Globalizing Regional Development in East Asia

Production Networks, Clusters, and Entrepreneurship

Henry Wai-chung Yeung

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415560535
• eBook ISBN: 9781317987895
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Significant historical and geographical differences account for the many processes and trajectories of regional development in East Asia. These historical and geographical specificities in East Asia have prompted serious re-examination of existing theories in regional development, and in particular the "new regionalism" approach associated with such ideas as the learning region, institutional thickness, relational assets, and regional innovation system. This book brings together a group of leading researchers specializing in local and regional development in East Asian economies. Through in-depth empirical studies of specific regions and localities, these authors offer fresh and innovative perspectives on how regions evolve and develop over time in the world's most dynamic macro-regional economy. In particular, their work points to the critical importance of local and trans-local processes in shaping regional development trajectories.

The book is timely given that the debate on the nature and dynamics of regional development in both academic and policy circles has now moved on. From the earlier focus on endogenous regional assets (such as localized networks of association and trust), scholars and policymakers are now analyzing the complex relationship between economic globalization and regional change. This high calibre collection makes a significant contribution to the literature on local and regional development in Asia and provides an important resource for researchers, students, and policy makers interested in East Asia.

This book was published as a special issue of Regional Studies.

Globalizing Regional Development in East Asia: Production Networks, Clusters, and Entrepreneurship

A PREFACE BY HENRY WAI-CHUNG YEUNG (EDITOR)

Significant historical and geographical differences exist that account for variegated processes and trajectories of regional development in East Asia (comprising both Northeast and Southeast Asia). These historical and geographical specificities potentially allow for a serious re-examination of existing theories and concepts in regional studies, in particular the “new regionalism” approach associated with such ideas as the learning region, institutional thickness, relational assets, and regional innovation system. This book brings together a group of leading researchers specializing in local and regional development in East Asian economies. Through in-depth empirical studies of specific regions and localities in East Asia, these authors have offered refreshing insights into and innovative perspectives on how regions evolve and develop over time in the world’s most dynamic macro-regional economy. In particular, their work collectively points to the critical importance of local and trans-local processes in shaping regional development trajectories, a phenomenon broadly known as “globalizing regional development”. This observation counters the predominantly endogenous view of regional development found in much of the “new regionalism” approach in regional studies.

Indeed, this analytical task of broadening our understanding of regional development trajectories is an important one, as the debate on the nature and dynamics of regional development in both academic and policy circles has now moved on from the earlier focus on endogenous regional assets such as localized networks of association and trust and innovation systems to analyzing the complex relationship between economic globalization and regional change. This collection of high quality refereed papers published earlier in Regional Studies (Vol. 43, No. 3, 2009), a premier journal for the understanding of regional development, aims to make a significant contribution to the emerging literature on local and regional development in Asia and regional studies in general. It provides an important resource for researchers, students, and policy makers interested in East Asia and, more broadly, the Global South.

In this Preface, let me explore a little further three underlying rationales for this edited volume (see more detail arguments in Chapter 1). First, the authors in this volume collectively believe in the need for new and more context-sensitive theorizing of economic geographies and territorial development in Asia. In an earlier paper coauthored with George Lin and published in Economic Geography (Vol. 79, No. 2, 2003), I argue for the development of context-specific theories from diverse empirical studies in Asia. This contextual specificity arises primarily from the historical and geographical differences that account for diverse processes and trajectories of regional development in Asia. This critical conceptual point has been taken up seriously in most of the chapters in this volume. More specifically, the uniqueness of the East Asian experience in regional development should be underscored here, primarily because of the simultaneous presence of three key ingredients – domestic firms (public or private), developmental state institutions (often at the national level), and global lead firms and their production networks.

In comparison, these three ingredients occurred during different historical moments of regional development in North America and Western Europe. For example, when American investment ventured into Western Europe, particularly the UK, after World War Two, developmental state institutions were mostly absent and these American firms were established as multi-domestic clones rather than complex global production networks.

Since the mid-1980s, regional devolution in North America and European countries has intensified, though the outcomes are rather mixed. In East Asia, regional development trajectories are much more variegated, ranging from Japan’s active pursuit of regional equality policies during its post-war development to the strong focus in South Korea and Taiwan on building up national institutional capacity between the 1970s and the 1990s and the more recent experimentation of China with regional devolution since the late 1980s (see chapters by Lee, Lin, Wei et al., and Aoyama in Part Two). The experience of most Southeast Asian countries demonstrates further the unique political-economic contexts in which regional development takes place (see chapters by Kelly and Lepawsky). All of these historical and geographical specificities in Asia potentially allow the authors of this book to interrogate existing theories in regional development, in particular the “new regionalism” approach associated with such ideas as the learning region, institutional thickness, relational assets, regional innovation system, and so on.

