Searching for more Innovative Capabilities: The Case of ZhongGuancun, China

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the agglomeration of new-tech facilities in Beijing, and to present new perspectives for rethinking local development policies relating to the tasks facing the Beijing municipal government and their attendant requirements. The main body of the paper is divided into four sections. The first section introduces the development of the Zhongguancun new-tech center in Beijing. The second section illustrates the prospect of a local innovation milieu in the Zhongguancun area, which offer a promising sign of a growing trend toward local networking. The third section turns to examining symptoms of weak local innovation milieu in response to exogenous changes caused by globalization. The fourth section analyzes the logic behind polices promoting local innovation networks. In conclusion, the paper raises some suggestions for bringing local actors together for discussion.