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Technological entrepreneurship concerns the transformation of potentially viable technological opportunities into profitable businesses. Technological entrepreneurship is recognised as a key driver of successful technological innovation. In addition, matching technological opportunities with local market needs is a characteristic feature of Chinese technology firms' catch-up and innovation potential. However, extant research on technology and innovation management has yet to fully include entrepreneurship insights in the study of innovation, especially in Chinese firms. With this aim, the paper identifies and investigates the relationships between a number of internal and external factors and technological entrepreneurship. Using a multi-disciplinary and multi-level literature review and findings collected through case studies and interviews in 74 Guangdong technology firms, the paper presents possible explanations concerning the relationship explored and discusses their theoretical and practical relevance, with particular reference to the role of support policies, IPR enforcement and personal relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large domestic market of China has provided opportunities for Chinese firms to implement successful product innovations based partially on imported technology. This paper analyses the secondary product innovations as redesigning and reconstructing the original product architecture of first movers in order to adapt to the customer needs in the domestic market. We have found that latecomers can implement secondary product innovations for the domestic market in three ways: architecture localisation (adjusting to general local needs), customer-triggered special design (changing to penetrate segments with special needs), and derivative integration (reconstructing/recombining components). Considering those implementation methods, there has been an induction of secondary product innovation stages in Haier washing machines. This paper contributes to latecomer market adaptation and product architecture issues in addition to the traditional technological catch-up analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how the technological ecosystem extension facilitates the technology substitution in an emerging industry. Specifically, this paper has three findings: 1) the technological ecosystem with an expanded scope including supply, demand and intermediaries; 2) two type of ecosystem extension as the bottom-up and top-down ecosystem extension; 3) the determinants of sustaining the ecosystem extension. We have conducted in-depth interviews in the Chinese low-speed electric vehicle industry, which adopted the bottom-up ecosystem extension by comparing with the traditional car industry with top-down ecosystem extension to the emerging EV industry. This paper also offers managerial implications to the focal firms and policy makers to capture the emerging opportunities within an ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the economic growth and social cognitive theory, this paper investigates the effects of management strategies-based factors (knowledge management process competence and innovation capability) and dynamic capabilities-based factors (rewards system and marketing fit) on corporate growth in the Chinese high technology firms. The results show that the knowledge management process competence, innovation capability, and marketing fit exert significant effects on corporate growth. In particular, this study identifies a significant curvilinear relationship between innovation capability and corporate growth. The findings suggest that both management strategy-based and dynamic capabilities-based factors should be considered in achieving long term corporate growth in Chinese high technology firms. These results have important implications for researchers investigating the determinants of high technology firms' growth performance in transitional economies as well as practitioners seeking to improve corporate growth. This paper concludes with a discussion of the implications and limitations of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research suggests that in international joint ventures (IJVs) between firms from diverse cultures, partner related factors are of importance for the successful management of the joint venture. This paper reports the study of IJVs formed by Singapore firms in People's Republic of China and India. Since Singapore and China share a common Confucian culture, it was expected that a Singapore firm's approach to joint venture formation in India will differ significantly from its approach to joint ventures in China. The results, however, suggest that the partner selection process follows a different logic in Confucian societies, and Singapore firms were as successful in forming IJVs in India as in China. The paper further explores the influence of Confucian ethics and values on the formation of Chinese business networks. Findings also suggest that Singapore firms have bought into the Confucian value system, and the argument that partner commitment and trustworthiness are critical to long-term, harmonious and successful joint ventures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong's post-war catching up with economically advanced nations is well documented. Starting as a piece of 'barren rock', the island economy has emerged as the 'Mart of East Asia'. While there are numerous explanations for the success from neoclassical development economists, few studies have focused on the technological strategies and paths of Hong Kong's manufacturing firms, the chief economic actors. This paper attempts to interpret Hong Kong's economic success by examining its national innovation systems. More specifically, this paper investigates the technological catch-up paths taken up by Hong Kong's manufacturing firms. It will argue that manufacturing firms in Hong Kong in general took on imitative strategies. Their capability development routes