Indigenous Innovation Research Articles

Indigenous Innovation among Hausa Farmers: An Opportunity for Farmer-led Development

In this paper I work through a case study of Hausa farmers in Niger, and I illustrate the system of innovation that I found operating in a small rural farming village near the town of Maradi. Understanding this system offers clues to similar systems operating among other groups, and it offers a concrete way to place African farmers in the driver's seat of their own development future. The primary approach to “grass-roots” or “bottom-up” agricultural development has been to engage folks by eliciting participation in farmers clubs, discussion groups, demonstration plots, and farm walks. These enlightened approaches are supposed to tap into the innate capacity of rural folk to direct their own development, or as Robert Chambers has said, to “hand over the stick” to the people. As good as these approaches are, they still amount to eliciting farmer participation in what facilitators are hoping to do. The problem seems to be the understanding that development requires innovation, and since African the farmers are not innovating, that spark must originate from outside of the community. On the other hand, the ideal of development has shifted from externally-led interventions to farmer-led projects, leading to a confusing, contradictory, and at times a fraudulent development endeavor where farmers pretend to lead and facilitators pretend to follow. Although in concept, the “farmer centered” approach to development is a dramatic improvement over previous top-down agency-led approaches, the contradiction between introducing innovation and insisting on farmer-led programs has not been solved. My journey living and working with rural farmers in Niger, West Africa from 1991–2005 brought to light a promising approach to solving this seemingly intractable dilemma: indigenous innovation. It should have been obvious all along: farmers already have a system in place for testing and disseminating innovation. Interestingly, the pre-existing system of innovation does not follow the dictates of the standard “Diffusion of Innovations” theory, possibly explaining why indigenous innovation of this sort had not generally been recognized and tapped by development facilitators. Understanding this African system promises to change the way we think about diffusion of innovations. More importantly, it has the potential to make good on the ideal of basing sustainable change on farmer-led innovation. Thus, rather than imposing external systems of innovation and asking farmers to “lead the way” to the future that we imagine for them, it can provide a mechanism whereby development facilitators participate in the African system of innovation. By recognizing and facilitating indigenous innovation, development agencies can partner with what farmers are already doing, thus paving the way to the future of Africa as imagined by Africans.

The new industrial revolution and industrial upgrading in China: achievements and challenges

One recent development in the area of manufacturing is the New Industrial Revolution (NIR). This paper examines the contours shaping the NIR, and analyses the challenges facing China in its pursuit to achieve technological parity with advanced nations. China’s economic rise is strongly associated with its ascending the technology ladder. The country is now the world’s workshop. As the labour-intensive strategy based on cheap labour has run up against its limits, policy makers have devised plans that focus on industrial upgrading, promote indigenous innovations and establish national brands. This way China would avoid the middle-income trap and eventually become an innovative powerhouse.

The dynamics of local upgrading in globalizing latecomer regions: a geographical analysis

ABSTRACTThe dynamics of local upgrading in globalizing latecomer regions: a geographical analysis. Regional Studies. By noting the spatial-less nature of the mainstream studies of industrial upgrading, this paper theorizes how local upgrading is affected by geographical heterogeneity at different scales in relation to three spatial factors: location, regional conditions and global competitive dynamics. In doing so, it argues that local firms can take advantage of these factors to access more resources for industrial upgrading instead of choosing from the limited options offered by previous studies such as state intervention or indigenous innovation. Three cases in the Pearl River Delta in China are presented to illustrate these local dynamics.

What is innovation anyway? Youth perspectives from resource-constrained environments

Innovation manifests itself in myriad forms in developing communities. A better understanding of the meaning and rationale for innovation, as perceived by the rapidly-growing youth population in developing countries, is pivotal to the design of practical and sustainable technology innovations and entrepreneurial ecosystems. This article presents the findings of interviews conducted with 271 youth across the rural, semi-urban, and urban areas of Kenya, Tanzania, India and Nicaragua. These provisional narratives explain how the next generation perceives innovation, and illustrates how cultural mechanisms and communal context bias innovative solutions for individual or community needs. The dynamic interdependence between innovation and the socio-cultural context is brought to life by juxtaposing narratives of respondents from Kenya and Tanzania, neighboring countries with starkly different histories. Different perceptions of what constitutes innovation is critical as it varies from location to location and impacts the likelihood of success of different technologies and innovations. Such similarities and differences in the major themes of innovations, driving factors, and rationales can inform and inspire innovators seeking to meld western and indigenous innovation frameworks to foster self-determined improvement of lives and livelihoods.

