Crisis and Innovation in Asian Technology

In mid-May 1997, a financial crisis erupted in Asia after an attack by private investors on the baht, the Thai currency. The crisis spread quickly across the region, where investor confidence plummeted, resulting in massive capital outflows, stock market collapses, high unemployment, and even insurrection. The Asian 'economic miracle' that had stimulated so much awe and even dread, now invoked pity and apprehension in greater measure. The contributors to this volume investigated change in the innovation and production systems of Asian states in response to economic and political upheaval. They conducted empirical studies of several regional industries - autos, semiconductors, and hard disk drives - and seven different national economies: China, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan. In the face of crisis and global competition, the Asian states superimposed change at the margins, seeking unique technohybrid solutions to build capabilities to compete in local, regional, and even global markets.

The economic crises in Asia at the turn of the millennium changed the innovation and business production systems of China, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan. This investigation follows several different industries, including semiconductors, automobiles, and hard disk drives. It explores the approaches that Asian nations have taken to building a strong technological and economic base for their respective industries from technonationalism to technoglobalism. It asks if the Asian economic miracle is over, or whether these countries are reinventing their economies.

This book is about the economic crises in Asia at the turn of the millennium. It explains how these crises changed the innovation and business production systems of China, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan, investigating several different industries, including semiconductors, automobiles, and hard disk drives.

Explains how the economic crises in Asia changed the production systems of seven Asian nations.

1. Innovation and the Asian economies William W. Keller and Richard J. Samuels; 2. Japanese production networks in Asia: extending the status quo Walter Hatch; 3. Crisis and innovation in Japan: a new future through technoentrepreneurship? D. H. Whittaker; 4. Crisis, reform, and national innovation in South Korea Linsu Kim; 5. From national champions to global partners: crisis, globalization, and the Korean auto industry John Ravenhill; 6. Crisis and adaptation in Taiwan and South Korea: the political economy of semiconductors William W. Keller and Louis W. Pauly; 7. China in search of a workable model: technology development in the millennium Barry Naughton and Adam Segal; 8. Economic crises and technological trajectories: hard disk drive production in Southeast Asia Rich Doner and Bryan Ritchie; 9. Continuity and change in Asian innovation William W. Keller and Richard J. Samuels.