English   Danish

2012/2013  KAN-CM_U128  Institutions, Strategy and Dynamics of Industrial Change in Asia

English Title
Institutions, Strategy and Dynamics of Industrial Change in Asia

Course information
Language English
Exam ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Quarter
Course period Spring
Changes in course schedule may occur
Monday 08.00, 09.40, week 6
Monday 08.00-11.30, week 7-13
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Study board
Study Board for MSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Anthony D'Costa - Department of International Economics and Management
Administration: Birgit Dahlgren - bgd.int@cbs.dk
Main Category of the Course
  • Globalization, International Business, markets and studies
Last updated on 16-10-2012
Learning objectives
The course will prepare students to understand the institutional basis of long terms shifts in industrial competitiveness in particular sectors. The empirical materials are drawn from dynamic Asian economies, including India. Students will also appreciate that ‘history matters’ in the evolution of economies, regions, and industrial sectors just as government policy and business strategy in their accumulation behaviour in the wider context-specific national institutional settings and global linkages. Students will be given basic references to theories and frameworks drawn from a range of disciplines including economics, international business, development studies, geography, politics, and sociology. Cognitively they should know simple economic relationships operating at the national and international levels. The mastery of basic empirical materials will come from the serious engagement with the prescribed readings and active class participation.
Examination
Institutions, Strategy and Dynamics of Industrial Change in Asia:
Type of test Home Assignment
Marking scale 7-step scale
Second examiner No second examiner
Exam period Spring Term
Aids Open Book, Written and Electronic Aid is permitted
Duration Please, see the detailed regulations below
Student/s will choose a topic of their own from a list of broad themes provided by the instructor and those that are consistent with the substantive content of the course.
Course content
International competitiveness is a multi-dimensional and multi-level concept and thus difficult to measure.  While we understand some of the factors that contribute to firm-level competitiveness, we are unclear as to what makes a range of industries and firms in a nation or region competitive.  Furthermore, competitiveness when seen as a dynamic phenomenon suggests that it is also an impermanent state of being.  Nations (and particularly regions) rise and fall along with their competitive industries and firms.  Increasingly such dynamics are globally interlinked even as nation states pursue a wide variety of policies, often at the behest of business, to cope with such ebbs and flows.  What explains these turning points, how do industrial sectors and firms adjust and expand, and what are some of the effects of such responses on competitiveness will be addressed in this course.
We will begin with a working definition of international competitiveness at the national/regional, industry, and firm levels.  A range of concepts will be introduced to understand the long-term process of national economic development and the rise and fall of industries (and thus firms, some large and highly visible) in a capitalist context.  Concepts such as national institutional arrangements, institutional inertia, the role of states, changing innovations, path-dependence, cumulative causation and spill-over effects, regional dynamics, globalization, and historical accidents will be introduced.  These concepts will be examined to explain and understand the rise of select economies such as the US, Japan, South Korea, China and India in the post-World War II era.  Each of these country cases will be analyzed in terms of institutions and other factors to bring out the process of their ascent, contemporary challenges, and in some cases subsequent decline in specific mature and emerging industrial sectors such as steel, auto, electronics, and software. 
At the end of the course students will have competency in understanding both general and concrete processes behind changing international competitiveness and business strategies.  They will be exposed to varying institutional arrangements that influence competitiveness, understand selectively the economics of industrial investment, technology, policy, and the changing geography of production.  In the best traditions of interdisciplinary studies, this course is historically grounded and integrates economics, political economy, industry and business studies in a critical manner.
Teaching methods
Ideally class size will be limited to conduct serious discussion-based instruction. The course will begin with some key concepts and frameworks and cover several empirical experiences based on countries, regions, and sectors bringing out both industrial ascent and decline. For better learning outcomes students are expected to read the material before class. This will enhance both class participation and contribute to the learning experience of all.
Expected literature
Theorizing Modern Industrial Capitalism
Nelson, R.R. (1989). ‘Capitalism as an Engine of Progress,’ Research Policy, 90: 193-314.