Second, this book points to the need to conceptualize local and regional development in Asian countries as a cumulative outcome of both local and non-local linkages. In another paper published in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (Vol. 29, No. 4, 2004), my co-authors and I argue that existing studies of regional development are too preoccupied with endogenous factors as if they were sufficient in accounting for regional growth and change over time. We suggest that the role of non-local processes can be very important in shaping regional development trajectories. This book thus attempts to revisit the role of extra-regional processes in shaping regional development trajectories. The East Asian experience shows that regional development cannot be understood independently of the changing dynamics of global production networks (see chapters by Yeung, Yang et al., C. Yang, and Sajarattanochote and Poon in Part One). While the existing literature on East Asia tends to focus on the developmental state as the key driver of economic development, we believe that this developmental role of the national state is at most a necessary but not sufficient condition for regional development to take place. We need to study the complex strategic coupling of those economic actors, particularly business firms, operating in specific regions with their lead firm counterparts orchestrating production networks on a global basis (see more details in Chapter 1). This emphasis on business firms and their embedded global production networks is a deliberate choice in order to overcome the excessive emphasis on regional assets in the new regionalism literature and state interventions in the East Asian development literature.

Taken together, this book can offer some unique contributions to the existing literature. To our best knowledge to date, there is not a single book, either authored or edited, that specifically explores local and regional development at the sub-national scale within the Asia Pacific region (let alone East Asia). Existing books on Asia typically examine regionalism as a supra-national political-economic construct. They hardly offer any detail analysis of high growth regions in those Asian economies. Another category of books on Asia does look into sub-national development. But they are often focusing on sub-national regional integration initiatives through adjacent borderland spaces and growth regions. This book thus brings together this diverse literature and lays the critical foundation for future studies of local and regional development in Asia. Each chapter tackles the above major analytical issues on the basis of solid empirical materials collected through intensive and/or extensive research in relevant Asian countries. These authors have fully deployed their Asian materials to develop contextual-sensitive theoretical ideas that will speak to important concepts in regional studies, e. g. clusters, industrial districts, regional assets, global-local tensions, institutionalism, competitiveness, production networks, regional innovation systems, and so on. Their chapters are not merely an application of these conceptual ideas, but rather an interrogation and further development of these important concepts in regional studies. I will leave to your own judgement of the end result that I hope should point to a relatively coherent set of empirical chapters grounded strongly in the relevant theoretical literature in regional studies. As a whole, they should make a significant contribution to our existing understanding of regional development in today’s global economy.

To conclude, a word of thanks is certainly necessary for a major project of this nature. The former editor-in-chief of Regional Studies, Andy Pike, should take credit for initiating this project. His kind invitation and strong encouragement throughout this project has ensured its successful completion and eventual delivery. I am also grateful to Hege Knutsen, Balaji Parthasarathy, Martin Perry, Tulus Tahi Hamonangan Tambunan, Jonathan Rigg, and Markus Hassler, and many referees of Regional Studies for participating in this substantial undertaking to understand better regional development in Asia. Arnoud Lagendijk, as the new editor-in-chief of Regional Studies, should be thanked for expediting the publication of the special issue on which this book is based. The NUS Academic Research Fund (R-109-000-050-112) supports my work throughout this project. Gillian Bristow, the Book Review Editor of the Regional Studies Association Book Series, has greatly facilitated the consideration of this book proposal by our publisher Taylor & Francis. Finally, our Publisher, Alan Jarvis, and his Associate Editor, Stephen Thompson, at Routledge have been very accommodating and helpful in working out an amenable and practical solution to bring this book to its final production. To all of you, a big Thank You from myself and all the authors.

Henry Wai-chung Yeung
National University of Singapore
May 2009

Regional Development and the Competitive Dynamics of Global Production Networks: An East Asian Perspective

HENRY WAI-CHUNG YEUNG

Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, 1 Arts Link, 117570 Singapore.

