Innovation and Industrialization in Asia

Existing accounts of East Asia’s meteoric growth and structural change has either been explained as one dictated essentially by markets with strong macroeconomic fundamentals, or a consequence of proactive governments. This book departs from such a dichotomy by examining inductively the drivers of the experiences. Given the evolutionary treatment of each economic good and service as different, this book examines technological catch up with a strong focus on the industries contributing significantly to the economic growth of the countries selected in Asia. The evidence produced supports the evolutionary logic of macro, meso and micro interactions between several institutions, depending on the actors involved, structural location and typology of taxonomies and trajectories. The book carefully picks out experiences from the populous economies of China, India and Indonesia, the high income economies of Korea and Taiwan, the middle income economies of Malaysia and Thailand, and the transitional least developed country of Myanmar.

Chapters 1-7 of this book were originally published as a special issue of Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy.

Rajah Rasiah holds the Khazanah Nasional Chair of Regulatory Studies and is Professor of Technology and Innovation at University of Malaya, Malaysia. He is also a Professorial Fellow at UNU-MERIT. His research specialization includes science and technology policy, firm-level learning and innovation, healthcare services, foreign investment, cluster mapping and designing technology roadmaps.

Yeo Lin is Executive Director of the Industrial Development Research Center and Faculty member at the College of Public Administration, Zhejiang University, China. Her research focuses on industrial clusters, industrial development and policy, and on low carbon economy.

Yuri Sadoi is Professor at Meijo University, Nagoya, Japan. She specializes on automotive and electronics supplier networks.