Lucas School Co-Sponsors Conference at Stanford on                 The Future of Industry & Innovation in Asia

Please View the Conference Agenda for Details

The Pacific Roundtable on Industry, Society & Management
The Center for South Asia, Stanford University, and
The Lucas Graduate School of Business, San Jose State University

The Future of Industry and Innovation in Asia: Firms, Networks and Alliances

Asian firms and industries power the world economy, with three of the largest, most rapidly changing economies and six of the ten most populous countries in the world located in Asia.  Yet, with a possible exception of Japan, we know surprisingly little about Asia’s firms and industries.  This conference seeks to remedy the situation by convening a group of leading scholars at Stanford University on July 8-9, 2010, and publishing an edited volume and special journal issue.   The conference is co-sponsored by the Pacific Roundtable on Industry, Society and Management, Stanford University’s Center for South Asia Studies, and the Lucas Graduate School of Business.

The conference targets the future of industry and innovation in Asia by focusing on firms, networks, strategic alliances and other forms of complex organization within a global context, three national settings – China, India, and Japan – and Silicon Valley.  Complex organizations include combinations of firms that compete within and across industries, such as business groups, inter-firm networks and multi-firm coalitions that differ from stand-alone firms legally, organizationally and managerially.

The future of industry and innovation in Asia are important for several reasons.  
1. Economic size and growth matter.  Bigness can be a deficit, if sufficient resources to sustain growth are unrealized and unavailable.  However, market size is generally considered the limit to organizational growth and, given on-going globalization, the world is increasingly a single, integrated market.  Asia’s growth in population, economic activity, and income results in huge market opportunities, implying that the future of industry and innovation will be centered in Asia.
 
2. Different systems of competition, organization and management are emerging in Asia and, as they do, they will have global consequences.  Until now, our theories of competition, markets, prices, and firms are decidedly regional and hemispherical, based as they are on what happened in Western Europe and North American during the 19th and 20th centuries. 

This is not to say that existing theories are incorrect, only limited.  For example, by contrast, Asia’s leading firms appear to be neither adopting the organization forms considered “modern” by Alfred Chandler, the leading chronicler of 20th century America firms, nor following many of the practices and policies considered “normative” in the West.  Asia’s new systems of competition, organization and management need to be identified, described, classified and analyzed.

3. Firm and industry variations always occur within institutional frameworks and, for such reasons, institutions matter, in many ways and for many reasons.  Asia’s wide-ranging industry and organizational variations – in behavior, structure, social roles, community responsibilities, corporate and government relationships – need to be understood not only in light of rapid economic, social, political and technical change but also in full view of the powerful coercive and imitative effects of institutions and institutional frameworks.  

4. Evolution works everywhere and at many levels simultaneously.  Rapid economic advance plus institutional and technical late development mean that Asia’s economies are experiencing speeded up processes of variation, selection, and adaptation within institutionally rich and varied environments.  From an evolutionary perspective, only very fit firms and industries adapt and prosper under such circumstances.

Variety in institutions, organizations, policies and technologies, as found in Asia, are precursors of innovation, triggering and intensifying selection forces and change.  In the West, except for some Silicon Valley firms and industries, variety is less evident and innovation more constrained. Highly institutionalized agency, market and regulatory forces and a historical preference for large, independent-minded firms result in less variation, less experimentation and fewer choices. 

Conference Eco-Emphases

The conference highlights sustainable models of industry and organization.  The planet is imperiled by resource depletion, global warming, species extinction and other environmental dangers; indeed, China and India’s demographic and economic advance have contributed greatly to these problems.  At the same time, Japan is the most energy efficient and lowest emitter of greenhouse gases among advanced industrial economies.  Harnessing Japan’s energy efficient, clean technologies and transferring them to China and India would markedly improve the world outlook.  In such ways, the actions of China, India and Japan are critical in designing and delivering new business solutions for a crowded and endangered planet.  

Themes & Directions

The conference is about country-level, non-cultural differences in a global economy.  Cultural differences may be important, but they represent second-order effects for the conference’s purposes as compared with economic and institutional differences, colonial and post-colonial influences in terms of business policies, institutional and organizational models, timing differences with respect to technology catch-up and industry life-cycles, and varying country-level postures and policies with regard to the convergence of economic, environmental and political issues.   The future of industry and innovation are inextricably tied to the dynamic intersection of China, India, Japan and Silicon Valley in these various ways.

Organizers

Dr. Mark Fruin, Global Strategy, Lucas Graduate School of Business, San Jose State University, Co-
Founder, Pacific Roundtable on Industry, Society and Management
Dr. Rafiq Dossani, Director, Center for South Asia Studies, Stanford University

Keynote speakers

Dr. Martin Kenney, “The Silicon Valley-Asia Connection,” Community and Regional Development
Studies, University of California, Davis
Dr. Richard Langlois, “Natural States of Economic Organization and Asia,” Organizational Economics,
University of Connecticut
Dr. Eleanor Westney, “Imitation and Innovation in Asia’s Economic Development,” Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada
Dr. Weian Li, Dean, School of International Business, Nankai University, China

Japan panel

Dr. Marie Anchordoguy, Professor of Japan Studies, University of Washington
Dr. Robert Eberhart, Asia Pacific Research Center, Stanford University
Dr. Masao Nakamura, Professor, Institute of Asian Research, Sauder School of Business, University of
British Columbia, Canada
Dr. Thomas Roehl, Economist, School of Business, Western Washington University
Dr. Kazuhiro Taniguchi, School of Business Administration and Commerce, Keio University, Japan

India panel

Dr. Anthony D’Costa, Professor of Indian Studies and Research Director, Asia Research Centre, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Dr. Rafiq Dossani, Director of Center for South Asia Studies, Stanford University
Dr. Chaisung Lim, Miller School of Innovation and Technology Studies, Konkuk University, Korea
Dr. Nirvikar Singh, University of California, Santa Cruz

China panel

Dr. Xudong Gao, School of Business, Tsinghwa University, China
Dr. Runhui Lin, Professor,Organization Sciences in Business School, Nankai University, China
Deputy director of Office for International Academic Exchanges, Nankai University, China
Dr. Gregory Linden, Economics, University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Xiaohong Iris Quan, Organization and Management, College of Business, San Jose State University
Dr. Timothy J. Sturgeon, Industrial Performance Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Xiaohua Yang, School of Business, University of San Francisco
Ying Zhou, PhD Candidate, School of Management, Faculty of Business, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Comparative Papers

Dr. Mark Fruin, Global Strategy, Lucas Graduate School of Business, San Jose State University, Co-
Founder, Pacific Roundtable on Industry, Society and Management
Dr. Martin Kenney, “The Silicon Valley-Asia Connection,” Community and Regional Development
Studies, University of California, Davis
Dr. Leonard Lynn, Professor, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University
Dr. Chunlei Wang, Organization and Management, College of Business, San Jose State University
Dr. Robert Chapman Wood, Professor, Strategic Management, College of Business, San Jose State University
Dr. Osvald Bjelland Chairman of the Anglo-Scandinavian advisory firm Xyntéo and Chairman of the Performance Theatre Foundation.

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Conference Details and Agenda

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION IN ASIA:  FIRMS, ALLIANCES AND NETWORKS
July 8-9, 2010
Philippines Conference Room, Encina Hall West, 616 Serra Street, Stanford, Ca. 94305

WEDNESDAY JULY 7, 2010
Check-in, Creekside Inn, 3400 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, Ca. 94306

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