Title: Road to industrial upgrading: policy design and implementation for encouraging industrial innovation in Taiwan

Authors: Hsueh-Liang Wu

Addresses: National Cheng Kung University, 1 Ta-Hsueh Road, Tainan 701, Taiwan, Republic of China

Abstract: Among Asia|s four little dragons for their considerable economic growth, Taiwan represents an interesting example of a country whose policy design stands between laissez faire and central planning. As Taiwan had reached the |investment-driven| stage by the beginning of the 1990s, the government was aware of the need for and started to transform the economy into the |innovation-driven| stage with a set of industrial upgrading measures. This paper aims to review systematically Taiwan|s approach to encouraging industrial innovation by examining the policies designed for each stage of the innovation process. Although the performance of industrial innovation in Taiwan has been credited by the international competitiveness ratings, the best practices of innovation policy continue to evolve and their full worth remains to be judged.

Keywords: technology development; technology dissemination; product development; policy design; policy evaluation; industrial innovation; Taiwan; regulation; public policy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPP.2007.012280

International Journal of Public Policy, 2007 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.140 - 162

Published online: 02 Feb 2007 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article