Suttmeier, Richard P.

East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (EASTM - Universität Tübingen)

106 EASTM 29 (2008) 
Henry S. Rowen, Marguerite Gong Hancock, and William F. Miller (eds.), Mak-
ing IT: The Rise of Asia in High Tech. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 2007, 
xviii, 388 pp. 
 
Richard P. Suttmeier 
 
[Richard P. Suttmeier is a Professor of Political Science, Emeritus at the Uni-
versity of Oregon. He has written widely on science and technology development 
issues in China. His current research includes an NSF-supported study of the 
role of science and technology in China-US relations (http://china-
us.uoregon.edu/index.php), the role of technical standards in China’s technology 
policy, and Chinese approaches to the management of technological risks. His 
most recent publications include: “‘The Sixth Modernization?’ China, Safety, 
and the Management of Risks.” Asia Policy 6 (June, 2008); “State, Self-
Organization, and Identity in the Building of Sino-US Cooperation in Science 
and Technology.” Asian Perspective 32, 1, 2008; and Standards, Stakeholders, 
and Innovation: China’s Evolving Role in the Global Knowledge Economy, with 
Scott Kennedy and Jun Su, National Bureau of Asian Research, September 
2008.] 
 
 
The emergence of the information technology (IT) industry in Asia symbolizes 
both the growing share of the world’s wealth coming from Asia and the diffusion 
of modern scientific and technological capabilities beyond the Atlantic region. 
The Asian IT industry also contains many of the critical nodes in the global pro-
duction and innovation networks which are such important defining characteris-
tics of the global economy. But, the rise of Asia as a major player in IT also 
raises many questions about scientific development, technological innovation, 
and political economy which this volume seeks to answer. As presented by editor 
Henry S. Rowen in his introduction to this interesting book, these include: 
 
Why has Asia emerged so strongly in this industry? What 
were the similarities and the differences in the strategies used 
among these countries? What accounts for their different 
specializations? How did their firms and government decide 
what to make and how to make it? Why have companies clus-
tered in particular localities? ... What roles have various insti-
tutions played―governments (national and local), universi-
ties, research institutes, financial institutions, legal profes-
sions, and so forth? (p. 2) 
 
To advance our understanding of these issues, the Stanford Project on Regions of 
Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-
Pacific Research Center at Stanford organized a series of seminars beginning in 
107 Reviews 
2002 to bring together national experts from Asia to address IT development in 
their countries. Making IT presents the reports of these specialists, along with a 
set of crosscutting thematic analyses comparing the national experiences. 
Following Rowen’s overview chapter, the book is divided into four parts. The 
first, on Japan as “Early Developer”, is then followed by three chapters on Tai-
wan, Singapore and Korea under the rubric of “Three Asian IT Tigers”. Chapters 
on China and India constitute the third part, “The Recent Arrival of Two Giants”. 
“Common Themes” are explored in the fourth part with useful chapters on the 
role of governments in shaping IT industries, the nature of venture capital in 
Asia, and a comparative assessment of university industry relations in Asia and 
the US. Missing from the study, curiously, is a discussion of Malaysia as a site 
for both foreign investment in IT and ambitious indigenous development efforts 
by the government. 
Comparisons with the US inform much of the volume, with Silicon Valley be-
ing taken as the paradigm case of regional IT development, venture capital, and 
high-tech entrepreneurship. Industrial clustering is thus an important theme in 
each of the country chapters, especially those on Taiwan, Korea and China where 
the discussion is organized around the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, 
Daeduk Science Town and Tehran Road (named for Seoul’s sister city in Iran) 
and Beijing’s Zhongguancun respectively. Each of these chapters are fine case 
studies that pull together much of what is known about the evolution of these 
regional development experiences. The juxtaposition of the paradigm case and 
Asian experience is especially interesting in discussions of innovation and entre-
preneurship, clustering, and industry start ups in the chapters by Ken-ichi Imai 
and Noboru Maeda on Japan, given its efforts to reorient its national innovation 
system following its prolonged economic slump in the 1990s. 
In attempting to identify common features explaining successful IT develop-
ment, the book identifies the importance of positive economic growth policies 
and active government promotion of IT in particular, a “strategic openness” to 
the international environment, the cultivation of a critical mass of scientists and 
engineers, access to foreign technology―and especially linkages to the United 
States―and financial system changes which opened the industry to equity, as 
well as the more traditional bank finance. Interestingly, in the period covered, 
universities played little role as sources of technology. Within these common 
features, however, there was considerable national variation, and it was only 
Japan which exhibited a capacity for indigenous innovation (and was less reliant 
on foreign technology) during the years of industrial development studied. This is 
sure to change, and indeed, already has. In their concluding reflections on what 
lies ahead, the editors rightly call attention to Asia’s dynamic IT markets and the 
demands for innovation they generate, the prospects for further financial change 
and venture capital development (the current financial crisis, of course, was not 
anticipated), and the fact that the higher education and R&D systems in the re-
gion are rapidly increasing in capability. 
108 EASTM 29 (2008) 
Overall, the chapters in this book are of high quality. Changes in the Asian IT 
industry are fast-moving and it is not possible for a study such as this to include 
all the latest developments. Nevertheless, it offers stimulating, informative, and 
authoritative accounts of the enduring issues that affect IT in the region. The 
volume should therefore serve as an important standard reference in what has 
become a very large literature on the subject, and would be a very useful addition 
in advanced courses on Asian political economy and high-tech industrial devel-
opment. 
 


Henry S. Rowen, Marguerite Gong Hancock, and William F. Miller (eds.), Making IT: The Rise of Asia in High Tech

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Henry S. Rowen, Marguerite Gong Hancock, and William F. Miller (eds.), Making IT: The Rise of Asia in High Tech

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