| The significance of high-tech is being increasingly recognized by many nations. It is now a strategic driving force for economic growth. Almost all the advanced economies in the world today boast a well-developed high-tech industry, which can create profits, increase labor productivity, boost social progress, and help establish a strong national competitiveness. For China, developing high-tech industry has particular importance. As the "manufacturer of the world", in order to upgrade its industrial structure from labor-oriented, resource-based to innovation-oriented, knowledge-based, one important direction is to develop high-tech industry and build a comprehensive national innovation system which makes full use of all the potential knowledge resources to increase national competitiveness. The researcher selects Jiangsu Province to analyze its high-tech industry since Jiangsu province has always been an economic leader in China besides one of the first main regions to face unskilled labor shortage. The severity of labor shortage problem signals Jiangsu’s decreasing comparative advantage in labor-intensive industry, and this has driven Jiangsu Province to put more focus in high-tech industry, with the expectation that it would be the new driving force for its future growth.The thesis studies Jiangsu’s high-tech industry from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. In the chapter on theoretical analysis, the researcher examines the Solow neoclassical model, the new growth theory, and the theory of creative destruction. In the empirical analysis, there are two sections. The first section is statistical analysis. This thesis does a comprehensive analysis of Jiangsu’s high-tech industry development from 2000 to 2012 from numerous aspects which include the overall output value, profits, exports and patents, as well as the impact of three major influencing factors:manpower, R&D fund, and foreign investment. The second section is to apply the VAR model to measure the relationship between high-tech output and the three influencing factors. Granger Causality Test and Co-integration Test are also applied to test the result.The researcher also analyzed the technological development in South Korea from four aspects:(1) the reasons why South Korea could be a workable model to learn from; (2) the history of South Korea’s high-tech development; (3) the characteristics of South Korea’s current development and its future focus; (4) what lessons Jiangsu Province could learn from South Korea.The main conclusions of the thesis are as follows. (1) In general, high-tech industry is dynamic and competitive. Previous good performance is no guarantee that one could stay safe in the current position for long. A latecomer, if keeps working hard, could become a high-tech forerunner. (2) Domestically, Jiangsu has grown to be a leading force for advanced technology development in China, and its current developmental phase of high-tech industry growth is very similar to that of South Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. (3) The influence of R&D, though not immediate in the short term, could be fairly large and positive in the long term. (4) Investment in fixed assets of high-tech industry is important because it could impose immediate and positive effect and lay the basic foundation for high-tech production and activities. (5) The most active and flexible input factor of the three influencing factors is the personnel engaged in high-tech activities. Though the overall number of R&D personnel in Jiangsu has increased, it is not easy for them to maintain a strong and persistent capability to innovate. Both the quantity and quality of R&D personnel are important. And it requires collective effort of R&D personnel, enterprises, and the government. (6) There are also problems worth addressing in Jiangsu’s development of high-tech industry like regional disparity, marginalization of small and private high-tech enterprises, low levels of knowledge creation in institutions of higher education, limited international component and societal innovation.In conclusion, the author lists some policy recommendations, including continue and keep enough input in R&D and investment, governmental support for small and private enterprises, promotion of university-business collaboration, and development of high-value service industry. |
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