Hitoshi Hirakawa – författare

This book looks at two-stage industrial cluster theory and new innovation models in view of IT-ization and servitization of products. The formation of industrial clusters such as export processing zones and special economic zones has been the preferred mechanism for developing countries to boost their industrial development and export performance for the last several decades. Existing literature related to Development Economics cited numerous benefits of industrial clusters and several countries have reaped such benefits. The book goes beyond formation of traditional industrial clusters. It promotes the idea of formation of two-stage clusters.

The book further stresses on new innovation models. The ideas are promoted based on the empirical evidence of Chinese and Taiwanese firms in consumer electronics and automobile sectors. Finally, the book looks at firm strategies in new business environment which is dominated by servitization of industrial products. It argues for firms to integrate manufacturing and services to a great extent. To substantiate the arguments, empirical evidence comes from India, Taiwan, and Bangladesh. The study further finds evidence, perhaps for the first time that innovation and knowledge acquisition strategies are influenced not only by size of firms but also vary with market preferences.

This book looks at two-stage industrial cluster theory and new innovation models in view of IT-ization and servitization of products. The formation of industrial clusters such as export processing zones and special economic zones has been the preferred mechanism for developing countries to boost their industrial development and export performance for the last several decades. Existing literature related to Development Economics cited numerous benefits of industrial clusters and several countries have reaped such benefits. The book goes beyond formation of traditional industrial clusters. It promotes the idea of formation of two-stage clusters.

The book further stresses on new innovation models. The ideas are promoted based on the empirical evidence of Chinese and Taiwanese firms in consumer electronics and automobile sectors. Finally, the book looks at firm strategies in new business environment which is dominated by servitization of industrial products. It argues for firms to integrate manufacturing and services to a great extent. To substantiate the arguments, empirical evidence comes from India, Taiwan, and Bangladesh. The study further finds evidence, perhaps for the first time that innovation and knowledge acquisition strategies are influenced not only by size of firms but also vary with market preferences.

One feature of this book is the clarification of the development mechanism of Asia as a regional economy for over half a century, based on an "Asian Economy Within the Global Economy" approach that goes beyond the single-country analytical framework. The development of emerging economies has caught the world''s attention: from the Newly Industrializing Countries or Newly Industrializing Economies of the 1980s to the BRICs entering this century. General economics cannot clarify the internal mechanism of the changing of newly industrialized economies led by Asia. This book clarifies such regional development structure by focusing on the direct investments of multinational firms and the importance of gradual changes of specific policies adopted by newly industrialized economies.

Moreover, the book concretely deals with the US–China trade war and China''s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a problem of Asian economies. In so doing, the book not only perceives the structural change of the global economy as a structural change from a US-centric global economy of the twentieth century to a China-centric one, but also focuses on the birthing of a new growth frontier in the world economy, under a crisis brought about by a war for hegemony between the US and China. The investment initiative through China''s BRI has prompted the investment competition between Japan and the US, which has made even stronger the possibility of giving birth to a new economic frontier in Afro-Eurasia.

Another feature is the consideration of various issues that confront Asian countries in their search for economic development, using the Philippines as a case study. The analysis of the study points to the importance of a “shared growth” perspective, which is based on an Asian development model, and discusses the challenge of overcoming the issues of the economic development model within the region. At the same time, this book studies the significance and new issues, as a region, of the economy and overseas policies of attention-drawer China.