are attributed partly to organisational learning and partly to Hong Kong's unique physical, political and cultural environments. Relying on three major imitative strategies, namely 'reverse value chain' strategy, 'reverse product life cycle' strategy and 'process capability specialist' strategy, manufacturing firms in Hong Kong were able to compete and survive in the global markets. Furthermore, by extending their competence in managerial and consultancy services, firms in Hong Kong evolved into regional coordinators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The software industry in the People's Republic of China has been growing rapidly over the last decades and has played a significant role in the economy. Alongside the industrial development, it appears that a comprehensive competitiveness assessment of this growing industry needs to be conducted. This paper draws on Porter' s 'diamond' theory of competitive advantage of nations and the suggested improvements of the framework from relevant scholars to assess the growing competitiveness of China's software industry. In particular, the focus is on the role of government policies and corporate strategies in shaping the competitiveness of the industry in China in comparison to the top players in the world. Specifically, the paper pays attention to the competitiveness of industry in China as to how and why it has developed the way it has in recent years and what have been the facilitating and impeding factors that has strengthened or weakened the industrial development. In the discussion and conclusions, the overall competitiveness status of China's software industry is evaluated and the diamond framework is reappraised in light of the industrial analysis and the previous research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the development of Hi-tech Industrial Development Zones in China. Following the historical review and simple comparison of Economic-Technological Development Area (ETDA) and Hi- tech Industrial Development Zone (HIDZ), it examines three management models of HIDZ: government-oriented, enterprise-oriented and comprehensive management models. Furthermore, the paper explores HIDZ roles on Chinese economic development. Finally, it summarily analyses the new four trends of HIDZ in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines R&D collaboration of Chinese firms along the growth of innovation capability from the portfolio perspective. Taking advantage of longitudinal patent data from the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) between 1985 and 2008, the configuration, evolution and pattern of collaboration partner portfolio of Chinese firms are investigated. The results show that: 1) Chinese mainland enterprises (CMEs) are active to engage in R&D collaboration, while most Taiwan-invested enterprises (TIEs) and foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) still develop innovation capabilities on their own; 2) the partner portfolios of CMEs with high growth rate are characterised by a smaller number of partners, lower level of repeated partnerships and higher collaboration intensity, while the low-growth CMEs just show an opposite trend; 3) universities have gradually become the most prominent partners of both high-growth and low-growth CMEs, but the firms are also experiencing a significant growth in their portfolios. By contrast, the role of research institutes is decreasing rapidly, especially in low-growth CMEs. Finally, four typical collaboration patterns are drawn from in-depth analysis of Chinese collaborating firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates how complex product systems (CoPs)-based innovation ecosystem is created in terms of structure and interactions among players, as well as how technology, value and capability evolve at different stages of an innovation ecosystem. Based on an exploratory case study on the innovation ecosystem of a nuclear power giant-China general nuclear power group (CGN) for the period 1987-2014, this paper presents a framework to explicate the micro-foundation of the formation mechanism of an innovation ecosystem for CoPs. Three ecosystem stages are identified: ecosystem incubation, ecosystem figuration and ecosystem self-renewal. Through the three stages, CGN has been extending its ecosystem gradually from core business to extended network and ecosystem periphery. This study provides theoretical and managerial implications for building and managing innovation ecosystems in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic transformation occurs via innovative technologies. This paper presents the challenges faced by the Chinese cosmetics industry in achieving strategic transformation by exploring how firms innovate strategically to compete based on their typology. The constituents of strategic innovation were analysed by 19 types of strategic innovation. Miles and Snow business-level strategy typology was extended to analyse the choices among defenders, analysers, and prospectors. MANOVA was used to analyse data. Results indicated that different types of firms focus on different types of strategic innovations. Prospectors focus on strategic innovation that improves new market creation, defenders on the improvement of product and service value, and analysers on competitive disruption. This research improves the understanding of strategic innovation in the Chinese cosmetics industry based on the typology of firms as a tool of strategic transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instant messaging (IM) is a popular internet application. In China, there are more than ten IM products competing with each other. Of them, Tencent's QQ owned and managed by a young Chinese entrepreneur is in a dominant position taking about 90% of the market share. This paper identifies the factors that determine the wide adoption of QQ by students and staffs in a Chinese university, which are social influence, enjoyment and communications effectiveness associated with this IM. Practical implications