Absorptive Capacities for Sustainability Technologies:Perspectives from the BRICS and China

For the development process in the rapidly growing economies, knowledge transfer and technology cooperation are becoming important issues. Research and technological competences are key indicators for the absorptive capacity of sustainability technologies and for the ability to export them. These issues are analyzed empirically for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS). Sustainability related research in BRICS is mostly carried out within broader, more sector oriented programmes. Specialization patterns of international patents and in foreign trade indicate various strengths and weaknesses of the BRICS countries. The differences within the countries imply that the analysis must proceed at a technology specific level. China has considerable capabilities in technologies such as photovoltaics, solar thermal or buildings. There is a strong need for strategic positioning of the countries and for coordination of the various policy fields involved.

Interaction between Standardisation and Patenting: Problems and Solutions

Economic Rationales of Patents and Standards The ambivalence of patents and standards for technological development is triggered off by two different economic mechanisms:……

Measuring Scientific Productivity in China Using Malmquist Productivity Index

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the scientific productivity of China's science system. Design/methodology/approach: This paper employs the Malmquist productivity index(MPI) based on Data Envelopment Analysis(DEA).Findings: The results reveal that the overall efficiency of Chinese universities increased significantly from 2009 to 2016, which is mainly driven by technological progress. From the perspective of the functions of higher education, research and transfer activities perform better than the teaching activities.Research limitations: As an implication, the indicator selection mechanism, investigation period and the MPI model can be further extended in the future research.Practical implications: The results indicate that Chinese education administrative departments should take actions to guide and promote the teaching activities and formulate reasonable resource allocation regulations to reach the balanced development in Chinese universities.Originality/value: This paper selects 58 Chinese universities and conducts a quantified measurement during the period 2009–2016. Three main functional activities of universities(i.e. teaching, researching, and application) are innovatively categorized into different schemes, and we calculate their performance, respectively.

China’s Development of an Innovation-driven Economy-An Intermediate Assessment

China’s economic, technological and scientific achievements of the past years and decades are impressive. However, the country’s policy makers have even higher aspirations and therefore set up a number of policies to tackle the threat of the so-called middle-income-trap. This paper describes and discusses some of these policies, of which the Innovation-Driven Economy Development Strategy is seen as the backbone of current Chinese STI policy. The level of achievements as well as the expected developments is put into perspective by selected empirical data. We conclude that China’s industry will further improve its competitiveness in several sectors in the coming years. Western representatives need to wave good-bye to the ideas that China assimilates. At the same time, the era of the "land of gold" when China provides the world with low-cost products and buys high-tech goods from Western companies is over. However, if China intends to become a reputable member of the international STI community, the country should develop actively the nowadays often-demanded ‘level-playing field’. This would not only mean that China needs to accept and implement internationally agreed rules and institutions. It would also mean vice versa that Westerners accept the differences in the systems, the Chinese Way as well as the Chinese ‘market economy’, which is not meant to be the same like in Europe or North America.