The effects of forward and reverse engineering on firm innovation performance in the stages of technology catch-up: An empirical study of China

Due to the lack of novel technology, most emerging economies are adopting a technology catch-up strategy by first imitating and then innovating, which leads to a complex but important interaction between technology imitation and indigenous R&D activity, both of which play important roles in the innovation production process of emerging economies. Accordingly, this study proposes a new analytical framework that takes into account both forward engineering, mainly characterized by R&D novelty, and reverse engineering, mainly characterized by technology imitation. Based on this framework, this study offers an in-depth analysis of Chinese high-tech firms. The empirical results show that reverse engineering positively interacts with forward engineering; Firms with input in reverse engineering have more innovation output and a greater level of innovation commercialization than firms without input in reverse engineering. Forward engineering has a greater direct contribution to innovation output and innovation commercialization than reverse engineering. By comparison, the reverse engineering functions on innovation output mainly through indirect effect, which intensifies the role of forward engineering by providing the knowledge base for novel R&D activity. However, the ethicality and legitimacy of intellectual property behind reverse engineering frequently lead to international prosecutions, which may be the main reason that reverse engineering has an insignificant effect in the overseas market. Our study indicates that governments should initiate technological policy for technology development, and firm managers should improve indigenous innovation capacity.

Sustainable maize production and consumption in China: practices and politics in transition

China provides a stark and globally significant illustration of how changing patterns of food production and consumption (especially related to increased intake of animal protein) are creating negative impacts on biodiversity, climate, nitrogen and phosphorous cycles and the use of freshwater. However, China's rapidly growing innovation capabilities and dynamic pattern of development also offer a unique opportunity for transitions towards more sustainable and resilient agri-food systems. Applying a ‘food practices in transition’ framework (Spaargaren et al., 2012), this paper discusses the technological, political and socio-cultural factors central to such systemic changes, with a focus on maize as a core case study. In particular it presents and discusses two contending (but not mutually-exclusive) pathways towards more sustainable maize production and consumption. One, which we call the ‘indigenous innovation’ pathway is framed by ‘systemic rationalities’ and characterised by a focus on R&D-intensive technologies for agricultural intensification, including the controversial use of transgenic phytase maize. The second, which we term the ‘alternative’ pathway, is framed by ‘lifeworld rationalities’ and focusses on improved management practices, shorter supply chains, agro-ecological and participatory research. The two pathways claim different environmental benefits and present different risks and political implications. This paper analyses the food practices in transition in each pathway, identifying links with shifting political conditions and pointing to the increasingly significant role of consumer agency in steering patterns of maize production and consumption in China.

Comments on and Prospects for China's Current Macroeconomic Development: Ten Measures to Guide the Economic New Normal

Since 2015, China's economic performance has initially exhibited characteristics with enhancing quality and increasing efficiency in economic new normal. This article, based on economic operation status since 2015 under the logical framework of economic development with “recognizing the new normal, adapting the new normal, guiding the new normal and exploring the new normal,” aims at commenting on and forecasting for China's current and recent macroeconomic development from the following ten perspectives of economic growth, indigenous innovation, industrial structure, ecological environment, regional coordination, people's livelihood improvement, mixed ownership, financial development and coordination between market and government.

Allocation of Innovative Human Resources: A Case Study of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province

The transformation, upgrading, and sustainable development of local economies have all created the intrinsic need to increase regional indigenous innovation. Furthermore, the capacity of local self-dependent innovation should be determined based on efficient innovative resource aggregation and allocation. To those with a developmental tendency, the competition of mechanism and paths of innovative resource allocation has become a new target for regional competition in the new era. Many developed regions in China not only have considered efficient innovative resource allocation as one of the goals of their government function, but they also have established diversified path systems of innovative human resource aggregation allocation in their practice.

