Innovation and organization: The rise of new science and technology enterprises in China

The computer information technology industry is among the fastest growing industries in China and is experiencing rapid technological change. Based on detailed case studies of the three largest and most innovative computer enterprises in China, the thesis addresses three related research questions: how did these enterprises develop their technological competencies? under what institutional and organizational framework, and why?; The case based analysis shows that these enterprises embodied a set of new organizational rules and practices that made it possible to effectively turn technological resources accumulated in the state sectors into commercial successes. The thesis focuses in particular on how the enterprise governance structure and the government regulatory regime influenced organizational learning and innovation. The three enterprises displayed two common features. One is their extra-budgetary sources of finance; the other is their ready access to the science and technology resources accumulated in the state sector. Corresponding to these two features are the processes of non-governmentalization and technology commercialization. The former allowed all three enterprises to develop managerial autonomy from the state. The latter involved a process of learning or capability acquisition among the enterprises, starting with the transformation of technological resources accumulated in the state sector to commercial products through a strategy of progressive integration of R&D, marketing, manufacturing and finance.; The thesis is intended to uncover the potential of evolving innovative institutional and organizational arrangements for promoting sustainable economic development in China. The findings of the thesis support an argument that successful economic transition from a centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented one involves institutional and organizational innovations. These social transformations are only comprehensible from the perspective that can comprehend the process of economic development.