Hall, P.A. and Soskice, D. (2001). ‘An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism’ (1-68) in Hall, P.A. and Soskice, D. Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Redding, G. (2005).’The Thick Description and Comparison of Societal Systems of Capitalism,’ Journal of International Business Studies,  36: 123–155
Concepts, Processes, and Industrial Change
Cooke, P. (2001). ‘Regional Innovation Systems, Clusters, and the Knowledge Economy,’ Industrial and Corporate Change, 10 (4): 945-974.
Martin, R. and Sunley, P. (2007). ‘Complexity Thinking and Evolutionary Economic Geography, Journal of Economic Geography, 7: 573–601.
Morosini, P. (2004). ‘Industrial Clusters, Knowledge Integration and Performance,’ World Development, 32 (2): 305–326.
David, P. (2000). ‘Path Dependence, Its Critics and the Quest for ‘Historical Economics,’ in Garrouste, P. and Ioannides, S. Evolution and Path Dependence in Economic Ideas: Past and Present, Cheltenham: Edward. Elgar.
Late Capitalism and Industrialization Beyond the West (Japan)
Tsuru, S. (1996). ‘The Period of High Growth Rate’ (Chapter 3: 66-89) and ‘The Role of Government in the High Growth Rate Period’ (Chapter 4: 90-118) in Tsuru, S. Japan's Capitalism: Creative Defeat and Beyond, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gao, B. (2001). ‘Coordination, Excessive Competition, and High Speed Economic Growth, (Chapter 4: 68-113) in Gao, B. Japan’s Economic Dilemma: The Institutional Origins of Prosperity and Stagnation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gerlach, M.L. (1992). ‘The Basic Form and Structure of the Keiretsu,’ (Chapter 4: 103-159) in Gerlach, M.L. Alliance Capitalism: The Social Organization of Japanese Business, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Late Industrialization in South Korea
Amsden, A.H. (1992). ‘The South Korean Economy: Is Business-Led Growth Working?’ (71-95), in Clark, D.N. (ed.) Korea Briefing, 1992, Boulder: Westview Press.
Horikane, Y. (2005). ‘The Political Economy of Heavy Industrialization: The Heavy and Chemical Industries (HCI) Push in South Korea in the 1970s,’ Modern Asian Studies, 39 (2): 369-397.
D’Costa, A.P. (1994). ‘State, Steel, and Strength: Structural Competitiveness and Development in South Korea,’ Journal of Development Studies, 31 (1 ): 44-81.
Kim, B. and Lee, Y. (2001). ‘Global Capacity Expansion Strategies: Lessons Learned from Two Korean Carmakers, Long Range Planning, 34: 309-333.
Globalization and Capitalist Competition
Dicken, P. (2003). ‘Technology: The Great Growling Engine of Change,’ (Chapter 4: 85-121) in Dicken, P. Global Shift: Reshaping the Global Economic Map in the 21stCentury, New York: Guilford Press.
Chapter V (pp. 157—177) in UNCTAD (2005). World Investment Report: TNCs and the Internationalization of R&D. United Nations Publications, New York. http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/wir2005ch5_en.pdf
D’Costa, A.P. (1999). ‘Technological Change and Crisis in The American Steel Industry,’ (Chapter 3: 30-56) and ‘Technological Change and Rapid Industrial Development in Japan and South Korea’ (Chapter 4: 57-81) in D’Costa, A.P. The Global Restructuring of the Steel Industry: Innovations, Institutions and Industrial Change, London: Routledge.
Sectoral Shifts (a) Automobile Industry
D’Costa, A.P. (2005). ‘State, Embourgeoisment, and Market Development in India‘ (46-69) in D’Costa, A.P. The Long March to Capitalism: Embourgeoisment, Internationalization, and Industrial Transformation in India, Basingstoke Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
D’Costa, A.P. (2004). ‘Flexible Institutions for Mass Production Goals: Economic Governance in the Indian Automotive Industry,’ Industrial and Corporate Change, 13 (2): 335-367.
Rutherford, T.D. and Gertler, M.S. (2002). ‘Labour in 'Lean' Times: Geography, Scale and the National Trajectories of Workplace Change,’ Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 27 (2): 195-212.
Herod, A. (2000). ‘Implications of Just-in-Time Production for Union Strategy: Lessons from the 1998 General Motors-United Auto Workers Dispute,’ Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 90 (3): 521-547.
