The innovation-development detours for latecomers

Lee will introduce his new book, Innovation-Development Detours for Latecomers: Managing Global-Local Interfaces in the De-Globalization Era, published in February 2024 in this seminar. The book proposes an alternative to prevailing ideas on economic development. First, multiple pathways for economic catching-up by latecomers are possible, and latecomers do not necessarily follow the trajectories of the advanced economies. Second, most of the successful catching up experiences have included strategically maneuvering the global-local interface, thereby promoting emergence of locally-owned big businesses. Third, the creation of growth poles have been possible out of the effective interaction of diverse dimensions of innovation systems, which include the active policy intervention by national or sub-national governments. In sum, active public policies are needed to overcome the latecomers’ disadvantages of the entry barrier at the middle-income stage. Instead of traditional priority on manufacturing, this book proposes the priority of local ownership and knowledge.