Knowledge Sources of Innovation in a Small, Open Economy: The Case of Singapore

By tracing the flows of patent citation of prior patents and scientific journal articles, we investigate the sources of knowledge for innovation output in Singapore, a small, highly open economy that has traditionally been significantly dependent on foreign multinational corporations (MNCs). We found that the local production of new knowledge by indigenous Singaporean firms depends disproportionately on technological knowledge produced by MNCs with operational presence in Singapore and scientific knowledge generated by foreign universities. Locally produced new knowledge by indigenous firms and local universities constitute an insignificant, albeit rapidly growing, source for innovation in Singapore.innovation system, patent citation, Singapore, knowledge sources

Availability of Financing, Regulatory Business Costs and National Entrepreneurial Propensity

In this paper, we focus on two barriers to entry that may hinder the formation of new firms: capital requirements and regulatory business cost. The contribution of this paper is twofold: we compare the availability of different types of financing sources to address the issue of capital requirement and we utilise a new measure of business cost by constructing a composite index using data from the World Bank’s Doing Business Database. Using cross-sectional data on 37 countries that participated in the 2002 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, we examine the effect of availability of financing and regulatory business costs on the propensity of three different types of entrepreneurial activity:opportunity-driven, necessity driven and high-growth potential new firm formation. The availability of three types of financing sources is analysed: traditional debt financing, venture capital financing, and informal investments. The findings show that only informal investments significantly influence the propensity to be entrepreneurs. Regulatory business costs were found to deter opportunity driven entrepreneurship, but had no impact on other types of entrepreneurial activity.entrepreneurial activity, financing, venture capital, informal investment, business cost

Singapore as an innovative city in East Asia : an explorative study of the perspectives of innovative industries

The city-state of Singapore has achieved rapid economic development in the past by its positioning as an efficient business hub in Asia. To remain competitive in the global knowledge economy, however, Singapore needs to move beyond efficiency by developing a strong"innovative"edge as well. This paper examines the challenges that Singapore faces in seeking to do so through an explorative survey of 40 firms from three innovative sectors: high-tech manufacturing industries, knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), and creative content industries. Overall, while the survey confirms Singapore's continuing competitive strength in efficiency infrastructure, it also finds a favorable perception of Singapore as an innovative city. Indeed, many of the industry actors indicated that an efficient business infrastructure is a prerequisite for locating their innovative activities in Singapore, suggesting that the relationship between innovation and efficiency is complementary, rather than substitutional. While the study found that intellectual property and its protection are widely recognized by actors in all three sectors, interesting differences exist. In particular, intellectual property protection appears to be of greater concern to the high-tech research and development-intensive manufacturing sector and the creative contents sector than to the KIBS sector. Another interesting difference is that while competition in high-tech innovation tends to be global, competition in creative content tends to have a stronger local or regional dimension. Public policy in East Asia has traditionally emphasized the development of technological innovation capabilities in the manufacturing sector. In light of the findings, public policymakers may need to be more sensitive to the nuanced differences in policies needed to promote the new creative content industries and the associated supporting KIBS.ICT Policy and Strategies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies

The Impact of R&D on the Singapore Economy:An Empirical Evaluation

Much of the literature on the impact of R&D on economic performance is founded on the advanced countries, where the intensity of R&D expenditure has been relatively high and stable for many years. In this paper, we provide empirical estimates of the impact of R&D on the economic growth of a Newly Industrialised Economy, Singapore, where R&D expenditure intensity has been low initially, bur rising rapidly in recent years. The Cobb-Douglas based analysis provided empirical evidence that R&D investment in Singapore had a significant impact on its total factor productivity performance in the last 20 years and established a long-term equilibrium relationship between R&D investments and TFP. However, compared to the OECD nations, the impact of R&D investment on economic growth in Singapore is not as strong, as evidenced by lower estimated elasticity values. The long run elasticity of output with respect to R&D was computed to be 8.1% for Singapore compared to long run elasticities of over 10% estimated by other researchers for OECD countries. This suggests that Singapore still has some way to go in catching up with the advanced nations in terms of R&D productivity. This not only means increasing the level of R&D intensity in Singapore but also more efficient exploitation of domestic R&D activity.Economic Growth, R&D Expenditure, Total Factor Productivity

The price Asian venture capitalists pay to work in Silicon Valley

They pay higher valuations due to their lower social status rather than social network disadvantages, write Jing Zhang, Poh-Kam Wong and Yuen-Ping H

