A journey for readers through thousands of years extending from the innovation of silk & porcelain in China and paper & kohl in Pharaonic Egypt to the modern innovations in Europe and USA. This book introduces a summary of experiences for innovative nations through history. Imitation, copycatting, and knocking-off are the code that nations use as a response to the shock of “technological gap” before embarking on innovation.

In economic sectors crucial to human welfare – agriculture, education, and medicine – a small number of firms control global markets, primarily by enforcing intellectual property (IP) rights incorporated into trade agreements made in the 1980s onward. Such rights include patents on seeds and medicines, copyrights for educational texts, and trademarks in consumer products. According to conventional wisdom, these agreements likewise ended hopes for a 'New International Economic Order,' under which wealth would be redistributed from rich countries to poor. Sam F. Halabi turns this conventional wisdom on its head by demonstrating that the New International Economic Order never faded, but rather was redirected by other treaties, formed outside the nominally economic sphere, that protected poor countries' interests in education, health, and nutrition and resulted in redistribution and regulation. This illuminating work should be read by anyone seeking a nuanced view of how IP is shaping the global knowledge economy.

This volume assesses China's transition to innovation-nation status in terms of social conditions, industry characteristics and economic impacts over the past three decades, also providing insights into future developments. Defining innovation as the process that generates a higher quality, lower cost product than was previously available, the introductory chapter conceptualizes the theory of an innovation nation and the lessons from Japan and Untied States. It outlines the key governance, employment and investment institutions that China must build for such transition to occur, and examines China's challenges and strategies to innovate in the era of global production systems. Two succeeding chapters explain the evolving roles of Chinese state in innovation, and the new landscape of venture capital finance. The remaining chapters provide studies of major industries, which contain analyses of the evolving roles of investment by government agencies and business interests in the process. Included in these studies are traditional industries such as mechanical engineering, railroads, and automobiles; rapidly evolving and internationally highly integrated industries such as information-and-communication-technology (ICT); and newly emerging sectors such as wind and solar energy. Written by leading academics in the field, studies in this volume reveal Chinese innovation as diverse across industries and enterprises and fluid over time. In each sector, we observe continued co-evolution of state policy, market demand, and technology development. The strategies and structures of individual companies and industrial ecosystems are changing rapidly. The sum total of the studies is a great step forward in our understanding of the industrial foundations of China's attempt to become an innovation nation.

This book deals with the creation of local innovation systems (LIS) in emerging countries. The authors analyze the role of the government, firms and research centers in the formation of LIS. Special attention is paid to the manner in which different leading actors implement their LIS development strategies. The book presents detailed case studies on different strategies used to implement LIS in Singapore, Dubai, Taiwan and Iran.

A rigorous examination of the motivations, sources, obstacles to and consequences of China's drive to become a leading innovative nation.

Examining the issues facing smaller regions and countries, John de la Mothe explores how innovation, strategy and interdependence shape their performance, competition, and futures. Innovation and interdependence are central elements of advanced and advancing economies. In our globalized world, the production of knowledge is continually evolving. This is reflected in the design of institutions and in the results on the standards of living that are achieved and sustained. It also implies new forms of competition. Increasingly, smaller countries, regions and cities that do not fit into traditional theories of growth are becoming leaders in technology-intensive products and quick followers in innovative practices. Often heavily committed to large emerging economic markets (such as China and India) and political hegemons (such as Germany, Japan, and the United States), smaller nations, regions and cities are playing an almost unprecedented role in the shape of things to come. By examining the texture of the new economy, paths to constructing advantage, and aspects of the cultures that lead to the new economy, this book provides a valuable and essential guide to scholars, policymakers, strategists and students.