Research Focus
Asia’s economies have undergone rapid advance in the twenty-first century, but they face some severe challenges to their continued growth. Innovation has been a critical factor in powering Asia’s economic rise, but conditions for innovation in Asia often remain problematic. Recognizing the importance of innovation to Asia's future development, Shorenstein APARC’s Stanford Asia-Pacific Innovation project formulates a research agenda that seeks to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in East Asia through academic and policy research.
The project began with an inaugural conference that was held at Stanford University in October 2017 and explored how businesses and innovation clusters are organized in East Asia. Scholars from Asia and the United States convened to examine five economies—of China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan—and to provide a comprehensive, comparative analysis of the region. An edited volume collecting the findings and policy implications of the participants’ research, Shifting Gears in Innovation Policy: Strategies from Asia, was published in December 2020. This volume is intended to serve as a valuable reference for scholars and policymakers interested in Asia's future economic development.
In its next step, the Stanford Asia-Pacific Innovation research examined human capital and education policies that can help develop a more entrepreneurial and innovative workforce in East Asia, as well as on financial policies that can promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. These themes were at the core of the second project conference, held in Beijing in September 2018. A volume collecting the research outcomes will be published by the end of 2021. In 2019, the project shifted its attention to the intersection of aging, technology, and innovation, with a third conference held in South Korea. An edited volume collecting the findings and policy implications of the participants’ research, Demographics and Innovation in the Asia-Pacific, is forthcoming in May 2021.
The project continues with plans to hold the next, fourth conference in Tokyo.
