Betting on biotech : innovation and the limits of Asia's developmental state / Joseph Wong.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wong, Joseph, 1973-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biotechnology industries--Korea (South).

Biotechnology industries.

Biotechnology industries--Taiwan.

Biotechnology industries--Singapore.

Industrial policy--Korea (South).

Industrial policy.

Industrial policy--Taiwan.

Industrial policy--Singapore.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (216 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

After World War II, several late-developing countries registered astonishingly high growth rates under strong state direction, making use of smart investment strategies, turnkey factories, and reverse-engineering, and taking advantage of the postwar global economic boom. Among these economic miracles were postwar Japan and, in the 1960's and 1970's, the so-called Asian Tigers-Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan-whose experiences epitomized the analytic category of the "developmental state. "In Betting on Biotech, Joseph Wong examines the emerging biotechnology sector in each of these three industrial dynamos. They have invested billions of dollars in biotech industries since the 1990's, but commercial blockbusters and commensurate profits have not followed. Industrial upgrading at the cutting edge of technological innovation is vastly different from the dynamics of earlier practices in established industries. The profound uncertainties of life-science-based industries such as biotech have forced these nations to confront a new logic of industry development, one in which past strategies of picking and making winners have given way to a new strategy of throwing resources at what remain very long shots. Betting on Biotech illuminates a new political economy of industrial technology innovation in places where one would reasonably expect tremendous potential-yet where billion-dollar bets in biotech continue to teeter on the brink of spectacular failure.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

Introduction: Betting On Biotech

1. From Mitigating Risk to Managing Uncertainty

2. Reorganizing the State

3. Organizing Bio-industry

4. Manufacturing "Progress"

5. Regulatory Uncertainty

Conclusion: Beyond the Developmental State

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8014-6338-6

0-8014-6337-8

OCLC:

760279915