A Study On The Construction And Evolution Of Innovation Network In Photonic Industry

It is a must to change the lower competitiveness of high-tech industry in China.As anew high-tech sector,the photonic industry is featured by high technological standardand large contribution to improvement of national core competitiveness.Due to itstechnology intensiveness,the global photonic industry has an unevenly layout.It is ofgreat significance to analyze the feature of innovation network and the evolution ofphotonic industry in Germany.And it will be helpful to promote the development ofhigh-tech industry,as well as enriching the study of economic geography in China.The paper receives the academic support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft(DFG) project (Granted Code:62201094),China National Science Foundationproject(Granted Code:40371033) as well as the financial support from ChinaScholarship Council(Granted Code:2007u32111).Based on the documentationcollection and field survey in Germany and Shanghai,the paper pooled relatedmaterials for the study of Construction and Evolution of Photonic Industry InnovationNetwork in Germany and China.Through the review over documentation of home and abroad,the paper finds thestudies of innovation network are mainly from the perspective of firms or regions.The major research conclusions over network linkages,framework and evolution arebased on abstract deduction,while some scholars began to adopt empirical analysisapproach.The research focus of network gradually changes from simply descriptionto the function and mechanism analysis,with more attentions to the approach of socialnetwork analysis and simulation.Based on the review of theory in technological innovation system,innovation networkand industrial clusters,the thesis constructs a theoretical framework of innovationnetwork analysis in photonic industry.Following the Redline of network components(nodes,linkages,resources),network construction condition,structure characteristicand evolution path,the thesis makes a systematic study over the feature of photonicindustry networks.With the review over the photonic industry in Germany,the paper focuses its study on the formulation,development and evolution of its innovationnetwork as well as a comparative study over that of Shanghai.The paper has thefollowing conclusions:First,the construction of innovation network is fundamentally influenced by the thefeatures of network nodes,the technological character of products and theenvironment of network.As a special sector of high-tech industry,the photonicindustry share the commen feature of high developing risk and high intensity oftechnology with other high-tech sectors,as well as some specific characters oftechnological fusion and wide application.It needs strong technological cooperationduring the development of a new product in photonic industry.The innovationnetwork of photonic industry has thus the related features of complex technology andheterogeneity of nodes.The study that applied Social Network Analysis and evolutiontheory will be helpful for the finding of decisive factors of network construction,themode of network links and the regional disparity of nodes layout.Second,the contents of photonic industry innovation network are mainly based oncorporate R&D,accompanied by varied government influence.The standardization oftechnology and the application of tacit knowledge jointly affect the strongness andweakness of network linkages.At the same time,the density of corporate relationswill be affected by the intellectual property fights and technological know-how.Dueto the finite network density as well as corporate mode and contents,the corporatenetworking trend has its marking ends.Third,the photonic industry innovation networks are featured by historic coincidenceand path dependence.The intermediate organization in innovation network could bebetter functioned in Marshallian industrial district,while not so much in Spoke-Hubdistrict.The importance of core nodes in the innovation network could be perfect bythe well organization of intermediate organization.Fourth,the development of photonic industry embodies the will of a nation.Thegovernments of industrial advanced countries try to strengthen the technologicaladvantage through providing fund and organizing innovation cooperation.The federalgovernment and local governments of Germany adopt selective development strategyin varied photonic industrial clusters,formulating different shapes in the structure ofinnovation networks.Lastly,Chinese government is not well prepared in organizing of innovation inphotonic industry.Local photonic industry is mostly characterized by embeddedbranch of foreign companies.As a key city in developing photonic technology andindustry,the local research facilities do not act as the major technology providers.