China's Quest for Innovation : Institutions and Ecosystems

The transition from a catching-up style economy to an innovation-driven economy poses a major challenge for China. This book examines the major issues at stake, outlines developments in crucial business fields and industries, and discusses the roles of top-down politics and bottom-up entrepreneurship. It focuses in particular on the institutional foundations of innovation, arguing that successful innovation relies on the favourable interplay of business, politics, and society, and that comprehensive institutional and organizational changes will be required in China in order for innovation to succeed. Overall, the book assesses how far China will be able to depart from the Western paradigm of successful innovation regimes and create its own innovation system with Chinese characteristics.

Shuanping Dai is Junior Professor at the Institute for East Asian Studies and Mercator School of Management at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

Markus Taube is Professor of East Asian Economic Studies/China in the Mercator School of Management at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Director of the IN-EAST School of Advanced Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen and Co-Director of the Confucius Institute Metropolis Ruhr, Germany.