Challenges Ahead in China’s Reform of State-Owned Enterprises

The reform of state-owned enterprises (SOE) is an urgent priority for the Xi Jinping administration. Economically, Beijing aims to decrease the drag on domestic growth and increase the overseas competitiveness of its largest firms known as yangqi, long plagued by declining performance, rising debt, and serious corruption.1 Politically, the Chinese Communist Party wants to reinforce state ownership as a pillar of domestic stability at home and increased influence abroad. To achieve these ends, Beijing released the long-delayed Guiding Opinions of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council on Deepening the Reform of State-Owned Enterprises in September 2015, to be followed by a series of detailed policy documents.2 This roadmap calls for regrouping state firms by function; further consolidating their assets, while simultaneously developing mixed ownership; and loosening state authority over executive management, especially for those in nonstrategic sectors.3Categorizing SOEs into a public class (gongyilei) and a commercial class (shangyelei) is a transformative move at the heart of the new reforms. Firms will be divided by function into those dedicated to public welfare and those seeking profit. Future reforms will be carried out separately for these two groups in a dual-track approach: distinct strategic objectives will be set for each, and their performance will be evaluated by different metrics. While Beijing seeks to improve all SOEs' operational efficiency, service quality, and ability to innovate, profitability will always be a secondary priority for those charged with public welfare or national security functions. Specifically, the new guidelines stipulate that firms designated as public will be assessed by their ability to control costs, the quality of their goods and services, and the stability and efficiency of their operations.4 Political rather than market logic will therefore remain the paramount driver of changes to state firms in the public class. In contrast, boosting market competitiveness and delivering gains in financial performance will be a top priority for SOEs classified as commercial, to be assessed by indicators such as economic value added.5 However, these firms will still serve political goals, including fostering indigenous innovation, supporting social stability and crisis response in China, and advancing economic initiatives abroad such as Belt, One Road.This essay analyzes three challenges confronting this reform agenda: determining how and when to grant market forces a greater role, especially for state firms designated as commercial; aligning mismatched managerial interests and incentives; and overcoming complicating factors within companies. First, continuing government-directed mergers while restricting competition in protected sectors will boost state firms' market share at the risk of deepening their financial and operational weaknesses in the long term. Second, while the Xi administration is actively exercising personnel control, defined as the authority to appoint and remove top company leaders, shuffling executives cannot eliminate their mismatched incentives.6 Finally, the size, complexity, and cadre culture of SOEs will complicate reform implementation. Whether these difficulties can be surmounted will ultimately determine the success of Xi's reform agenda and China's economic transformation.CENTRAL STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISESChina's state-owned economy remains significant today. State firms' exact contribution to industrial output is debated but has been estimated at between 25% and 30%.7 State firms continue to enjoy advantages in obtaining bank loans and regulatory approvals, even if their privileged capital access has gradually declined. The central government currently owns 106 companies, out of which 47 firms ranked in the 2014 Fortune Global 500.8 These centrally owned firms, or yangqi, controlled more than $5.6 trillion in assets at the end of 2013, including more than $690 billion abroad. …

Global Governance on Chemical Sound Management and Challenges in Asia-Pacific Region

Nowadays with industrialization, modernization, globalization and informalization, the whole world are paying more and more attention to chemical management. International efforts, such as ratified international conventions, Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Lablling of Chemicals (GHS) and The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) are carried out to protect our environment and ourselves from chemical harm. Chemical issues are urgent and complex, which normally are related to other social-economic issues and vary in different countries. The big challenge in Asia-Pacific Region chemical management lies in (1) uneven chemical industry development demand, (2) diversification in basic realities and emphasizes in chemical managements, (3) limited time and money with massive work and heavy responsibility and (4) lack of transparences and information for stakeholders. The joint effort is required, under the condition of agree to disagree, to change the current situation. Suggestions are made in the following areas: (1) strength indigenous innovation and adjustment of industrial structures, (2) establish core act and regulation system and improve the law enforcement mechanism, (3) implement international standards and increase the international information exchange and (4) establish monitoring and early warning system when implement primary responsibility for enterprises.

