Optical Illusion? The Growth and Development of the Optics Valley of China

Julie Tian Miao and Peter Hall
Additional contact information
Julie Tian Miao: Centre for Housing Research, The Observatory, University of St Andrews, KY16 9LZ, Scotland
Peter Hall: Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, Wates House, 22 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0QB, England

Environment and Planning C, 2014, vol. 32, issue 5, 863-879

Abstract: The ‘cultivated’ nature of the Chinese science parks, against the background of a transitional economy, differentiates them from spontaneous and cooperative Western models, and is a phenomenon deserving close examination. We study the dynamics and features of the so-called Optics Valley of China (OVC) in Hubei, aiming to explore the characteristics of an embryonic local innovation system constructed in a less-favoured region. The results show that institutional factors are the leading forces in a cultivated science park like the OVC. However, along with the shifting focus of the local government, the OVC's industrial scale has remained small and its industrial chain has remained incomplete. Moreover, the lack of trust and interactions between various components in this innovation system has been highly noticeable. All these features may be seen as warnings to the OVC that a revision of this innovation system is needed in order to avoid the fate of becoming an ‘optical illusion’.

Keywords: innovation system; science parks; China; OVC (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c1270r (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:32:y:2014:i:5:p:863-879

DOI: 10.1068/c1270r

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning C
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().