Global Economic Competitiveness Report

http://libguides.twu.ca/c.php?g=284731&p=1897471

· You do not need to cite the case, but other sources should be cited and follow APA style.

Read Shenzhen at 40: China’s Silicon Valley of Hardware (1978-2018) and answer the questions:

Please note: you must use your own words to answer all the questions. Exhibits 19, 20, & 21 already list the diamond conditions, therefore you must use your own words.

1. Let’s first look at the Strategy, Structure, and Rivalry discussed in the case for the three periods: 1980 to 1992, 1992 to 2006, and 2006 to today. The case discusses policies that created a better business environment. Use your own words to summarize the key policies discussed in the Strategy, Structure, and Rivalry sections for the four periods that lead to growth and development. (10 points)

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2. Now look at the Demand Conditions discussed in the case for the three periods: 1980 to 1992, 1992 to 2006, and 2006 to today. Based on the case, how did the demand conditions change during the period? In what aspects are consumers become demanding and sophisticated? (10 points)

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3. Regarding the Related Supporting Industries discussed in the case for the three periods: 1980 to 1992, 1992 to 2006, and 2006 to today. How has the Huaqiangbei Market facilitated related and supporting industries for Shenzhen’s growth? (10 points)

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4. Regarding the Physical & Natural Resources as a component of Factor Conditions, discussed in the case for the three periods: 1980 to 1992, 1992 to 2006, and 2006 to today. In what way has Shenzhen benefited from the Physical & Natural Resources? And in what way does Shenzhen has a disadvantage? Has Shenzhen done anything to turn the disadvantages into advantages? (10 points)

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5. Regarding the Human Resource and Capital Resource of Factor Conditions, discussed in the case for the three periods: 1980 to 1992, 1992 to 2006, and 2006 to today. How did Shenzhen upgrade its human resources and attracted talents? How did Shenzhen improve its capital resources? (10 points)

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6. Let’s then look at Infrastructure and Knowledge & Technology Resource of Factor Conditions, discussed in the case for the three periods: 1980 to 1992, 1992 to 2006, and 2006 to today. How did Shenzhen upgrade its infrastructure? How did Shenzhen improve its knowledge & technology resources? (10 points)

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7. Shanzhai (copycat) has been discussed throughout the case. How has Shanzhai helped the city’s growth in earlier days? What do you think of the “open source” environment and how is it related to and different from Shanzhai? Should the city stay away from Shanzhai? (10 points)

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8. Consider the “SHENZHEN: MOVING FORWARD” section, what are Shenzhen’s top two challenges & disadvantages? What are Shenzhen’s top two opportunities? Relate your discussion to the Diamond. (10 points)

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9. Do you think Shenzhen’s experience and success are unique or do you think another city/region can learn from Shenzhen, and if so, what can they learn from Shenzhen? Consider a specific city or region from your own country or another country that you are familiar with and discuss specific lessons to be learned. In this question, you can use external resources and you need to cite them properly. (20 points)

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Read Growing a Cluster: The Singapore Biomedical Sciences Initiative and answer the questions:

10. Read the section “Singapore: The Emergence of an Asian Tiger”, and discuss how Singapore’s factor conditions have been improved and upgraded during the time. (10 points)

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Singapore is a small island country in Southeast Asia. It lacks valuable natural resources, but its special location (located at the end of the Malayan Peninsula between Malaysia and Indonesia) has turned it into a maritime transportation center. At the early stage of Singapore’s independence, the country was developing its economy through being an export and import platform. The low cost labor force that brought by a huge amount of foreign residents living in Singapore had attracted a lot of multinational firms to set up operations in Singapore. Foreign direct investment was attracted because of the thriving port economy at the time. Economic Development Board had also played an important role in attracting FDI. In 1970s, Singapore government started to pursue high productivity thus facilitated a great deal of highly skilled workers. Government-linked companies had greatly developed, and larger FDI was attracted by the capital-and-skill intensive activities. By 2000s, the government started to focus on knowledge-innovation driven economy, and it put large investment in university and R&D activities thus intensive research institutes and innovation centers emerged. In the mealtime, high-skill workforce proceeded to upgrade in order to support the knowledge-innovation activities. Last but not least, Singapore’s factor conditions improvement and upgrade is mainly due to the successful leadership of government policy.

