Acting as an innovation niche seeder:how can the reverse salient of southeast Asian economies be overcome?
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Acting as an innovation niche seeder:how can the reverse salient of southeast Asian economies be overcome? Hsien-Chen Lo 1 & Ching-Yan Wu 1
& Mei-Chih
Hu 1
# Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Taking Southeast Asian emerging economies as an empirical case, this study explores how the reverse salients that have emerged during the transitional process may be overcome efficiently and effectively. In particular, three action-oriented case studies derived from a heuristic research approach are presented to show how Taiwan is empowering its universities and public research institutes to act as innovation niche seeders for Southeast Asian economies, thereby compensating for the weakness of their socio-technical systems (i.e. the reverse salients). Presently, the government-led policies of Southeast Asian countries are largely oriented towards incentivizing foreign multinational corporations to lead the development of domestic production networks. This strategy allows these countries to acquire the necessary resources for an economic transition in the era of digitalization, although at the expense of developing their own innovation niches. This study presents the urgency of a need for a new approach, and a new avenue for emerging countries to develop an effective and efficient governance model. The proposed model would allow external institutional mechanisms, such as universities and public research institutes, to act as critical intermediaries providing an alternative solution for the dilemmas faced by small and medium-sized enterprise-centric emerging countries. Policy implications for building sustainable sociotechnical regimes in Southeast Asia’s transitional emerging countries are also discussed. Keywords Southeast Asia . Reverse salient . Socio-technical regime . Innovation niche .
Taiwan
* Ching-Yan Wu [email protected] Hsien-Chen Lo [email protected] Mei-Chih Hu [email protected]
1
Institute of Technology Management, National Tsing Hua University, NO.101, Sec. 2, Guangfu Rd., 30013 Hsinchu, Taiwan
H.-C. Lo et al.
JEL codes O33 . O14 . I23 . O25 . L52 . F23
1 Introduction With an ambition to secure the techno-economic opportunities brought on by the era of digitalization, many emerging economies are experiencing profound socio-technical transitions toward more productive and competitive structures. As latecomers in technology development, emerging economies such as those in Southeast Asia (SEA) treat the sector of Internet of Things (IoT) as a critical leverage point to accelerate their transition (e.g. MIMOS Berhad 2015). Taking advantage of domestic markets as a test bed, local firms in SEA countries are increasingly prosperous while at the same time largely incentivized by state-led intervention. Inspired by the East Asian model, such state-led intervention is aimed at acquiring and securing necessary capital, advanced technologies and manpower for their transition, catching-up, and competition in the global market. While the model of incentivizing l
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