In Demystifying China’s Innovation Machine: Chaotic Order Marina Yue Zhang, Mark Dodgson, and David Gann point to China’s rapid digital transformation efforts, especially their significant impact on industry, product improvement, and supply chain. According to the authors, the innovation process is mostly accomplished by networks independent of the central government, which then adopts successful innovation. In Innovation in China: Challenging the Global Science and Technology System Richard Appelbaum et al. examine China’s state-led transition from primarily manufacturing based and exportation to advancement in science and technology, a move that has earned the China an increasing number of patents in those areas.
The “shrimp to whale” of Ramon Pacheco Pardo’s Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop is intended to contrast initial expectations for postwar Korea and Korea as an innovative economy, as a major producer of technology and the global influence of its popular culture—contemporary music, television, and film. In The Politics of Innovation: Why Some Countries Are Better than Others at Science and Technology Mark Zachary Taylor discusses a wide range of topics—for example, measurements of innovation and the popular trend (in literature on innovation) of classifying any new technology as innovation even if it is not an improvement on existing technology. Taylor presents a theory he calls “creative insecurity,” which he uses to explain the relationship of institutions, policies, and networks to political entities.
