Technological Innovation In Government Action - Theoretical Framework And Empirical Analysis

Since the concept of innovation was first presented by J. A. Schumpter in 1912, scholars have paid more attention to inner-firm research and development (R&D). They believe that the activity of technological innovation (tech-innovation) is always connected with the market value and business profit. So the participation and promotion of a single enterprise or entrepreneur alone is not enough to achieve the tech-innovation target. However, a new trend has appeared since the 1990s. Through sharing resources and advantages, the firms jointly exploit new techniques to face international competition. With the increasing intensification of international competition, the rapid mounting up of firm's R&D costs, firm's rising demands of scarce science and technology patents and the increasing risks related to industrialization of tech-innovation, a single firm can not ensure technological resources to drive a nation's or region's tech-innovation activities. The role of tech-innovation becomes more and more important in the national economy and has been turned into an important sign of a nation's integrate competition power. More and more countries, represented by American, Japan and some European countries, begin to strengthen the role of the government in the process of the tech-innovation. Research on government behaviors in tech-innovation has gradually attracted numerous scholars. Empirical methods such as statistics and case analysis are mostly employed in their studies. Comparatively, theoretical viewpoints are decentralized and have not formed an integrate theoretical system. In this monograph, the author attempts to employ the basic economic theories to explain the internal mechanism of the government's behaviors in tech-innovation, and empirically analyze the characteristics of government tech-innovation behaviors of China during the period of the economic transition.Firstly, based on the market failure theory, the author probes into the pubic good characters externalities and uncertainties in the process of tech-innovation. So a conclusion can be elicited that tech-innovation not only depends on collocating resources by market-mechanism, but also demands government behavior. That is to say, market failure is an important economic premise and government tech-innovation behavior. Secondly, the author goes deep into tech-innovation character and considers that tech-innovation includes several innovation stages which form an interplay. In these tech-innovation stages, the degree of public good character, externality and uncertainty is different. These differences cause different degrees of market failure. And only on the basis of these differences can we confine the borderline of government tech-innovation behaviors and establish reasonable tech-innovation policies.Thirdly, the author analyzes the avail of the main implements of tech-innovation policy and puts forward the principle and frame of the government tech-innovation behavior.Fourthly, the author attempts to make further theoretical analysis of the particularities of the government tech-innovation behavior during the economic transition. It is emphasized that, during the economic transition, the government take on the important task of cultivating tech-innovation objects and chasing after the advanced technology of the developed countries. Finally, the author generalizes the Chinese tech-innovation policy from 1980 to 2000, and brings forward a tech-innovation policy system from macro-lay,mid-lay and micro-lay which can provide a reference for government tech-innovation behavior.