YEUNG H. W.-C. Regional development and the competitive dynamics of global production networks: an East Asian perspective, Regional Studies. The debate on the nature and dynamics of regional development in both academic and policy circles has now moved on from the earlier focus on endogenous regional assets to analysing the complex relationship between globalization and regional change. This position paper attempts to engage with this debate through the experience of regional development in East Asia. The paper shows that regional development cannot be understood independently of the changing dynamics of global production networks. While the existing literature on East Asia tends to focus on the state as the key driver of economic development at the national and regional levels, it is argued that the developmental state is a necessary but not sufficient condition for regional development to take place. Instead, one needs to study the complex strategic coupling of those economic actors, particularly large business firms, operating in specific regions in Asia with their lead firm counterparts orchestrating production networks on a global basis. To illustrate these strategic coupling processes and their impact on divergent regional development trajectories, the author draws upon his own primary data and other papers to be published in this special issue of Regional Studies. The paper concludes with some major implications for theorizing regional development and strategic regional policy options.

YEUNG H. W.-C. L’aménagement du territoire et la dynamique compétitive des réseaux de production mondiaux: du point de vue de l’Asie de l’Est, Regional Studies. Le débat sur les caractéristiques et la dynamique de l’aménagment du territoire dans les milieux académique et politique ne met plus l’accent mis sur les atouts régionaux endogènes mais plutôt sur l’analyse du rapport complexe entre la mondialisation et l’évolution régionale. Cet article cherche à s’engager dans ce débat à partir de l’expérience de l’aménagement du territoire en Asie de l’Est. Cet article montre que l’aménagement du territoire ne peut pas s’expliquer indépendamment de la dynamique changeante des réseaux de production mondiaux. Alors que la documentation actuelle sur l’Asie de l’Est a ten-dance à porter sur l’état comme la principale force motrice sur les plans national et régional, on affirme que l’état du développement constitue une condition nécessaire mais insuffisante de l’aménagement du territoire. Plutôt, on étudie l’accouplement stratégique complexe de ces agents économiques, notamment les grandes entreprises qui opèrent dans des régions spécifiques en Asie pendant que leurs entreprises phares homologues organisent des réseaux de production mondiaux. Pour illustrer ces processus d’accouplement stratégique et leur impact sur diverses trajectoires d’aménagement du territoire, on puise dans les données de base de l’auteur et dans d’autres articles à paraître dans ce numéro spécial de Regional Studies. Pour conclure, l’article discute d’importantes implications quant à la théorisation de l’aménagement du territoire et aux options stratégiques pour la politique régionale.

YEUNG H. W.-C. Regionalentwicklung und die Wettbewerbsdynamik globaler Produktionsnetze: eine ostasiatische Perspektive, Regional Studies. Die akademische und politische Debatte über die Art und Dynamik der Regionalentwicklung konzentriert sich heute weniger auf endogenes regionales Kapital; stattdessen wird zunehmend die komplexe Beziehung zwischen Globalisierung und regionaler Veränderung analysiert. In diesem Positionsaufsatz versuche ich, mit den Erfahrungen der Regionalentwicklung in Ostasien zu dieser Debatte beizutragen. Aus dem Aufsatz geht hervor, dass sich die Regionalentwicklung nicht unabhängig von der wandelnden Dynamik globaler Produktionsnetze verstehen lässt. Die vorhandene Literatur in Ostasien konzentriert sich in der Regel auf den Staat als wichtigsten Motor der Wirtschaftsentwicklung auf nationaler und regionaler Ebene; ich hingegen argumentiere, dass ein die Entwicklung fördernder Staat zwar eine notwendige, jedoch keine ausreichende Vorbedingung für Regionalentwicklung darstellt. Stattdessen ist es nötig, die komplexe strategische Kopplung dieser wirtschaftlichen Akteure zu untersuchen – insbesondere die von Großunternehmen, die in bestimmten Regionen Asiens tätig sind und deren Leitfirmen Produktionsnetze auf weltweiter Ebene steuern. Um diese strategischen Kopplungsprozesse und ihre Auswirkung auf divergente regionale Entwicklungsverläufe zu illustrieren, werte ich meine eigenen Primärdaten sowie weitere Aufsätze aus, die in dieser Sonderausgabe von Regional Studies veröffentlicht werden. Zum Abschluss des Beitrags werden verschiedene wichtige Auswirkungen auf die Theoretisierung der Optionen für die Regionalentwicklung und strategische Regionalpolitik dargestell...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• 1. Globalizing Regional Development in East Asia: Production Networks, Clusters, and Entrepreneurship
• 2. Situating Regional Development in the Competitive Dynamics of Global Production Networks: An East Asian Perspective
• Part One: Global production networks and regional development
• Part Two: Politics and entrepreneurship in regional development
• Index