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Ying Shih
Ying Shih is a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for East and Southeast Asian Studies, Lund University. He received a PhD in Business Studies from Uppsala University in 2009. Currently his research is concerned with research, innovation and industrial policy in Taiwan and Japan, with a focus on the relation between science and business development.
Current Research Projects:
Taiwanese industrial policy:
The promotion of industrial development and economic growth is a vital issue for governments all over the world. The ideals guiding policymakers in their endeavours are that innovations based on new and advanced knowledge are central for industrial and economic development. In this context an issue highlighted by local as well as national governments has been how to construct a system that can develop cutting-edge science and then transfer it to the business world for use. Although identified 'generic' features of successful regions such as Silicon Valley, have been copied there are few examples of how ambitions to 'artificially' create policy supported high-tech based business regions and industries have succeeded. But one of the few successful examples of policy created high-tech industries often mentioned is the Taiwanese semiconductor industry. The envisioned development path of the Taiwanese semiconductor industry forms the foundation of contemporary Taiwanese industrial and innovation policy. This industrial development model applied on biotechnology in Taiwan, however, has been widely criticized for not fulfilling its promises. This research project aims to increase the understanding of this observation and sets out to investigate how new solutions and resources become in business structures.
Contemporary Japanese research policy:
The traditional function of universities has been education and research. Under this charter the proverbial term “ivory tower” came to become a notorious description of the university, i.e. an institution in isolation and independent of society. Lately this picture of universities has become somewhat revised. Shortly before the shift to the new millennium comprehensive policy efforts to revitalize the academic sphere and make it a direct contributor to societal value creation were implemented in a large part of the advanced world. Today universities are to be active stakeholders in both the development of society and economic growth (the so called third mission). In particular the notions of excellence and innovation have been driving government policies for change. This has also resulted in new institutional arrangements aimed at reaching the goals of excellence and innovation. The main drivers to these recent changes in the long history of universities can be summarized in two points. First, universities throughout the OECD have been affected by tighter constraints in public funding. The rationale to support research with often only indirect benefits for society through public means is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. In light of this change, the growth of other funding sources has dictated new sets of norms. Second in order to make nations more competitive in the face of increasing globalization, national governments have sought to better utilize universities as a strategic asset and source of knowledge. Since the 1980s governments in many advanced nations have increased the rate of transfer of academic research to industry as a part of a broader initiative to improve national economic performance. In this project I discuss the effects of such developments and the viability of related government policies. In a larger context the project aims to create an increased understanding of the role and performance of new institutional arrangements at universities and their ability of meeting the demands of excellence and innovation.
Last modified 14 Nov 2011