Geographical FDI knowledge spillover and innovation of indigenous firms in China

In recent decades, theoretical debate on firm innovation has considered particular forms of spatial clustering and foreign direct investment as almost mutually exclusive drivers. While cluster literature pays less attention to firm heterogeneity in ownership structure, FDI literature ignores the importance of geographical dimension in spillover effects. This study combines these two lines of theoretical inquiry to investigate regional FDI knowledge spillover effects on product innovation of China's indigenous electronic firms. It is found that localized innovative-related activities of foreign-invested firms significantly facilitate product innovation of domestic firms. However, FDI horizontal spillover is more important than vertical spillover and cross-sector rather than intra-sector knowledge is significant for indigenous innovation. FDI spillover effects can be reinforced by local innovative activities of domestic firms. This study highlights the significance of geographical proximity and relatively heterogeneous knowledge in FDI spillover effects on domestic innovation but questions the mutual trust relationship between foreign and domestic firms in a cluster.

The role of international trade for the global build-up of innovation capabilities in the wind industry

The global combat on climate change requires that developing countries not only get access to advanced technical equipment, but also rapidly build-up indigenous innovation capabilities for low-carbon technologies. The goal of this paper is to assess the role of international trade as a channel of knowledge diffusion in the wind industry from technologically advanced countries to their trading partners. Using patents as a measure of innovation in a cross-country time-series data analysis, we estimate the effects of the volume and the structure of sector-specific imports on domestic inventions in the wind-energy sector. The estimation results indicate that international trade has contributed to the development of globally distributed innovation capabilities in the wind industry, both through the transfer of technologies embodied in advanced technical equipment, but also through knowledge spillovers from the capabilities of foreign trading partners.

An Indigenous Innovation: An Example from Mobile Communication Technology

This paper explores the processes of indigenous (global South) innovation, particularly of the “high-tech” and “radical” kind, which have spurred technological catch-up, using the example of a third-generation (3G) Chinese mobile communications technology standard. Three hypotheses were generated from this study: (a) modularity-in-design opens new windows of opportunity for technological catching-up; (b) the lack of essential intellectual property rights acts as a key inducement, or a factor-saving bias, that influences the rate and direction of indigenous innovation in the global South; and (c) the long tail of an old technology affects the take-off of a new indigenous innovation, essentially by shortening the technological distance to be covered.

Management innovations in a Chinese hotel company: the case of 7 Days Inn

Purpose – This study aims to analyze management innovations developed by a homegrown Chinese hotel company aimed at sustaining its growth and reveals some unorthodox management practices in the lodging industry in China. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical sampling process was used to choose 7 Days Inn as a single case study. Semi-structured in-depth personal interviews of 15 informants with varying responsibilities were conducted to obtain organization-specific insights. Content analysis of the transcripts was performed to analyze interview data. Secondary data and interviews of managers in competing hotels were also used to support the findings. Findings – This study identified seven major innovative management practices developed by 7 Days Inn. Most of these innovations arose from the company’s idiosyncratic collective mindset. The company created a different approach to thinking about the basic issues regarding business and management – including managerial roles, mistakes and change – that constituted the cornerstones of its management innovations. Research limitations/implications – Owing to the limitations of case method, the findings may not be generalizable to other Chinese hotel companies. Practical implications – As little is known about innovative management practices by homegrown hotel companies in China, this study sheds new light on a creative and distinctive management system in the Chinese hotel industry. Introducing management styles that differ significantly from those of Western companies will benefit both management researchers and practitioners. Originality/value – This study extends previous findings in management innovation by uncovering indigenous innovation influenced by traditional Chinese cultural values in China’s hospitality industry.