Lee, Y-S (2003). ‘Lean Production Systems, Labor Unions, and Greenfield Locations of the Korean New Auto Assembly Plants and Their Suppliers,’ Economic Geography, 79 (3): 321-339.
Sectoral Shifts (b) Services
UNCTAD (2004). World Investment Report: The Shift toward Services. United Nations Publications, New York. Chapters IV (pp. 147—173) and V (pp. 194—207) http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/wir2004ch4_en.pdf
Athreye, S. (2010). ‘Economic Adversity and Entrepreneurship-led Growth: Lessons from the Indian Software Sector,’ UNU MERIT Working Paper Series #2010-007.
Upadhya, C. (2004). ‘A New Transnational Capitalist Class? Capital Flows, Business Networks and Entrepreneurs in the Indian Software Industry,’ Economic and Political Weekly, 39 (48): 5141-5143+5145-5151.
D’Costa, A.P. (2009). ‘Extensive Growth and Innovation Challenges in Bangalore, India,’ (79-109) in Parayil, G. and D’Costa, A.P. The New Asian Innovation Dynamics: China and India in Perspective, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sectoral Shifts (c) Electronics
Lee, C.W., Hayter, R., and Edgington, D.W. (2008). ‘Large and Latecomer Firms: The Taiwan: Semiconductor Manufacturing Company a Taiwan’s Electronics Industry,’ Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 101 (2): 177–198.
Dicken, P. (2003). ‘Chips with Everything: The Semiconductor Industry,’ (Chapter 12: 399-436.) in Dicken, P. Global Shift: Reshaping the Global Economic Map in the 21stCentury, New York: Guilford Press.
Saxenian, A.L. and Hsu, J-Y. (2001). ‘The Silicon Valley-Hsinchu Connection: Technical Communities and Industrial Upgrading,’ Industrial and Corporate Change, 10 (4), 893-920.
Shin, R.W. and Ho, A. (1997). ‘The Role of Science and Technology in Creating Korea's Electronics Industry,’ Asian Affairs, 23 (4): 235-251.
The Next Wave of Industrialization? China and India
Andrea Goldstein (2008). ‘The Internationalization of Indian Companies: The Case of Tata,’ CASI Working Paper Series, Number 08-02, January 2008.
Branstetter L. and N. Lardy (2006). ‘China’s Embrace of Globalization,’ NBER working paper series no. 12373, 3-56.
Nayyar, D. (2008). ‘The Internationalization of Firms From India: Investment, Mergers and Acquisitions,Oxford Development Studies, 36 (1): 111-131.
Nanda, R. and Khanna, T. (2009). Diasporas and Domestic Entrepreneurs: Evidence from the Indian Software Industry,’ Harvard Business Review Working Paper, 08-003.
Altenburg, T., Schmitz, H., and Stamm, A. (2008). ‘Breakthrough? China’s and India’s Transition from Production to Innovation,’ World Development, 36 (2): 325-344.
Challenges to Competitiveness
D’Costa, A.P. (2003). ‘Uneven and Combined Development: Understanding India’s Software Exports,’ World Development, 31: 211–226.
Albuquerque, E.M. (2007). ‘Inadequacy of Technology and Innovation: Systems at the Periphery,’ Cambridge Journal of Economics, 31, 669–690.
Cowling, K. and Tomlinson, P.R. (2000). ‘The Japanese Crisis - A Case of Strategic Failure?’ Economic Journal, 110 (464): F358-F381.
D’Costa, A.P. (2008). ‘The Barbarians are Here: How Japanese Institutional Barriers and Immigration Policies Keep Asian Talent Away,’ Asian Population Studies, November, 4 (3): 311—329.
Liua, F., Simon, D.F., Suna, Y., Cao, C. (2011). ‘China’s Innovation Policies: Evolution, Institutional Structure, and Trajectory,’ Research Policy,40 (7): 917-931.
The Task Force on The Future of American Innovation 2005, The Knowledge Economy: Is the United States Losing Its Competitive Edge? Benchmarks of Our Innovation Future, February 16, 2005, www.futureofinnovation.org
Nichols, R.W. (2008). ‘Innovation, Change, and Order: Reflections on Science and Technology in India, China, and the United States, Technology in Society, 30: 437– 450.
Last updated on 16-10-2012