11. Read the subsections of “Antecedents” and “Launching the Biomedical Science Initiative”. Why did Singapore decide to focus on biopharmaceuticals? What were Singapores’ advantages and disadvantages that contributed to the choice of the sector? How did Singapore use its advantages? How did Singapore turn its disadvantages into advantages? (10 points)

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The reason that Singapore decided to focus on biopharmaceuticals is that at first, Singapore government wanted to develop a knowledge-innovation based economy after its first major recession, so that government made a great effort to support biopharmaceutical industry. As a result, the industry has achieved a steady growth by the 1990s. By the end of 1990s, the increasing pressure on existing sectors like electronics, manufacturing and petrochemicals led the government to shift its focus to the biopharmaceutical industry.

Contributing to the choice of the sector, Singapore’s advantages include Singapore’s favorable policy toward attracting FDI, such as the attractive conditions for capital-intensive facilities, good access to other markets in Asia, the high-skill workforce, as well as the good infrastructure and R&D capacity that have developed by the government. The disadvantages is the country’s lack of natural resources, limited land, and small scale of workforce, which made Singapore have no other choices but shift to a more knowledge and innovation driven industry.

The way Singapore use its advantage is that the government played a leading role to created a range of government-linked organizations to help further develop the research capacity on biopharmaceutical industry, and facilitate human development; the government also introduced policies that benefited and supported the related industries. It also ensured a stable and favorable regulatory environment to attract talent and research activities from the world. On the other hand, Singapore turn its disadvantages into advantages through the successful government intervention that steered the country toward a knowledge and innovation based economy.

12. Read the subsections of “Phase 2 of the Biomedical Science Initiative (2006-2010)” and “Phase 3 of the Biomedical Science Initiative (2011- present) ”. In your opinion, what were the top 3 initiatives and/or factors that contribute to the fast growth of the sector? How did they contribute to the growth? (10 points)

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In my opinion, the top 3 initiatives that contribute to the fast growth of the sector are translating the knowledge into products, adopting innovation to Singapore’s health care system, and developing local startups.

First initiative–translating the knowledge into products–government created multiple specific research institutes targeting improvements on clinical research capacities. Public health sector has also worked hard to close the gap between care delivery and clinical research. Moreover, the government promoted a variety of consortia to enhance research depth. Consortia also offered Joint educational programs and human develop programs to cultivate local clinical scientists, and promote foreign exports in clinical research.

The second initiative–adopting innovation to Singapore’s health care system–Biomedical Science Industry Partnership Office was created to facilitate collaboration among research, business development and health care; a set of specialize programs launched to explore new diseases areas; RIE program funded public research institutions, health care institutions, and universities; other programs launched to focus on clinical development.

The third initiative–developing local startups–government agency SPRING offered a variety of initiatives to connect researchers, doctors, and tech entrepreneurs to launch new businesses; some programs also launched to help local promising startups access to R&D and capital resources.

13. List the core and key players of the Singapore Biopharma cluster (as an example, you can look at slide #64 of Lecture 3, the Korean Entertainment & Showbiz Core). List the supporting and related industries (as an example, you can look at slide #65 of Lecture 3, the Korean Entertainment & Showbiz Cluster) (20 points)

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There are four core industries within the Singapore Biopharma cluster–Manufacturing, R&D centers, Regional and global business unit headquarters, and local biotech and medtech SMEs. Manufacturing was the traditional core of biopharmaceutical activities in Singapore. The related industries include specialized educational institutions, specialized logistics provider, HR training providers. The second key pillar was R&D center. The related industries include public research institutions (National University of Singapore), public health system, contract research organizations, and biopharma start-ups. The third pillar was the regional and global business unit headquarters. The fourth pillar was the group of local small and medium sized firms. The Related industries included some advanced business services and local risk capital industry. Supporting industries include a set of specialized government agencies (EDB’s biomedial Science group, A*STAR, National Medical Research Council, Spring Singapore, National Research Foundation in Minister Office), and a private networking organization – BioSingapore, which provided a platform for fostering interaction between academia, industry and businesses.