for young entrepreneurs as the main forces of IM business are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuing globalisation of the world economy, countries seek to develop and support their venture capital market. Whether venture capital really can trigger innovation or not at all is of interest not only to academia but also to commercial firms, venture capital institutions and government agencies. Based on statistical data collected from the Chinese market, this paper aims to provide material insight on, firstly, whether venture capitals can influence innovation and, if so, by how much; and secondly, whether venture capital leads innovation or whether it is innovation which leads developments in venture capital. The innovation of the sample firms is quantified by the consideration of patent counts and associated productivity growth. The sample firms collected from a group of innovation active industries are selected by a number of discriminative covariates widely cited in the extant literature. The empirical findings demonstrate that venture capital has a positive but limited impact on innovations in the current market. Innovation and productivity growth in particular may also be triggered by the growth potential of firms. We therefore propose a few possible unique factors to explain the underlying mechanism of venture capital in promoting innovation within the context of the Chinese market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the 'catching-up' process of China's emerging wind turbine manufacturing ecosystem, and analyses the dynamics of the shifting collaborative innovation network for the period 1980-2011. We have focused on the leading wind turbine manufacturers [i.e., manufacturers of entire wind turbine system integrators (EWSIs)], as well as manufacturers of the turbines' sub-ecosystems (i.e., four key component provider manufacturers: blade, gearbox, generator and control system). A network analysis method was adopted to depict the evolutionary process of the wind turbine manufacturing ecosystem. In summary, this research explores: 1) the different technology accumulation/localisation patterns in four different phases of the manufacturing ecosystem, and the collaborative innovation network; 2) the different roles and their interactions in the wind turbine manufacturing ecosystem in China; 3) the driving forces of the evolution of the wind turbine manufacturing ecosystem. The findings aim to demonstrate the evolutionary trajectory of China in terms of the 'catching-up' of this industry, and contribute to theories of the business ecosystem lifecycle and complementary assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is essential for economic development and critical for firms to remain competitive. However, Chinese firms lag behind developed economies in terms of innovation, as measured by investments in R&D. R&D investments are more likely to be subject to financial constraints than ordinary investments as a result of higher risk and longer gestation periods. Using a unique World Bank survey of 12,400 manufacturing firms in China, this paper investigates the effects of financial constraints on firm R&D activities. We find that the access to a bank line of credit is positively and statistically significantly associated with firm R&D. We further use an exogenous shock of credit crunch caused by macroeconomic control policies in 2003-2004 to identify the effects of financial constraints on R&D. We find robust evidence that firms adversely shocked by the credit crunch reduced or even ceased R&D investments. Our findings highlight how financial constraints in fact reduce R&D investment in countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing variability and turbulence of the external environment have brought more uncertainty to enterprises' survival and development. To enhance the capability of adapting to the external environment, enterprises have to constantly improve their organisational flexibility. Organisational unlearning has positive effects on organisational flexibility since it can eliminate the internal factors that conflict with the external environment. In this paper, a conceptual model is established and examined based on the data of 248 questionnaires from Chinese enterprises to reveal the relationships among organisational unlearning, organisational flexibility and organisational innovation capability. Our research results reveal that organisational unlearning has significant effects on both incremental innovation and radical innovation. Furthermore, we also find that organisational flexibility partly mediates the relationship between organisational unlearning and incremental innovation, and fully mediates the relationship between organisational unlearning and radical innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China became the second-largest economy behind the USA in 2010. While there is quite some macroeconomic research documenting the technological catching-up of China as a nation, there is only little research studying how individual Chinese firms are catching up. This paper draws on the open innovation perspective to explore how Chinese firms improve their innovative performance. Our empirical analysis is based on a sample of 91 native Chinese firms in high-tech industries. The results indicate that Chinese firms widely implement an open innovation approach to strengthen their innovative performance. These firms use: 1) technology in-licensing agreements to obtain access to technologies; 2) long-term alliances with foreign partners to access state-of-the-art technologies; 3) collaboration with local universities and R&D institutes to broaden their technological strengths; 4) collaboration with the local industrial community to deepen their technological skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanotechnology research has emerged as a monumental scientific endeavour worldwide. Over the past decade, China's nanotechnology publication activity has grown exponentially at an annual