Innovation System in Hong Kong: Emergence and Policy Implementation

Innovation system as a holistic way to promote economic growth and enhance competitiveness has been observed worldwide. Hong Kong as a late comer among those regions, showed her distinctiveness during the emergence of innovation system and innovation policy implementation. The thesis starting with a sketch of historical trajectory, suggests that Hong Kong’s socio-economic factors and background is influential in the process. Both quasi-national and sectoral innovation system exist and function in Hong Kong with interacting relationships among the Triple Helix, i.e. the core participants including universities, industries, government, and certain extensions to this model. Implementation of innovation policy in Hong Kong as an institutional change is discussed in the thesis by applying general equilibrium mechanism for the comparison between cost and benefit during decision making. We suggest that public policy interventions at the start, as well as the response to incentives in private sector co-contribute and provide an explanation to the case of Hong Kong