Building R&D Capability: China's Cultural Evolution
2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 53; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1930-0166
Autores Tópico(s)Research, Science, and Academia
ResumoFirst of a two-part series Almost four decades after Mao Zedong's cultural revolution destroyed much of China's academic and scientific infrastructure, the country is in the throes of a new ferment. this case the object is creation, not destruction: government is supporting the development of original, homegrown science and technology. To do so, the government has set a goal of spending 2.5 percent of gross domestic product on RD the country now hosts more than 1,300 research centers set up by foreign firms. Reducing Dependence on Foreign Technology surge represents China's effort to reduce dependence on foreign technology. The slogan which has become very prominent is 'independent innovation,' says Henry Rowen, co-director of the Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute. is great unhappiness at having to rely on other people's technology. There is no domain in which the Chinese, at home, have invented anything of significance since the early years of the Ming dynasty. They have done much better studying and working abroad. effort to overcome that weakness has met some difficulties. While the quantity of research has increased rapidly, says Cong Cao, senior research fellow at the State University of New York's Levin Institute, its quality has not necessarily been high. That's hardly surprising because the research and innovation enterprise often clashes with traditional culture. The Confucian hierarchical cultural tradition is not conducive to challenging authority; but if anything needs to be done to advance science it is to challenge authority, Rowen says. The right attitude for a good graduate student is to find what's wrong with the mentor's work or to build on it. China's academic system also lacks bench strength. In terms of faculty, the 10 or 15 top-tier universities have kept the best, says Denis Fred Simon, professor of international affairs at Pennsylvania State University and a former general manager of Andersen Consulting China. But below that top tier, universities don't have quality faculty or facilities. Even the record of publications invites skepticism. Because the government is throwing money at the problem, many universities will try various ways to publish more; it's somewhat exaggerated, Zhou says. Real research takes a long time and real academic ability takes generations. Cao, meanwhile, wonders whether corporate China has the ambition to succeed at innovation. Chinese industries have monopolies, so they really don't care about innovation, he says. And smaller companies lack resources. addition, the goal of spending 2.5 percent of GDP on research by 2020 may be a little ambitious, Simon says. …
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