Building Innovative Communities: Lessons from Japan's Science City Projects

Japan's Science City projects are examined in this paper to find the extent that they promote catalytic mechanisms within their communities. It is arguable that the concept of a Science City is little more than a theme for funneling public funds into infrastructural development in support of select high-technology industries. Is this the situation in Japan? Attention focuses on cumulative causation, resource sharing and the shifting mix of private sector initiative and public policy in the evolving cases of Tsukuba and Kansai Science Cities. Regional technopolis projects are also discussed. Can we expect any of these areas to fulfill the promise, detailed in the Kansai Science City Second Stage Plan Report, of being a "pilot model city" deploying "innovative and experimental community development"?technopolis; regional planning; development; cumulative causation; catalytic mechanisms

Between vision and reality: promoting innovation through technoparks in Kazakhstan

A common motivation for the technopark movement is the belief that technoparks promote innovation and economic growth at regional and/or national levels. The paper analyses the role of technoparks as instruments of innovation promotion in Kazakhstan using data from a firm survey and interviews. Our results suggest that, unlike what is assumed in the innovation policy literature, technoparks do not house firms dealing with the commercialisation of innovations that are ready for introduction to the market. Technopark firms are no more innovative than other firms. They are oriented largely towards the local market, and operate in traditional sectors; the frequency and intensity of their external links are more developed than are their internal links. The key motivations for relocating to a technopark seem to be lower rents and the possibility of accessing finance. Overall, Kazakh technoparks seem to be successful in terms of facilitating business incubation, but much les so in terms of innovation promotion and diversification of the economy. Currently, Kazakh industry does not make any demands for local R&D, and its sources of competitiveness lie in non-R&D activities. This suggests that innovation policy should focus on assisting companies to upgrade their technological capabilities to the level that they can articulate their R&D demands. Focusing on technoparks as the main mechanism to improve competitiveness and diversify the economy is an ineffective and uncertain a policy option at this stage of the country's economic development. However, there seems to be significant scope for supporting business incubation. These conclusions are of relevance to other emerging economies

Spatial Planning and High-tech Development

High-tech development—which lies at the very heart of the processes of economic growth—has been recognised by many developed and developing countries as a strategic instrument to enhance and sustain their competitiveness in the global economic network. Although the concept of high-tech development differs between countries, many share the underlying assumption that the core of high-tech development is to create a sound environment where innovation thrives. This ideology implies a definite spatial dimension. As a result, various spatial strategies have been formulated and implemented to support high-tech development. This has had intentional and unintentional effects on the economy, society and space. Numerous studies have been devoted to exploring, analysing and theorising this global phenomenon. However, there has been less attention given to the role spatial planning may play in the process of high-tech development and to the factors that shape the spatial planning approaches to high-tech development in a particular place. The major objectives of this research are to advance the knowledge of the role of spatial planning in the process of high-tech development, and to establish an analytical framework that helps reveal the major institutional factors that shape spatial planning mechanisms for dealing with the spatial issues of high-tech development in different places. This contributes to the field of high-tech spatial policies transfer and lesson-drawing. In order to explore the major factors that shape the practices of spatial planning in hightech development, a comparative approach is applied in this research. The Eindhoven city-region in the Netherlands and the Hsinchu city-region in Taiwan are selected as case study areas. Both city-regions can be recognised as success stories of high-tech development not only on a national scale but also on a global scale, despite the fact that they apply different approaches. In the Eindhoven city-region, the governments act as supporters and governors. High-tech development in the city-region is a result of close collaboration between different levels of government and other parties. In contrast, in the Hsinchu city-region the governments act as providers in high-tech development. By critically reviewing relevant literature, the research begins with the identification of principal components of high-tech development and their spatial dimensions, and with the establishment of a set of comparative frameworks, which are built upon the concepts of institutionalism and previous comparative studies of spatial planning systems. On the basis of the frameworks, the comparative study is conducted. Four major conclusions are drawn in this research. First, R&D capital, relational capital and human capital can be identified as the principal components of high-tech development, but the conception of the principal components is not static. It may change through time and space, and be influenced by contemporary technological development and dominant discourses about high-tech development. Additionally, how governments in a particular place conceptualise the principal components will influence the content of their strategies for high-tech development. Second, how governments in a particular place use their spatial planning system and tools to conduct, facilitate and/or coordinate the development of high-tech spaces is influenced by the socio-political context (e.g. model of society, administration system and conceptualisation of rights in land), conceptualisation of the principal components, dominant style of spatial planning, but also by their historical roots and contemporary technological capacities. At the city-regional level, the particular culture characteristics and historical experience of a city-region also have effects on the approach to spatial governance. Third, it is common that governments recognise the necessity of collaborating with knowledge institutes and high-tech firms in the process of high-tech spatial development, because they have access to a wide range of know-how and crucial resources. The creation of new institutional arenas to invite institutes and firms to participate in the process of decision-making is a good strategy for governments, although they must assure that the decision-making process is transparent and accountable, and meets the principles of social justice. Finally, the two cases have shown that a successful high-tech spatial development would have spatial effects on the surrounding areas, such as traffic congestion, imbalance between land supply and demand for housing and/or industrial land, and so on. It is necessary to anticipate and monitor continuously the externalities of the development from a more comprehensive perspective and to leave room for adjustment to the spatial planning and governance approaches. The analytical framework built upon the institutional concepts of Ostrom and Scharpf worked well in this research, but in the process of conducting the empirical study I found that the framework of institutional analysis I established for the empirical study implied a temporarily fixed situation for analysis. Such a framework did create an easier situation for analysis, but proved difficult to use to investigate and explain the dynamic interrelationships between the changing institutional contexts and the decision making of high-tech spatial planning at a specific place and time. While considering this limitation, I adopted a diachronic approach to complement the empirical study of part three, in order to understand the influences of prior institutional developments and specific episodes on later policy/decision making and action taking. In the future, if other studies consider applying the frameworks of this research, the effect of historical path dependency has to be taken into consideration

