Research Group 1 Innovation and the Chinese Economy

Institutions, Networks, and National Systems of Policies

Outline

Over recent decades, China has experienced successful development if measured in terms of its GDP. However, China has not developed its own excellent entrepreneurs and innovations accordingly. This project therefore investigates Chinese innovation strategies and explores the possibilities for improvement in innovation activities.

The essence of innovation is not only to create new products, new technologies and new management approaches, but also to open the social structure, to create conditions for the emergence of new institutions, to protect freedom of innovation, and to ensure the power of markets. In other words, innovation is a social phenomenon. This is our starting point for evaluating Chinese innovation strategy and the future of the Chinese economy.

Aware of the importance of social structure and interaction in innovation activities, we are developing a systemic approach to understand Chinese innovation policies.