Pathways to Innovation in Asia's Leading Electronics Exporting Countries: Drivers and Policy Implications

This paper was prepared for the Democratic Pacific Assembly 2003 Conference, "Common Future of the 21st Century Pacific," September 18-21, 2003, in Taipei, Taiwan. This paper offers a framework for exploring emerging pathways to innovation in Asian electronics industries, as well as their drivers and policy implications. The focus is on "stylized facts" rather than on the diversity of specific country trajectories. I demonstrate that the role of Asia's leading players in the electronics industry is changing - from global export production bases for hardware and software, a transition is under way to the creation of commercially viable innovations and standards. I argue that transformations in global markets, production and innovation systems are providing new opportunities for Asian firms that seek to improve their innovative capabilities. To exploit these opportunities, however, important changes are required in Asia's innovation strategies, policies and management approaches. I highlight the considerable potential of "technology diversification" strategies as an intermediate option for attempts to move beyond "fast follower" strategies. A completely revised and updated version has been published as: "Pathways to innovation in Asia's leading electronics-exporting countries - a framework for exploring drivers and policy implications", International Journal of Technology Management, special issue on "Competitive Strategies of Asian High-Tech Firms; Vol. 29, 1/ 2: 6-20.

3D printing and international security: risks and challenges of an emerging technology

"3D printing - or additive manufacturing - is a challenging dual-use technology: One and the same device can print toys or guns. The author explains the basics of the technology, describes its current applications, and provides an overview of its global diffusion. He shows the potential of this emerging technology and analyzes its possible risks with respect to the pro­lif­eration of small arms, major weapon systems, and even weapons of mass destruction. He investigates how 3D printing might pose serious challenges to national and international security. The author discusses first proposals of risk mitigation through safeguards, export controls, cyber security, awareness raising, and industry self-regulation." (author's abstract

Innovation of product modularity development through the integration of a formal Industrial Design framework

Growing numbers of global manufacturers are not only adopting the modularity concept, but integrating design methodologies that explicitly focused on achieving a range of competitive advantages through the enhancement of product appearance and utilities designs. The rising interest in industrial design is also an interesting symptom of changes in the approach to new product development, hence, integrating industrial design in modular product design posed a new challenge. In meeting these challenges, a formal Industrial Design framework known as InDFM (Industrial Design Framework for Modular Product Design/Development) was developed to support the innovation of design in modular product development. Within the InDFM, a methodology is developed for modular product design realisation. This research embarked with identifying the appropriate range of product as the focus of the investigation, followed by qualitative surveys on the design and development processes relevant to the selected product. The surveys were conducted in modular product companies within a range of industries related to the product, in the U.K., Belgium and Malaysia. Literatures reviews were also conducted on related domains across a range of application to understand the fundamentals of modularity and industrial design processes that are relevant to the domains. Data findings from these exercises were used to identify InDFM construction components, which were also vital to develop a technical standard for implementation of the InDFM. To evaluate its practicability, the InDFM was retrospectively applied in an existing modular product design process of a selected company. The evaluation focused on process compatibility of industrial design and modular design processes. Validation of the process compatibility emphasised the quality of integration at all stages of the design and development process. In conclusion, industrial design applications in a highly technical process of modular product design provide a design-driven innovation to complement the engineering driven innovation in the process. The combinations were proven to enhance the visual, interactive, and the feasibility contents of a modular product apart from providing a broader perspective to the objective of product modularity. InDFM also provides design practitioners with systematic design methodology to integrate both processes, thus performed as a tool for innovation that facilitate the revision of object identity, break away from the existing design rules and generating new rules. Additionally, as InDFM is a flexible methodology, innovation of modular product design through industrial design is accessible to any product company, small scale or big organisation that would want to acquire an advanced interactive version of the InDFM in the future

Late Innovation Strategies in Asian Electronics Industries: A Conceptual Framework and Illustrative Evidence

