After a half century of transformative economic progress that moved hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, countries in developing East Asia are facing an array of challenges to their future development. Slowed productivity growth, increased fragility of the global trading system, and rapid changes in technology are all threatening export-oriented, labor-intensive manufacturing—the region’s engine of growth. Significant global challenges—such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic—are exacerbating economic vulnerability. These developments raise questions about whether the region’s past model of development can continue to deliver rapid growth and poverty reduction. Against this background, The Innovation Imperative in Developing East Asia aims to deepen understanding of the role of innovation in future development. The report examines the state of innovation in the region and analyzes the main constraints that firms and countries face to innovating. It assesses current policies and institutions, and lays out an agenda for action to spur more innovation-led growth. A key finding of the report is that countries’ current innovation policies are not aligned with their capabilities and needs. Policies need to strengthen the capacity of firms to innovate and support technological diffusion rather than just invention. Policy makers also need to eliminate policy biases against innovation in services, a sector that is growing in economic importance. Moreover, countries need to strengthen key complementary factors for innovation, including firms’ managerial quality, workers’ skills, and finance for innovation. Countries in developing East Asia would also do well to deepen their tradition of international openness, which could foster openness in other parts of the world. Doing so would help sustain the flows of ideas, trade, investment, and people that facilitate the creation and diffusion of knowledge for innovation.

After a half century of significant economic success, countries in developing East Asia face an array of challenges. Slowing productivity growth, increasing fragility of the global trading system, and rapid changes in technology are threatening the region's engine of growth: export-oriented labor-intensive manufacturing. Longer-term demographic and climate change, and the current COVID-19 pandemic, are increasing economic vulnerability. These developments raise questions about whether the past model of economic success can continue to deliver rapid growth and poverty reduction. Against this background, To the Frontier and Beyond examines the role of innovation in fostering future economic progress in developing East Asia. The report suggests policy and institutional reforms for innovation-led growth in the region.

The generation, diffusion, absorption, and application of new technology, knowledge, or ideas are crucial drivers of development. The authors examine the exceptionally fast growth in domestic innovation efforts in Korea, Taiwan (China), Singapore, and China, drawing on information about R&D as well as patent and patent citations data. They also use the World Bank Investment Climate Surveys to investigate sources of technological innovation in the other middle- and low-income East Asian economies. They then evaluate the role of three main channels for knowledge flows to East Asia--international trade, acquisition of disembodied knowledge, and foreign direct investment. Results from estimating an international knowledge diffusion model using patent citations data show that, while East Asian innovations continue to draw heavily on knowledge flows from the US and Japan, citations to the same or to other East Asian economies are quickly rising, indicating the emergence of national and regional knowledge stocks as a foundation for innovation.

Technology and technical change is sector- and industry-specific, embedded by locational institutions and organizations, and integrated in global networks. It is non-linear in its emergence and movement, and subsumed in the nature of micro, meso and macro interactions. Using evolutionary theory and its methodological complement of inductive research, this collection showcases selected examples of innovation and learning experience in the rapidly evolving developing economies of East Asia. Consistent with evolutionary postulations of technology and technical change, this volume provides a range of empirically rich articles that elucidate innovation and learning experiences in East Asia. The case studies range from the dramatic movement of button manufacturing in China, to the globe’s technology frontier, to the rapidly expanding but without tangible technological catch-up of garment manufacturing in the least developed country of Laos. The rich selection of industry-based national case studies provides a comprehensive account of technological catch-up experiences that will be very useful for both scholars and policy makers. This book was originally published as a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.

The generation, diffusion, absorption and application of new technology, knowledge or ideas are crucial drivers of development. This paper surveys the diverse approaches to innovation adopted by East Asian economies, the problems faced and outcomes achieved, as well as possible policy lessons. Knowledge flows from advanced countries remain the primary source of new ideas in developing economies. The authors evaluate the role of three main channels for knowledge flows to East Asia - international trade, acquisition of disembodied knowledge and foreign direct investment. The paper then looks at the exceptionally fast growth in domestic innovation efforts in Korea, Taiwan (China), Singapore and China, drawing on information about R&D as well as original analysis of patent and patent citation data. Citation analysis shows that while East Asian innovations continue to draw heavily on knowledge flows from the US and Japan, citations to the same or to other East Asian economies are quickly rising, indicating the emergence of national and regional knowledge stocks as a foundation for innovation. A last section pulls together findings about policies and institutions to foster innovation, under three heads: the overall business environment for innovation (macroeconomic stability, financial development, openness, competition, intellectual property rights and the quality of communications infrastructure), human capital development, and government fiscal support for innovation.

Haider A. Khan goes beyond the study of catch-up technology and raises the question of innovation processes that are the key to the future growth and prosperity of the East Asian economies. This is particularly important in the aftermath of the Asian financial crises that have cost these economies much. How can newly industrialized economies achieve cohesive systems of innovation for sustainable growth? The author offers a novel theory of innovation systems with concrete case studies to illustrate its usefulness.

East Asian economies of the 1980s and 1990s were among the most competitive exporters of manufactured products and sustained far higher growth rates than other countries, developing or industrial. Although recovery from the effects of the 1997-98 economic crisis began fairly quickly in some countries, others have yet to regain their growth momentum. Future competitiveness will depend on innovative capability in manufacturing and services, grounded in stronger institutions, improved macroeconomic policies, and closer regional coordination.