"Fostering Indigenous Innovation Capacities": The Development of Biotechnology in Shanghai's Zhangjiang High-Tech Park

Abstract

The Chinese government has recently formulated a long-term strategy to "foster indigenous innovation capacities" across technology sectors. The government provides incentives to attract global R&D investment and strives to upgrade its economic structure to develop China into "an innovation nation." This paper examines the exact meaning of this policy in the context of biotechnology development in Shanghai's Zhangjiang High-Tech Park (ZJHP). We suggest that the role of the municipal state has been critical in the initial stage of biotech concentration in the park, and in the later stage biotech developments in ZJHP have been encouraged to become embedded in the global knowledge flow. The development of ZJHP reveals a hybrid approach to the governance of innovation in China, which combines the developmental state and entrepreneurialism at the scale of the science park as an urban project. [Key words: Zhangjiang High-Tech Park (ZJHP), biotechnology, innovation, research and development (R&D), governance.]

Emerging Chinese Cities: Implications for Global Urban Studies

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The Geography of Knowledge Sourcing, Personal Networks, and Innovation Effects: Evidence from the Biomedical Firms in Guangzhou, China

“…First, technological development in China in many fields is still lagging behind that in developed countries, and social interactions among Chinese professionals at the global scale may not be as productive as those of the westerners who have been highly embedded in global production networks [47,48]. Second, high-tech industrial development in China has been advanced by the central government since the mid-2000s and is promoted through top-down industrial plans [49]. Consequently, vicious intercity competition for resources from upper levels, local protectionism, and redundant construction have resulted in weak horizontal relations and less effective external social interactions between cities [50,51].…”