rate of about 20%. International collaboration plays a major role in this Chinese research advance. This paper explores these nanotechnology collaboration patterns and collaborators' performance through bibliometric and text mining analyses to draw policy implications for promoting further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas extant literature has explored the question of why foreign R&D is present in China, we still know almost nothing about how these R&D operations are managed. This applies specifically to the management of Chinese R&D staff who conventionally are not known for their respect of foreign firms' intellectual property rights (IPR). However, foreign R&D units in China are likely to have developed management techniques to deal with such problems. In this paper, we engage in qualitative and quantitative exploration of how foreign R&D units in China manage their Chinese R&D staff. For exploration we develop a conceptual framework on the basis of agency theory and the theory of trusted relationships. Our findings show that those R&D units that have developed adequate measures to manage their Chinese R&D staff have succeeded in making Chinese employees loyal to the R&D unit. These results have important implications for both practitioners and future empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various factors affect a firm's choice of sources of product innovation. Understanding these factors is important for firms to be able to choose sources of innovation based upon their specific conditions. Earlier research has identified many of these factors, mainly by focusing on the internal factors of firms in developed countries. However, there is still a lack of empirical studies of external factors, especially in terms of the relationship between different factors and the choice of sources of innovation in developing countries. This paper examines the determinants of the choice of innovation source for Chinese firms. Based on a combination of participatory studies, interviews and a survey of more than 400 firms in China, it finds that the innovative ideas of other firms are still the most frequently used source of innovation for Chinese enterprises. The links between a firm's choice and its market environment, industry technological opportunities, firm size and R&D intensity are also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a perspective of Urban-Airshed Carrying-Capacity (UACC) concept for air pollution abatement in Tangshan Municipality, China. A 3D Multi-Box Air Quality Prediction (3DMBAQP) model was developed for predicting daily average SO2, TSP and PM10 concentrations in each sub-box of different municipal Function Zones (FZs). A 6-step procedure was designed to determine the UACC levels for each pollutant. The abatement amounts for each zone can then be obtained. The study results can be used by municipal authorities to develop effective initiatives to allocate abatement amounts among different emission contributors and thus improve local air quality in a long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the recent development of industrial technology in China using a rich and novel Chinese patent dataset, which allows us to get a comprehensive view of the invention activities in China. Combing patent statistics with R&D and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) indicators, we found that the R&D activities at local universities and research institutes were the most important external factors behind the increase in domestic firms' patenting activities. FDI, on the other hand, appeared to have a negative effect on domestic firm patenting, at least until foreign market demand for domestic production is established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the four-dimensional model of service innovation, this paper investigated the determinants of innovative dimensions in KIBS, which has been never studied against developing countries. Survey data were collected from 245 persons from 88 knowledge intensive business service firms. Regression analysis shown that strategic attention, supportive culture, differentiation market and variation in demand have made positive effects on innovative dimensions in KIBS of the People's Republic of China. On the other hand, innovative behaviour of individual workers did not affect the innovative dimensions in KIBS of the People's Republic of China in a direct manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of computer-mediated communities rises from people's needs to gather and participate in informal public spaces in everyday life and their primordial wish to look for a sense of 'community'. Internet service providers set up privately owned platforms in the internet and people join in voluntarily for sharing information about the specific topics of their common interest. Using a case study approach, we present in this paper the organisation and business model of China Software Developer Net, one of the most successful virtual professional communities in China, with more than one million members in early 2006. We discuss how the community platform was designed to build up a dynamic communication environment facilitating information sharing and enhancing community cohesion. In particular, we highlight the underlying business model showing how the community service operator makes use of the CSDN virtual community to build up a diversified business portfolio, making this virtual community the core component of its value chain and generating sustainable revenues from multiple sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the impact of knowledge innovation on new product creativity in China's High Technology industry. The results show that the knowledge innovation-new product creativity connection is contingent on reward system, top management support, technical skills adequacy and marketing fit. The findings suggest that top management support, technical skills adequacy and marketing fit moderate the relationship between knowledge innovation