On the afternoon of April 4th, 2014, Prof. Peter Cowhey, Dean of UC San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS), was invited to give a lecture on “The Lessons from New Innovation Models for China” at the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University. Dr. CHEN Ling, the Vice Director of CIDEG (Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance), hosted the event. GU Shulin, Researcher of Technological Policy and Management Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Science, commented on the lecture.
Prof. Peter Cowhey first pointed out that Chinese experts are trying to duplicate the Silicon Valley innovation model, but the model combining research universities, startup firms and venture capital has undergone some changes. As the added value of ideas and information increased rapidly in an expanding range of products and services, Moore’s law and standardized interfaces made cheaper “mix and match” of information and communication technology (ICT) much more possible, that promotes the development of faster and cheaper innovations and easier new business models. Then the “Modular Digital Innovation” came into being in the U.S.
Modular digital innovation is evolving beyond the regional cluster model. New technologies represented by 3D printers, advanced robots and modular information products, changed the pattern of massive production, and brought diverse industries and automatic production systems. Using vivid and witty language and examples, Prof. Peter Cowhey outlined the change in new era of innovation, for example, new technologies are like on-line Apps stores to facilitate the creation of personalized custom products; to discover the customer by releasing on-line prototypes and getting feedbacks in this big data era which is cheaper and faster data; customer data even became a major source of revenue in the customer-oriented medical industry; 3D printing technology made product manufacturing networked and efficient. In addition, Prof. Peter Cowhey proposed the idea of new innovation ecosystem to start a novel business model by combination of ICT and software, for example, the combination of cloud services and hardware would redefine hardware markets, the innovation of software service could be fulfilled by using of hardware.
Based on the above view, Prof. Peter Cowhey stressed that we must change the public policy and governance to survive in the era of modular digital innovation. For instance, state owned enterprises must change it’s role, small and flexible enterprises rather than huge technology parks tend to be adaptable to technology innovation, public investment in technical testing needs to focus on smaller enterprises, the intellectual property system should provide sophisticated and enforceable protection of ideas and technology innovation, leaders need to make the supply and use of information technology and services as seamless and integrated globally as possible.
The lecture was hosted by CIDEG of Tsinghua University. More than forty Chinese and foreign students attended the event and held in-depth discussions with Prof. Peter Cowhey on subjects of technology innovation model and so on.