14. Based on your answers to questions 10-13 and the case, conduct the diamond analysis for the Singapore biopharma Cluster (as an example, you can look at slide #67 of Lecture 3, Cluster Diamond Korean ShowBiz) (20 points)

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In terms of factor conditions, Singapore is a small island country in Southeast Asia. It lacks valuable natural resources, but its special location (located at the end of the Malayan Peninsula between Malaysia and Indonesia) has turned it into a maritime transportation center. The initial low-cost labor force has shifted to high-skill workforce overtime as the disadvantages on natural resources urged Singapore to upgrade its economic structure. There was abundant capital resource gained from foreign direct investment, which was attracted by the capital-and-skill intensive activities. Infrastructure was consistently developing and improving by the government since 1970. Singapore also has advanced knowledge and technology resources because the government has put large investment, and launched numerous initiatives and policies to support the research and development of biopharmaceutical industry and other related industries.

In terms of firm strategy, structure, and rivalry, Singapore’s biopharma firms were evolving overtime. In 1970s, the very first investment in biopharma industry was triggered by Singapore’s general drive for foreign direct investment. The firm was doing traditional manufacturing in biopharma. At the time, production and export only accounted for less than 5% of GDP and exports. So there was almost no domestic rivalry at the initial stage. In1980s, Government-linked Companies created as government recognized biopharma as potential opportunity. Firm strategies were pushed toward more knowledge & innovation driven. Government started to develop research capability and infrastructure, and launched a set of favourable initiatives. The rivalry was mild because biopharma was still an emerging industry in the nation. In 1990s, the government saw the rapid growth of the industry and lots of government organizations and institutes were formed to help and support the further development of the industry. Domestic rivalry for the firms was mild because of the strong support of the government. 2000-2006, biopharma has become the fourth pillar in Singapore’s manufacturing industry. R&D capacity was created across a wide-range of areas rather than focused on specific niches. A range of human development programs helped attract foreign researchers, and exploit local talent. Foreign firms started to set up headquarters there. Specialized physical infrastructure was created to encourage collaboration among researchers. It was the heyday of the biopharmaceutical industry in Singapore. The output from biopharma increased dramatically, and many of the biopharm firms have achieved global competitiveness. So the domestic rivalry during the period was getting intense. 2006-2010, the government put the attention on expanding clinical R&D capacities in order to translate the knowledge into products. The government promoted a variety of consortia to enhance research depth, thus R&D firms were getting into fierce competition. From 2011 till now, more and more local startups emerged as government agency SPRING offered a variety of initiatives to encourage new firms, and it led to a intense rivalry among local biopharma companies. Moreover, as the industry was getting mature, R&D encountered bottleneck, and pharmaceutical companies tended to pursue R&D development relying mostly on equity stakes and buy-outs of sciences-driven startups. Biotech revolution also made biological products enter the market and further increased the domestic rivalry for the local biopharma firms.

Related and supporting industries include specialized educational institutions, specialized logistics provider, HR training providers, public research institutions (National University of Singapore), public health system, contract research organizations, advanced business services, local risk capital industry. Supporting industries include a set of specialized government agencies (EDB’s biomedial Science group, A*STAR, National Medical Research Council, Spring Singapore, National Research Foundation in Minister Office), and a private networking organization – BioSingapore, which provided a platform for fostering interaction between academia, industry and businesses.

In terms of demand condition, domestic demand has a small yet considerable scale. Government is the core buyer – maintaining the health care system. Demand form overseas is also huge. Singapore's pharmaceutical exports reached $11.2 billion in 2015, making it the 13th largest exporting country in the world with a market share of 1.82%. There are also growing share of global demand for biopharmaceuticals, such as the growing demand from emerging market–China and India.

15. Based on Singapore’s success in this sector, what are the lessons for other regions and cities? Do you think Singapore’s experience and success in the cluster are unique or do you think another region or city can learn from Singapore, and if so, what can they learn from Singapore? Consider a specific city or region from your own country or another country you are familiar with and discuss specific lessons to be learned. In this question, you can use external resources and you need to cite them properly. (20 points)

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16. Considering both the Singapore and Shenzhen cases, what are the similarities and differences between the success in Singapore and Shenzhen? What are some general lessons countries or cities can learn? What are some general mistakes that can be avoided? (20 points)

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