Isomorphic in “Content” and “Structure”, Different in “Acting” and “Reach”: State Policy Intervention in China

• In Event: STS Perspectives on Isomorphism in National Science and Innovation Policies

Abstract

Globalisation has been organised such that emerging economies are driven to imitate the science and technology development of the West. Particularly in newly emergent technologies such as digital information technology, and biotechnology, a country like China follows close on the heels of the United States and Western European countries in formulating science and technology policies. In the same vein, as being described as institutional isomorphism by DiMaggio and Powel (1983), China has been transforming its science and technology systems in accord with the National System of Innovation (Lundvall 2010) modelled after the West. Nevertheless, the contents of policy and institutional structure may be the same or similar to the West, the executions of the policy by individual government and the reaches of their actions differ substantively. As a result, the outcomes might well be unexpected.

This paper focuses on “government intervention” (Pavitt and Walker, 1976) en route from science & technology policy towards industrial innovation. It discusses the doings/practices of the Chinese government under domestic as well as international pressures by using recent studies of China’s building cross-platform digital infrastructures as an illustration. The paper contends that the disposition (Bourdieu 1984) of the government doing “the intervention” is inextricably entangled with past experiences, which might well continue to shape the ongoing conducts. Therefore, the “intervention” is the observation and analytical point for investigating and understanding how isomorphism in science and technology policy may lead to different outcomes in industrial innovation in different nations.

Author

• Xiaobai Shen, University of edinburgh