Diversity of institutional architectures underlying the technological system in Asian economies

Abstract

This paper assesses whether the institutional architecture underlying the technological, systems in Asian economies are different from that of advanced economies, the possible existence of varieties of institutional architectures within Asian economies, and the characteristics of individual architectures. Our empirical analysis finds that Asian economies are similar, in that, the institutional domain, that is, the “state”, plays the most important role as a hub, combining other domains to bolster technological systems. We also find six clusters regarding technological architectures underlying the individual technological systems. These are as follows: India and the Philippines, characterized by a stagnant technological architecture; Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand, possibly dependent on agriculture and primary export products; China, with a vast internal market and whose architecture is distinctive in “science”; Korea and Japan, characterized by a well-established institutional architecture sustaining the technological system; Singapore and Hong Kong, which are open market-oriented and supported by a developed financial market; and Malaysia and Taiwan, where these individual countries are similar to Singapore and Hong Kong, and Korea and Japan, respectively. It follows from these findings that there are multiple institutional architectures promoting the technological system that could contribute to sustainable long-term economic growth in Asian economies.