Table of Content
1. Catching up or lagging behind? Assessment of technological capacity of
China
by patent database
Kazuyuki Motohashi
Page 1-24
2. Dynamics of catch-up in mobile phones and automobiles in
China
: sectoral systems of innovation perspective
Keun Lee, Seong-Jae Cho and Jia Jina
Page 25-53
3. Technological structure and its upgrading in
China
's exports
Rudai Yang, Yang
Yao
and Ye Zhang
Page 55-73
4. Technological sources and regional productivity growth in
China
Chih-Hai Yang
Page 74-92
5. Secondary innovation: the path of catch-up with ‘Made in
China
'
Xiaobo Wu, Rufei Ma, Yongjiang Shi and Ke Rong
Page 93-104
6. Patterns and distances of catch-up in trade:
China
and
East Asia
Elias Sanidas
Page 105-118
Article Abstract
1. Catching up or lagging behind? Assessment of technological capacity of
China
by patent database
Kazuyuki Motohashi
Page 1-24
Abstract: Using the database consisting of 679,056 individual patents from the years 1985 through 2005, we analyzed technological capabilities of
China
. In general, we can see substantial trend of catching up of Chinese firms to western counterparts in patent statistics. However, there are substantially heterogeneous patterns in technology catching up. This paper provides detail case studies in two high-tech sectors; pharmaceutical industry and mobile communications technology. These two fields show contrasting trends, in a sense that rapid catching up can be found in mobile communications technology, while Chinese companies are still lagging behind of western counterparts, in a field of pharmaceutical industry.
Keywords: Patent
Database,
China
, Competitiveness
Link to the original text:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a911911285
2. Dynamics of catch-up in mobile phones and automobiles in
China
: sectoral systems of innovation perspective
Keun Lee, Seong-Jae Cho and Jia Jina
Page 25-53
Abstract: This paper looks at interesting stories of catch-up in automobiles and mobile phone sectors in
China
. It assesses the two sectors from the SSI framework. Among the building blocks of the SSI, the focus has been on the regime of technologies and knowledge, such as modularity, degree of embodied technical change, tacit knowledge, knowledge accesses, and frequency of innovations. According to this framework, indigenous automakers in
China
has been making a quick catch-up upon entry because the auto sectors tend to be featured by higher degree of embodied technical changes and increasing modularity in many components. However, their long term destiny is sill uncertain given the high tacit knowledge in the sector and critical importance of integration capability. In mobile phones, early catch-up by indigenous Chinese makers and more recent set-back has also been explained.
Keywords: mobile phones; automobiles; catch-up; sectoral systems of innovations
Link to the original text:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a911911164
3. Technological structure and its upgrading in
China
's exports
Rudai Yang, Yang
Yao
and Ye Zhang
Page 55-73
Abstract: Based on several indexes, this article investigates technological upgrading in
China
's exports. It is demonstrate that the whole technological contents of
China
's exports have been improved dramatically since the early 1980s. In the meantime, the domestic technological contents are likely experiencing a V-curve, i.e., decreasing first and then increasing later. Native enterprises grow faster than their FDI counterparts through "learning-by-doing", and the gap between them is narrowing. It is shown that
China
's export has adopted a limited catch-up strategy rather than solely followed its comparative advantage. Under the limited catch-up strategy,
China
exports products with technological contents higher than what was predicted by its comparative advantage. In addition, experience of
South Korea
and
Taiwan
as well as cross-country comparison demonstrates that adopting limited catch-up strategy is conducive to economic development. We argue that this is what is taking place in
China
.
Keywords: exports; technological upgrading; domestic technological contents
Link to the original text:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a911910746
4. Technological sources and regional productivity growth in
China
Chih-Hai Yang
Page 74-92
Abstract: This paper looks into whether
China
's continuously high economic growth is mainly contributed by productivity growth after the mid-1990s when it has devoted more efforts to innovative activity. More importantly, I also systematically investigate how and to what extent various technological sources contribute to productivity growth in
China
. Identifying the internal and external technological sources, this paper adopts a newly developed technique of the stochastic metafrontier function to evaluate regional productivity growth in
China
and then analyzes the impacts of technological sources on moving up the technology ladder in
China
. The first-step estimation shows that the average productivity growth is 2.821% during 1996-2004, which is similar to that before 1995. However, the coastal and non-coastal regions witnessed an apparent difference in TFP growth, 4.567% vs. 1.718%. Concerning the effects of technological sources, in-house R&D, foreign direct investment and technology import are all positive on significantly promoting productivity. Relative to R&D and foreign direct investment, the contribution through importing technologies seems to be larger, implying that
China
's technological progress relies heavily on more advanced foreign knowledge. However, neither technological source is found to have a larger influence on productivity growth among non-coastal regions.
Keywords: TFP, metafrontier, R&D, FDI, technology import
Link to the original text:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a911910941
5. Secondary innovation: the path of catch-up with ‘Made in
China
'
Xiaobo Wu, Rufei Ma, Yongjiang Shi and Ke Rong
Page 93-104
Abstract: In this paper, we attempt to illustrate a typical catch-up path with "Made in
China
" named "secondary innovation", which goes towards the virtuous circle of foreign technology acquisition and endogenous technological innovation, through an in-depth longitudinal case study. Although secondary innovation is based on foreign imported technology, it is fundamentally different from simple imitation and adaptation of imported technology. Basic assimilation is just the first step of secondary innovation, and further followed by "structural understanding", "functional understanding" and "conceptual understanding". Without considerable active assimilation and absorption, the latecomer firm would probably fall into a vicious circle of "import - lag behind -import again".
Keywords: Secondary Innovation; Technology Acquisition; Endogenous Innovation; Latecomer Firm
Link to the original text:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a911911026
6. Patterns and distances of catch-up in trade:
China
and
East Asia
Elias Sanidas
Page 105-118
Abstract: The main purpose of this paper is to determine the relative position (distances) of East Asian countries (including
South East Asia
) within their own geographical area and in relation to the rest of the world. For this purpose, Balassa's (1965) "revealed comparative advantage" (RCA) in exports will be used to assess trade performance and economic growth. We use multidimensional scaling to ascertain our contentions. First, East Asian countries are forming a flying geese formation whose leader is Japan followed by Korea and Taiwan and further behind China and the ASEAN countries. Second, this flying geese flock in terms of RCA ranks is paralleled with a similar flying geese formation in terms of economic development. Furthermore the mapping of 100 countries (and a close-up of 45 countries) tell us as to how all relevant countries are positioned in terms of 14 industrial sectors (here we also used factor analysis to classify these sectors).
Keywords: catch-up process, multidimensional scaling, flying geese,
East Asia,
China
.
Link to the original text:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a911911064
