Global Manufacturing and Secondary Innovation in China. Xiaobo Wu

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      World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

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      USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601

      UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE

      and

      Zhejiang University Press

      No. 148, Tianmushan Road

      Xixi Campus of Zhejiang University

      Hangzhou 310028, China

       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Wu, Xiaobo, author.

      Title: Global manufacturing and secondary innovation in China : latecomer’s advantages / Xiaobo Wu.

      Description: First Edition. | Hackensack : World Scientific and Zhejiang University Press, 2021. | Series: Series on innovation and operations management for chinese enterprises, 2591-7188 ; 6 | Includes bibliographical references.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2020027485 | ISBN 9789811222153 (hardcover) | ISBN 9789811224799 (ebook)

      Subjects: LCSH: Manufacturing industries--China--Technological innovations. | Strategic planning--China. | Production planning--China. | Information technology--China--Management. | China--Economic conditions--2000–

      Classification: LCC HD9736.C45 W8 2021 | DDC 338/.0640951--dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020027485

       British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      This edition is jointly published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. and Zhejiang University Press. This edition is distributed worldwide by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd, except China.

      Copyright © 2021 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. and Zhejiang University Press.

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      Printed in China

      Foreword I

      I am delighted to offer some introductory remarks to this original and timely work. The globalization of industry is apparent to everyone and nowhere more clearly than in China. Professor Xiaobo Wu is ideally placed to offer deep insights into the way developing countries are responding to these dramatic changes.

      But this book goes far beyond reporting current practice. It explores in detail the way in which so called ‘secondary innovation’ can enable companies in developing countries to rapidly assimilate technologies and practices and use these as a platform for competitive industrial activity.

      The book will be welcomed by successful industry leaders in developing countries who will recognize the opportunities it offers to extend their capabilities and business opportunities.

      It will also be read with interest in industrialized countries seeking to understand the likely trajectories of global industrial developments.

      I am proud to note that some of the ideas in this book have their origins in the time when Professor Wu was a most welcomed visitor to the Institute for Manufacturing in Cambridge. The warm relationship with Zhejiang University continues to flourish.

      Professor M. J. Gregory

      Head, Institute for Manufacturing

      University of Cambridge

      Foreword II

      The next 20 years offer China, as well as its science-technology development, a strategic opportunity for development. Globalization is making China a manufacturing center quickly. However, how to realize the leapfrog from “large manufacturing country” to “large innovation country” remains a focus for all people who are concerned about China’s development.

      At present, enhancing China’s independent innovation capabilities has been viewed as the vital link for adjusting economic structure, transforming growing patterns, and improving national competitive power. Moreover, building an innovation-oriented country is a primary strategy. In the new work by Professor Xiaobo Wu, Global Manufacturing and Secondary Innovation in China: Latecomer’s Advantages, the author opens with a micro mechanism research, the innovation mechanism of enterprises and strategic practices, and then analyzes the innovative practices of enterprises under the background of globalization. The main thread of this book is “the interaction between latecomer’s advantages and secondary innovation in global manufacturing”. And the subsequent systematic research outlines how to enhance independent innovation capabilities to gain sustained competitive advantages and win latecomer’s advantages to realize leapfrog development of critical technology for Chinese manufacturing enterprises in an open environment. Finally, Professor Wu develops an open, independent innovative path with the Chinese characteristics,