Critical success factors in science and technology parks: a bibliographic review and analysis

Science and Technology Parks (STPs) are of great importance in the business context of the region in which they carry out their activity. They are one of the main mechanisms of public and private initiatives for the promotion of research, development and innovation and transfer of technology. The main purpose of this type of institution is not a purely economic but also sociocultural benefit, which makes them an adequate investment from the point of view of public institutions. They promote the creation of companies and agreements with universities and research centers, generate jobs and attract technology-based companies. Therefore, they require a detailed assessment to understand their operation and generate action plans and models that new parks or those that are still in the early stages of growth may follow. Thus, this study focuses on identifying the main Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for STPs from a literature review and evaluating the importance of the main variables that appear in the literature on the advancement of STPs to group them according to its operational characteristics

Towards urban high-technolgy clusters : an international comparison

This paper presents the results of a comparative study of 23 urban or regional high-technology clusters (media, ICT, energy, biotechnology) all over the world, analyzing how they were created, how they are managed and how they operate, and the strategies followed to improve and excel in their fields of action. Special attention is given to issues related to descriptive aspects, R&D, performance of the clusters, location factors and incentives to attract companies. The empirical analysis applied to the identified clusters was done through a questionnaire sent to the representatives of the cluster's management. When analyzing the data, the study has combined quantitative and qualitative methods, depending on the information to be processed. The data collection was done through a selection of indicators chosen in order to cover the different elements that cluster literature coincide in consider essential to develop a competitive economic cluster in urban regions. The main obstacle we find with the information available to carry out this study has been its heterogeneity and different quality of the data. 22@Barcelona appears to be in a good position to compete with other excelling clusters, but it still needs to improve in areas such as financial supply for R&D and start-ups and coordination between the different actors involved in urban economic development. Our research also contributes to the discussion on the role of public institutions in the cluster development policies. In the clusters studied here, especially in 22@Barcelona, we have seen that a capable and resourceful public administration can determine the success of the cluster initiativ

Housing the knowledge economy in China: An examination of housing provision in support of science parks

Little attention is paid in the extant academic literature to the question of housing knowledge workers despite the potential mismatches between housing supply and demand. This paper provides an initial examination of housing the knowledge economy in China, focusing on three science parks (SPs): Zhongguancun (Z-Park, Beijing), Zhangjiang (Z-SHIP, Shanghai) and Optics Valley of China (OVC, Wuhan). It discusses to what extent, and how these three SPs have factored in the housing dimension in connection with the knowledge economy, paying particular attention to housing affordability, location (inside the SPs or outside in the wider city-region) and the mode of provision (market or state). Insights were drawn from documentary analysis and in-depth interviews in the three chosen case studies. Initial evaluation of policies geared towards housing supply in China suggests that the housing question needs to come to the fore in discussions of structural transformation towards the knowledge economy

What Permits Small Firms to Compete in High-Tech Industries? Inter-Organizational Knowledge Creation in the Taiwanese Computer Industry

This paper addresses a puzzle related to firm size and competition. Since Stephen Hymer´s pioneering contribution (Hymer, 1960/1976), theories of the firm implicitly assume that only large, diversified multinational enterprises can compete in industries that combine high capital intensity, high knowledge-intensity and a high degree of internationalization. Small firms, by definition, have limited resources and capabilities and are unlikely to possess substantial ownership advantages. They also have a limited capacity to influence and shape the development of markets, market structure and technological change. One would thus expect that they are ill-equipped to compete in a knowledge-intensive industry that is highly globalized. Taiwan’s experience in the computer industry tells a different story: despite the dominance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Taiwan successfully competes in the international market for PC-related products, key components and knowledge-intensive services. The paper inquires into how this was possible. It is argued that organizational innovations related to the creation of knowledge are of critical importance. Taiwanese computer firms were able to develop their own distinctive approach: due to their initially very narrow knowledge base, access to external sources of knowledge has been an essential prerequisite for their knowledge creation. Such “inter-organizational knowledge creation” (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) was facilitated by two factors: active, yet selective and continuously adjusted industrial development policies; and a variety of linkages with large Taiwanese business groups, foreign sales and manufacturing affiliates and an early participation in international production networks established by foreign electronics companies. A novel contribution of this paper is its focus on inter-organizational knowledge creation. I first describe Taiwan´s achievements in the computer industry. The dominance of SMEs and their role as a source of flexibility is documented in part II. Part III describes some policy innovations that have shaped the process of knowledge creation. The rest of the paper inquires how inter-organizational knowledge creation has benefited from a variety of linkages with large domestic and foreign firms; I also address some industrial upgrading requirements that result from this peculiar type of knowledge creation.knowledge creation; learning; small firms; networks; firm strategy; industrial policies;