Integrating Ubunifu, informal science, and community innovations in science classrooms in East Africa

This study examines the relationship between informal science and indigenous innovations in local communities in which students matured. The discussion considers methods for bridging the gap that exists between parents’ understanding of informal science (Ubunifu) and what students learn in secondary schools in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. In an effort to reconcile the difference between students’ lived experiences and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) taught in classrooms, this study presents an experiential iSPACES instructional model as an example of curriculum integration in science classrooms. The culmination is presentation of lessons learned from history, including Africa’s unique contributions to science, theory, and indigenous innovations, in the hope that these lessons can spur the development of new instructional practices, standards, curriculum materials, professional and community development, and dialogue among nations.

Exploiting the Implementation Gap: Policy Divergence and Industrial Upgrading in China's Wind and Solar Sectors

This article argues that manufacturing policies of Chinese local governments have provided an important corrective to some of the weaknesses inherent in the central government’s indigenous innovation framework, most importantly its inattention to the importance of advanced manufacturing capabilities for innovation. Based on an original dataset of over 100 executive interviews conducted with 43 Chinese wind and solar firms, I identify both central government R&D funding and continued local government support for manufacturing as a critical factors in enabling innovation among China’s renewable energy firms. In particular, this article shows that firms have utilized a combination of both central and local government policies to establish unique engineering capabilities required for innovation in commercialization and scale - up to mass production. The findings suggest that continued local government support for the manufacturing economy has not undermined central government innovation policies, but has (1) broadened the range of resources available to entrepreneurial firms and (2) enabled new options for industrial upgrading that are outside the conceptualization of innovation underlying the central government’s indigenous innovation framework.

Signaling and accrediting new technology: Use of procurement for innovation in China

In China the use of public procurement as an innovation policy instrument has been closely associated with the drive to promote indigenous innovation. Implementation was largely through the use of catalogues intended to signal and t of ormally accredit the supply and demand of technologically-oriented products. This paper reviews these experiences by examining the wider context and three case studies. Accreditation is shown to carry a risk of protectionism. Signaling performs a function analogous to a technology roadmap and was assisted by giving listed technologies priority for public procurement. For both types of instrument the intended mechanism did not work as planned but the broader role they sought to fill was an important factor in bringing innovations to market. The appropriateness and effectiveness of such instruments are shown to be dependent upon the state of both the innovation and the procurement systems in which they are set.

Globalisation, indigenous innovation and national strategy: comparing China and India's wireless standardisation

ABSTRACTThis comparative case study investigates the contrasting approaches to telecommunications standard-setting adopted by two developing countries, China and India, using the 3G standard as a case study. Despite facing comparable opportunities in the form of fast-growing markets, and comparable challenges in terms of meeting consumer demand and fostering industrial development, the two countries adopted sharply different standards strategies, with China investing heavily in its home-grown Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access standard, and India allowing operators to choose any international standard. In this paper, we trace the antecedents of this divergence to the different policy approaches that the two countries adopted to their respective electronics industries in the early to mid-1990s.

THE ROLE OF THE STATE IN SINGAPORE: PRAGMATISM IN PURSUIT OF GROWTH

This paper looks at how government intervention shapes the evolution of the Singapore economy and accounts for its successes and failures over the past 50 years. Compared with other dynamic Asian economies, the Singapore government's approach to intervene in the economy is both more extensive and more intrusive, but with a narrow focus on GDP growth and surplus accumulation as the primary objectives. The ruling government's near complete dominance in politics has enabled it to mobilize resources to create the preconditions for strong GDP growth and high savings. But the impact on the broader development of the economy and the long term sustainability of growth is less obvious. High GDP growth and strong savings have been achieved without developing the inherent production and indigenous innovation capacity, securing a larger hinterland and providing a less skewed income distribution and higher quality of life for residents. As the economy enters a new phase where more complex and multi-faceted development is needed, the Singapore government will require more than its vaunted competency in mobilizing resources to deliver the outcome.

Correspondence: Debating the Chinese Cyber Threat

Correspondence: Debating the Chinese Cyber Threat