Download PDF China Next Strategic Advantage MIT Press From Imitation to Innovation The MIT Press George S Yip Bruce McKern 9780262534758 Books

Product details Series The MIT Press Paperback 302 pages Publisher MIT Press; Reprint edition (September 15, 2017) Language English ISBN-10 9780262534758 ISBN-13 978-0262534758 ASIN 0262534754

China Next Strategic Advantage MIT Press From Imitation to Innovation The MIT Press George S Yip Bruce McKern 9780262534758 Books Reviews

• I've heard about Chinese innovation often, but never have I seen a book with so many examples and underpinned with such good research. The book is illuminating. 4 not 5 because it'smore scientific, and less narrative.
• Fantastic book - highly recommended
• A book written in an practice way, easy to understand. And discover the real China at current.
• That's a great book, very useful.
• China's next Strategic Advantage is a well written, comprehensive guide to the evolution of China from imitation to one of innovation based on scientic and consumer knowledge. The book attributes this paradigm shift to private sector innovations that are a result of cooperation between corporations private research , universities and large science and technology research parks established largely close to Bejing, Shanghai and Yanzi river delta and Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The Research Parks have mostly located along the coast but also encouraged in the interior. Supporting this development are a large contingent of Chinese Phds that often have their degrees from the top universities in the Western World. The book goes into a detailed analysis and make recommendations, documenting the risks and benefits of methods of doing business in China.
  The book starts by making the point that China was a technically advanced country in the 11th century leading the world in technical innovation, but for some reason became a imitator of western production. The book is relatively new, published in 2016. Written by GY Yip and Bruce McKern at MIT adds additional credibility to the the forecast.The direction of technologic growth domestically and globally is stongly supported by the Chinese Government through support of research and education policies. The authors comment on Intellectual Property Rights and provide information on a number of important related issues and strategies one must be aware of in order to conduct long term successful and cooperative business in China.
• I was interested in the so-called Chinese Strategic Advantage and was able to glance through Ch2 and Ch3 at a bookstore. After quickly going through Ch2 and Ch3, I was disappointed due to the faulty reasoning, irrelevant examples, and confirmatory bias. The book is mainly descriptive. Although there are examples of successful cases mentioned, most cases lack depth of discussion. For instance,
  
  In Ch2 (p. 41) the author aims to demonstrate “how Chinese companies innovate,” by using an example of Haier’s CEO pulling refrigerators with minor defects from the assembly line and then smashing the defective products with a sledgehammer. The act can be interpreted as a sign of showmanship and a determination to improve quality of products. However, there is a big difference between quality control and innovation. I consider the example to be irrelevancy.
  
  On p. 42, the author argues that there are many modes of innovation in China and the first one is cost innovation – China’s first advantage.
  There are 3 examples in a very short paragraph to argue that “low-cost labour can be applied to all the dimensions of innovation.”
  
  1. Many Chinese companies are deloying highly skilled labour in R&D and engineering to reduce costs. (Where can you find highly skilled Chinese workers who are happy with a low salary? The issue is related to productivity. You can have highly skilled but low productivity employees who earn low salaries.)
  
  2. Chint, a maker of electrical equipment uses automation to replace labour. (Anyone can substitute labour for automation but where the Chinese advantage is)
  
  3. COSCO reduces fuel consumption by 6 percent in 2010 adopting clean energy research (Why is this relevant? Are we talking about cost structure here?).
  
  There is nothing telling me where the cost advantage lays in these cases. Many paragraphs are written in the same style (heading, description, irrelevant examples).
  
  In Ch3, What is different about Chinese innovation?, the author distills 10 ways of how Chinese companies’ innovation activities differ from those of western counterparts. You can read all of them on the kindle sampler. Nevertheless, most of them just make no sense and reverse what often considered to be bad practices in the west into good Chinese practices. For instance,
  
  • Acceptance of “good enough” standards (who determine what is good enough?)
  • Deploying large numbers of employees (what about communicate issues that grow exponentially with no. of people?)
  • Working employees harder (Innovation with a whip?)
  • Faster, less formal processes (what about QA?)
  • More intervention by the boss (boss knows best?)
  
  It seems that the author is happy to describe any activity that Chinese firms are doing as innovative by default, hence the bias. I would agree that some Chinese firm founders are innovative (e.g. DJI) but it takes a lot more to create an innovative company.
  
  My conclusion is that the word “innovation” is a catchy phrase in China and one needs to be critical when reading books related to Chinese innovation or strategic advantage.
• The most advanced application of new technology in the 11th century was in China's Kaifeng. It was a water-powered chain-driven clock, standing 13 meters high, displaying not only the time but also a variety of astronomical measures. China's discoveries of cast iron and steel technology predated those technologies in Europe by over 1,000 years. Other Chinese innovations prior to the 14th century included iron ploughs, fertilizers, wheelbarrows, horse collars, and veterinary medicine. They also introduced paper, explosives, lacquers, pharmaceuticals, moveable type, the compass, ships equipped with buoyancy chambers, rudders, and maneuverable sails. China's innovative abilities declined after the 14th century. Today, it is determined to not only catch up with the West, but to re-establish itself at the forefront of technological innovation. The ultimate intent is to enter high-value-high-margin sectors.
  
  It has already put a man in space, built the world's most extensive high-speed rail network, and created numerous successful companies in fields from heavy industry to the Internet. Early generic steps include mergers with and acquisitions (China has foreign exchange reserves close to $4 trillion) of successful Western firms (eg. IBM PCs, Motorola cell-phones, Volvo) to gain brands, technology, and markets. Others include creation of R&D centers overseas.
  
  Fifteen years ago, China was home to 200 foreign-run R&D centers; today, that number exceeds 1,500.
  
  China's share of articles published in leading international scientific journals has grown from 2.6% in 1999 to 14% in 2012 (U.S. at 19%).
  
  One of China's advantages is it's large market - fast adopters providing the ability to quickly amortize R&D costs.