research on the mechanism and internal law of technological innovation related to high quality economic development. After streamlining the research context of technological innovation in the deductive development of economic growth theory, this paper summarizes and extracts the core connotation of high-quality economic development from the concept of high-quality development and at micro, meso and macro dimensions. The internal law of technological innovation promoting high-quality economic development is revealed from six aspects, including total factor productivity, supply of high-quality products and services, industrial structure upgrading, consumption structure upgrading, resources and environment, and promoting social equity. This paper then puts forward policy recommendations for technological innovation promoting high-quality economic development at micro, meso and macro dimensions. Microscopically, organizations including R&D enterprises, universities and research institutes should have their creativity enhanced; mesoscopically, the levels of industrial chain, value chain and regional technological innovation growth pole should be improved; and macroscopically, China should raise its overall technology competitiveness in the world for high-quality economic development driven by technological innovation. This paper proposes six issues on technological innovation related to high-quality development that deserve in-depth discussion, including identifying the standards and boundaries of innovation, capturing the orientation of technological innovation, and raising the rate of transforming technological innovation achievements, etc.     

The Emerging Importance of Knowledge for Development: Implications for Technology Policy and Innovation

What new roles for science and technology policy emerge in the knowledge-based economy we live in? This broad question was largely the motivation for the 1st International Conference on Technology Policy and Innovation (ICTPI), held in Macau in July 1997. Some of the important contributions to this conference are gathered in this special issue. The aim of this introductory article is to describe the background of current research in the area of science and technology policy, to summarize the contributions to this special issue, and to issue calls for new policy research. While the contributions to this special issue are diverse in terms of methodological approaches, units of analysis, and disciplinary fields, we try to integrate some important conclusions of the background analysis, suggesting further avenues for policy research, namely: (1) balancing innovation and diffusion; (2) beyond the excludability of software; (3) deepen the conceptual framework established through the interactive models of innovation; (4) promoting wetware and software interaction; and (5) the need for an inclusive development.     

发达国家科技政策中的趋同模式解读及其经验借鉴

发达国家的科技和经济能够始终走在世界前列，与它本身的科技政策有着密切的关系。科技政策的激励和引导作用使发达国家的创新机制稳步形成并发挥着决定性作用。本文通过分析发达国家科技政策中的共同做法．从中找出具有借鉴意义的模式．以促进我国创新型国家战略的实施和建设。