Recurrent disturbances and the degradation of hard coral communities in Taiwan

Recurrent disturbances can have a critical effect on the structure and function of coral reef communities. In this study, long-term changes were examined in the hard coral community at Wanlitung, in southern Taiwan, between 1985 and 2010. In this 26 year interval, the reef has experienced repeated disturbances that include six typhoons and two coral-bleaching events. The frequency of disturbance has meant that species susceptible to disturbance, such as those in the genus Acropora and Montipora have almost disappeared from the reef. Indeed, almost all hard coral species have declined in abundance, with the result that total hard coral cover in 2010 (17.7%) was less than half what it was in 1985 (47.5%). In addition, macro-algal cover has increased from 11.3% in 2003 to 28.5% in 2010. The frequency of disturbance combined with possible chronic influence of a growing human population mean that a diverse reef assemblage is unlikely to persist on this reef into the future

Hong Kong Renal Registry Report 2012

SummaryThis report examined the characteristics and trends of dialysis and renal transplant patients among the resident population of Hong Kong who were managed by hospitals or dialysis centers of the Hospital Authority, and accounted for approximately 95% of all patients receiving renal replacement therapies (RRTs) in the territory. Patients receiving RRTs solely in the private sector were not included in this report. Data trends from 1996 to 2011 are presented. In 2011, 1115 new patients were accepted into RRT programs, and the incident rate was 157 patients per million populations (pmp). An increasing trend was noted. The incident rate was 95.1 pmp at the commencement of the annual report in 1996. The point prevalence on December 31, 2012 was 8197 with a prevalence rate of 1152.5 pmp. Overall, there were 3573 patients (43.6%) on peritoneal dialysis (PD) and 1246 patients (15.2%) on hemodialysis (HD), and 3378 patients (41.2%) were living with a functioning renal transplant. The PD/HD ratio was 74.2:25.8. The “PD First” policy was continued. The overall mortality rate among RRT patients was 9.95 patients per 100 patient-years exposed. There was a decreasing trend in mortality among PD patients. Infection and cardiovascular complications were the most common causes of death. Renal transplant was the modality with the best survival rates. The 5 years cumulative patient survival rate for patients on transplant treatment was 89.6%, whereas the corresponding patient survival rates for PD and HD patients were 50.7% and 55.7%, respectively. More than 70% of RRT patients with reports on rehabilitation were active and had normal daily activities

Associations of the perceived benefits and harms of COVID-19 with confidence in coping with the pandemic and mental health symptoms: a population-based survey in Hong Kong

IntroductionBoth perceived benefits and harms of COVID-19 have been reported, but whether they affect confidence in coping with the pandemic and mental health remains uncertain.ObjectiveTo examine the association of perceived benefits and harms of COVID-19 with confidence in coping with the pandemic and mental health symptoms.MethodsA population-based survey was conducted on 7,535 Hong Kong adults from 22 February to 23 March 2021, when the 4th wave of COVID-19 was under control. Information on sociodemographic characteristics, perceived benefits (10 options) and harms (12 options) of COVID-19, confidence in coping with the pandemic (range 0–10), loneliness (range 0–4), anxiety (General Anxiety Disorders-2, range 0–6) and depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-2, range 0–6) was collected. Latent profile analysis was used to identify the combined patterns of perceived benefits and harms of COVID-19. The associations of combined patterns with confidence in coping with COVID-19, loneliness, anxiety, and depression were examined using linear regression (β coefficient) adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics.ResultsThe combined patterns of perceived benefits and harms were classified into benefit (n = 4,338, 59.3%), harm (n = 995, 14.0%), and ambivalent (n = 2,202, 26.7%) groups. Compared with the ambivalent group, the benefit group had a significantly higher level of confidence (adjusted β 0.46, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.58), and lower levels of loneliness (−0.35, −0.40 to-0.29), anxiety (−0.67, 0.76 to-0.59), and depression (−0.65, −0.73 to-0.57). The harm group had a significantly lower level of confidence (−0.35, −0.53 to-0.16), and higher levels of loneliness (0.38, 0.30 to 0.45), anxiety (0.84, 0.73 to 0.96), and depression (0.95, 0.84 to 1.07).ConclusionPerceived greater benefit from COVID-19 was associated with better mental health and stronger confidence in coping with the pandemic