Junbo Yu

Governing technological entrepreneurship in China and the West

China’s effort in the past two decades to develop technological entrepreneurship by means of establishing science parks and business incubators is unique in terms of both its large scale and the speed with which this has been achieved. This paper attempts to contribute on the understanding of China’s technological entrepreneurship promotion programs by positioning their policies and practice against an international context where the governance model appears to show much variation. Distinctive features identified for China after a broad comparison, however, draw attention to two major discrepancies between policy discourse and practice: 1) contrary to the claims of central policy makers that science parks were established to help nurture capabilities in domestic corporations, it has becoming increasingly clear that foreign direct investment (FDI) is considered the key to their success; 2) instead of being embedded in the local milieu as an interface for R&D, industry and education, technology transfer and commercialization in business incubators still heavily rely on funds and subsidies from the central government, and thus barely contribute to local entrepreneurship development.

Methodological challenges and institutional barriers in the use of Experimental Method for the evaluation of business incubators: Lessons from the US, EU and China

Despite their worldwide adoption by policy makers as the Holy Grail for entrepreneurship and business development, the effectiveness of business incubation programs remain elusive, primarily plagued by untenable evaluation methods. This paper develops an in-depth analysis on those methodological and institutional factors that prohibit the use of theoretically sound solutions such as the Experimental Method in evaluation practice.

The Spatial Dynamics of China's High-Tech Industry: An Exploratory Policy Analysis

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the development of China’s high-tech industry, not only because it reflects China’s domestic achievement in transforming its industrial structure, but also because it represents a challenge, from a global perspective, to the preeminence of the technological competitiveness of developed countries (Chen and Shi 2005; Gilboy 2004; Jefferson 2005; Liu and Buck 2007). However, existing studies largely concentrate on describing and analyzing the temporal dynamics of China’s high-tech industry against a global competition scenario rather than drilling down and exploring more details of the issue from a complementary point of view (OECD 2007, 2008). As a result, apart from a convinced impression that China’s production and R&D investment is soaring in high-tech industry, very little is known about the spatial pattern of China’s high-tech industry, the underlying factors that drive the formation and evolution of this pattern, its profound socioeconomic influences on crucial issues like regional competitiveness and disparity, and their implications for policymaking. The objective of this paper, in response, is to address the gap in studies on China’s high-tech industry from a spatial perspective.

Industrial Cluster Analysis, Entrepreneurship and Regional Economic Development

This paper clarifies the cluster concept and how clusters are identified, nurtured and grown as elements of regional economies, with a special focus on food specific clusters.