and new product creativity. The implications for China's High Technology industry and further research have been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the linkage among the industry and policy environment, firm-level resources and capabilities, and the success of learning strategies in China's handset makers. Within a particular context — characterised by a large domestic market, disintegrated technological regime, established foreign firms and supportive government policies — these firms were able to exploit their own specific advantages and were also able to acquire new resources and capabilities, quite rapidly emerging as serious competitors in the domestic market vis-à-vis global incumbents. These latecomers have tightly linked their product innovation efforts to the local market characteristics and have created competitive advantages through their distribution channels. Our findings have strategic implications for new entrants in other industry and national contexts, and also for research on the critical conditions and processes supporting successful technological learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the viewpoint of the whole organisation, the capabilities of a firm can be classified into technological capability and organisational capability. Nowadays, how to accelerate the rate of building up and accumulating technological capabilities is of vital importance to the latecomer companies in order to catch up with technological frontier companies. Technological capability encompasses the Information Technology (IT) capability and other technical but non-IT capabilities. In this paper we focus on the IT capability and its effect on a firm's performance and propose an integrated framework that provides the latecomer firms with a roadmap to build up their capabilities and improve their performance. The purpose is to advance an understanding of the relationship among IT capability, organisational capability, and firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing volume of research is being done to investigate the Chinese venture capital industry. Yet very little has contributed to examining the difference between the Chinese domestic venture capital industry and its foreign counterparts. It is because of the economic forces, particularly the financial frameworks that confer the Chinese venture capital industry with a unique figure: the Chinese venture capital serves not only as traditional venture capital, but also as an alternative financial mechanism, a legitimate yet much more flexible and efficient finance substitute to bank finance. This paper examines the Chinese venture capital industry in a bigger context: China's financial system reforms and its unique structure of the transitional economy. Venture capital means more in China. It serves multiple goals. To further promote venture capital in China, different driving forces have to reconcile their differences, and be consistent in their objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to describe the regional development of high-tech industry through the spatial overlap of regional innovation capability and high- tech industrial zones. Mapping the regional distribution of high-tech industrial zones and innovation capability, the differentiation between them was displayed. The most developed high-tech industry provinces were Guangdong and Jiangsu, but the most innovation capability provincial units were Beijing and Shanghai. Using a dissimilarity analysis about compositions of innovation capability and high-tech industry, it indicated that the high-tech industry was promoted mainly by the techniques outside the areas other than the knowledge in the developed provinces. Generally, technique copies had more importance for the high-tech industry than original innovation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the nature of industrial and technological development in Hong Kong in order to tease out the modes of innovation that existed in this Asian Newly Industrialised Economy (ANTE) since the 1950s to the present. The mode of innovation in Hong Kong from the early 1950s to mid- 1990s was systemic in nature and that it conforms to a variant of the national innovation system (NTS). Embedded in the export-led industrialisation of Hong Kong is a framework of innovation that is different from the other ANTEs - South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. Since the mid-1990s, and especially after the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China in 1997, Hong Kong's innovation system has been more interactive and horizontal, which has some family resemblance to the `Triple Helix' government-industry-university system, which is a stylised version of NTS. The new innovation system is dynamic and appears to have been driven by an apparent objective of steering Hong Kong in the direction of an innovation-driven economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many third-party logistics (3PL) providers in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region are small to medium companies, which play an important role in outbound logistics, managing logistics activities in the manufacturing supply chain in the Greater China. It is necessary for these companies to improve information transparency to their supply chain partners to maintain competitiveness. In this paper, a logistics information management platform known as Integrated Logistics Information Management System (ILIMS) is presented to suit this need. ILIMS aims to provide 3PL companies a uniform way of doing business with other trading partners and managing operation performance online. Besides, it enables 3PL companies to communicate with different trading partners on the internet without geographical restriction. A case study is presented with the application of ILIMS to a medium-sized 3PL company. With this generic system, the overall outbound logistics performance of the supply chain was significantly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]