"Fostering Indigenous Innovation Capacities": The Development of Biotechnology in Shanghai's Zhangjiang High-Tech Park

Abstract

The Chinese government has recently formulated a long-term strategy to "foster indigenous innovation capacities" across technology sectors. The government provides incentives to attract global R&D investment and strives to upgrade its economic structure to develop China into "an innovation nation." This paper examines the exact meaning of this policy in the context of biotechnology development in Shanghai's Zhangjiang High-Tech Park (ZJHP). We suggest that the role of the municipal state has been critical in the initial stage of biotech concentration in the park, and in the later stage biotech developments in ZJHP have been encouraged to become embedded in the global knowledge flow. The development of ZJHP reveals a hybrid approach to the governance of innovation in China, which combines the developmental state and entrepreneurialism at the scale of the science park as an urban project.

Keywords:

• Zhangjiang High-Tech Park (ZJHP)
• biotechnology
• innovation
• research and development (R&D)
• governance