This paper was published in Oxford Development Studies special issue in honor of the late Professor Linsu Kim. The paper reviews evidence on the evolution of electronics design in Asia's leading electronics exporting countries, to establish what capabilities have been developed, and to shed light on the forces that are driving "late innovation" strategies. It also reviews intellectual sources that can be used to theoretically ground these hypotheses. Using a well-known taxonomy of innovation that distinguishes incremental, modular, architectural and radical innovations, and the concept of "disruptive technologies", I argue that Asian firms may have realistic chances to engage in incremental innovations as well as in architectural innovations. However, to sustain "late innovation" strategies over a longer period, "complex system integration" capabilities are necessary to provide the missing link.

More open than open innovation? Rethinking the concept of openness in innovation studies.

This paper re-examines the concept of open innovation developed in organization sciences (Chesbrough, 2003a). We claim that this paradigm, which insists on the distributive nature of innovation among a wide range of heterogeneous actors, does not put enough emphasis on the condition of access to knowledge. Yet, the open dimension of knowledge is a very important feature to sustain a collective mode of innovation. We propose therefore a stronger definition of open innovation, which is based on three constitutive characteristics: (i) Firms voluntarily release knowledge; (ii) Knowledge is open, i.e. is available to all interested parties without discrimination; (iii) dynamic interactions take place among the stakeholders to enrich the open knowledge base. Examples that fit our definition of open innovation are open science, user centered innovation (von Hippel, 2005), free-libre open source software, collective invention (Allen, 1983), etc. We conclude with a discussion on the role of IPR to secure open innovation.open source, free software, intellectual property rights (IPR), open innovation, collective invention.

Eco-Friendly Marketing: Beyond the Label

The science is unequivocal: every ecosystem in the world is in decline. Without significant intervention, the world’s inhabitants of almost 7.3 billion are in peril. In light of this imminent threat and as a response to market pressures, public outcry, and changing national and international policies, businesses are seeking to rebrand their products by adopting a more environmentally-friendly approach. From various certification processes to other forms of green marketing, eco-labeling has been trending and consumer engagement rising. But without a thorough analysis of a particular product, the consumer’s belief that he/she is helping to contribute to a solution, may be misplaced

The impact of military tension on economic growth: comparative study of Israel and South Korea

In development literature, there is a debate over what exactly causes rapid economic growth. There is a variety of opinions starting with market liberalization, big amount of FDI, support to education and healthcare and ending with good governance and development aid. This thesis suggests an alternative approach, when it comes to development – “people respond to incentives” and none of the well-proven strategies will work if the incentives are not right. Thesis suggests that military tension can be one of those motivators. Paper examines economic effect of military industrialization in Israel and South Korea, and more specifically spin-off effects of defense Research and Development. These countries are interesting because they spend the highest percentage of their GDP on Research and Development and bigger portions of these funding go to defense R&D. The research paper found out that in South Korea defense R&D has a significant correlation to innovation indicator which is patent applications per year. In Israel defense R&D data is classified which gives us a basis to think that their defense R&D is even higher than South Korea’s. Data indicating the money spend in other fields of R&D in Israel do not have a significant correlation with innovation indicator. In sum, the thesis suggests that there is considerable evidence to assume that military tension has a positive impact on growth rate. Also, thesis assumes that in the case of Israel impact might be less because the positive impact that defense R&D has on growth - compensates crowding out effects overall military burden intensified by wars.http://www.ester.ee/record=b5145085*es

Търговската марка като икономическа стойност и знак. Позиционирането като инструмент за създаване на отличимост

ABSTRACT: This article is dedicated on brand issues, especially on its role of economic value sign as well as social sign (symbol), and also comments the four main theories in marketing and advertising concerning communication positioning. РЕЗЮМЕ: Статията е посветена на проблемите на търговската марка и по-специално на нейната роля като икономически знак за стойност, както и като социален знак (символ); също така текстът обръща внимание на четирите основни теории, възприети в маркетинга и рекламата, които засягат комуникационното позициониране на брандовете