China's Regional Inequality in Innovation Capability, 1995-2004

Relying on a recently developed decomposition framework, this paper explores spatial distribution of innovation capability in China. It is found that at the regional level, China's inequality in innovation capability increased from 1995 to 2004. At the provincial level, the inequality decreased from 1995 to 2000, but increased from 2000 to 2004. Location, industrialization and urbanization, human capital, and openness (foreign direct investment) are significant contributors to the inequality in innovation capability. Unbalanced development in high-tech parks exerts a growing explanatory power in driving innovation disparity, which implies that institutional factor plays a direct role.innovation, regional disparity, inequality, decomposition, Asia, China

Integration of Online Market Place and Main Street in Michigan Communities: Drivers, Impacts, and Policy Implications

Against the reshuffled retailing landscape and the decline of traditional retailers, a hybrid strategy of combining online market place with main street, or dubbed as “click-and-mortar” electronic commerce, has gained increasing traction as a local proactive strategy due to benefits of cost-savings, improved differentiation, enhanced trust, and market extension (Steinfield et al, 2002). This proposal is to examine how online market place and main street can be best synergized for Michigan communities. The research questions are: (1) How have local business integrated e-commerce and reaped benefits of such integration? How have the built environment been transformed, either through a change in function for main street stores or the growth of fulfillment centers and logistics operations? (2) What are the key drivers and barriers that have affected the realizations of these benefits? What strategies may increase the integration? (3)What are the implications of exogenous factors, such as globalization, trade regime change, and tax regulations? A composite index to assess effective click-and-mortar integration will be developed based on the literature on the integration of click-and-mortar e-commerce, major benefits and pitfalls, strategies and best practices, and exogenous factors. Secondary data on click-and-mortar e-commerce of Michigan local business and communities at the county level or other local level will be collected and analyzed. Survey and interviews of local business and community will be conducted to identify drivers and barriers and strategies of the integration of on-line and physical structure of the business. A Co-Learning Plan and presentation materials (for REI) will be developed based on these research efforts

Made in China : the rise of the Chinese domestic firms in the information industry

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2003."September 2003."Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-214).This research uses a multi-case analysis approach to study China's catching-up as a late-industrialized economy in the information and communications technology (ICT) industries. The significant contributions of this study are: the staged catching-up theory framework, the findings from the cases, and the policy implications. This study contributes to the late-industrialization literature by filling its theoretical gap--how domestic firms can catch up when there is strong MNC presence and what is the role of innovation capability. I develop a staged catching-up theory that can be used as a framework to analyze the successful catching-up process of domestic firms in a late industrialized economy while facing strong MNC presence. The theory describes the behavior of domestic firms, the behavior of MNCs, and the role of government, as well as the spatial implications of each stage. The case studies prove that Chinese domestic firms in the information industries have followed a path of catching-up that can be described by the staged catching-up theory, and innovation capability and self-developed technologies were the ultimate driving force that has enabled leading domestic firms to catch up with the MNCs in the telecom-equipment and PC manufacturing industries. This research validates that government involvement has rewarded the companies' efforts in building innovation capability and developing proprietary technologies. This research has implications for how China can catch up, especially through developing domestic firms' innovation capabilities, in high-tech manufacturing areas despite the strong presence of MNCs.(cont.) Also relevant is how other countries or regions, either late industrializing countries or less-developed regions in developed countries, can use the findings from this research to facilitate the development of their local firms in high tech industries. The research stresses that domestic firms should prioritize building innovation capability from the very beginning to ramp up their competitiveness and to survive in the filtration stage, even though its benefit may not be so distinguished in the growth stage. It also suggests domestic firms focus on in-house R&D development to build their innovation capability, supplemented with external alliances, since the latter's effectiveness is conditional on the strength of the former.by Peilei Fan.Ph.D

Albedo changes caused by future urbanization contribute to global warming

The replacement of natural lands with urban structures has multiple environmental consequences, yet little is known about the magnitude and extent of albedo-induced warming contributions from urbanization at the global scale in the past and future. Here, we apply an empirical approach to quantify the climate effects of past urbanization and future urbanization projected under different shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs). We find an albedo-induced warming effect of urbanization for both the past and the projected futures under three illustrative scenarios. The albedo decease from urbanization in 2018 relative to 2001 has yielded a 100-year average annual global warming of 0.00014 [0.00008, 0.00021] °C. Without proper mitigation, future urbanization in 2050 relative to 2018 and that in 2100 relative to 2018 under the intermediate emission scenario (SSP2-4.5) would yield a 100-year average warming effect of 0.00107 [0.00057,0.00179] °C and 0.00152 [0.00078,0.00259] °C, respectively, through altering the Earth’s albedo

Prospects for the sustainability of social-ecological systems (SES) on the Mongolian plateau: five critical issues

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A design and implementation of a general-purpose translator for IPv6/IPv4 (GT64)

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-66).by Peilei Fan.S.M