1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910457717803321

Autore

Wong Joseph <1973->

Titolo

Betting on biotech [[electronic resource] ] : innovation and the limits of Asia's developmental state / / Joseph Wong

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, : Cornell University Press, 2011

ISBN

0-8014-6338-6

0-8014-6337-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (216 p.)

Disciplina

338.4/76606095

Soggetti

Biotechnology industries - Korea (South)

Biotechnology industries - Taiwan

Biotechnology industries - Singapore

Industrial policy - Korea (South)

Industrial policy - Taiwan

Industrial policy - Singapore

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

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.