6
t i e s . H e a r g u e s
that international
social ties benefit
economic development by promoting information flow,
providing access to new markets, and by monitoring global
trends. Thus, establishing closer ties with overseas Koreans
can help ameliorate the talent shortage. To attract rooted
businessmen who usually plan to return to South Korea, the
work culture of Korean companies should be reformed so that
career prospects remain attractive. The country should also
build social capital with estranged businessmen who are more
interested in short-term return to reclaim cultural identities or
to pursue career opportunities.
Both studies suggest that policy-makers have a strong role
to play in developing favorable policies to attract high-
end returnees, and provide valuable insights into factors to
consider in designing such policies.
Today more than ever, talent moves across borders to
countries which provide the best opportunities. Attracting
and retaining talent to support development thus is of
national strategic importance.
David Zweig
, Chair Professor
of Social Science, and
Joon Nak Choi
, Assistant Professor of
Management, shared their insights on efforts by China and
South Korea to attract international talent.
Prof. Zweig explained that in his research based on interviews
with mainland Chinese entrepreneurs, including both locals
and returnees, he found that among entrepreneurs and
scientists, technology is the primary catalyst generating
reverse migration as returnees are significantly rewarded
by taking existing technologies from their host countries to
China. These technologies are not necessarily “cutting-edge”
globally, but as long as the technology is new for China,
returnees can displace older domestic technologies and
win greater domestic market shares. In fact, 62% of those
returning for reasons related to technology admit that their
technology was new to China but had existed outside China
long before.
In his talk based on part of a forthcoming coauthored book
on Global Talent- Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea to be
published by Stanford University Press, Prof. Choi noted that
Korean firms have largely failed in recruiting skilled foreign
workers primarily because of Korea’s uninviting mono-ethnic
culture. He proposed a new approach to enticing Korea’s pool
of skilled émigrés back to Korea, namely by nurturing social
TALENT MIGRATION AND RECRUITMENT ACROSS
BORDERS
Business Insights Presentation co-organized with HKUST Business School
(2014.04.10)
government innovation policy positively
affects firm innovation, but that the
effect is reduced when a firm is larger or state-owned, and
when there already is strong social legitimacy for innovation.
Based on the findings, Prof. Sullivan argues that in an
institutional void, government policies supplement weak
market institutions to channel resources to support firm
innovation. Firms more influenced by government innovation
policies gain more resources and perceive a higher likelihood
of securing additional resources when needed. These firms
also have better protection against misappropriation of their
inventions and are motivated to conform to government
expectations to achieve legitimacy.
Their findings are relevant for emerging economies, which
often have immature institutions, including weak intellectual
property protection, limited market incentives, and resource
constraints. The study thus provides important implications
for policy-makers to help countries move up the innovation
curve.
The rise of Chinese firms in innovation activities has recently
attracted attention. In an HKUST IEMS academic seminar,
Bilian Sullivan
, Associate Professor of Management,
presented recent research that examined the role of
government policies in promoting innovation in Chinese firms.
There are contradictory theoretical arguments and empirical
findings on the role of government in firm innovation. Both
institutional contexts and firm-specific characteristics may
be crucial determinants of how government policies impact
firms’ behavior. Prof. Sullivan and co-authors analyze firm
level data from China, and find that government innovation
policies have fostered firm innovation because the policies
mitigate uncertainty surrounding the chance of profiting from
innovation and bestow legitimacy on firms.
The survey data comes from a random sample of 768 firms in
10 cities covering the period 2006-2010. The analysis assesses
how government policies and firm characteristics affect the
total number of new patents applied for and granted during
2007-2011. They examine the extent to which a firm regards
eight policies as important to the firm’s innovation activities, as
well as the importance of four firm characteristics: ownership
(state-owned or not), size, business environment (more
market-based or not) and social norms (innovation is taken
as normative and valuable to firms). The results show that
LEGITIMACY OR RESOURCES? FIRM INNOVATION
AND GOVERNMENT INNOVATION POLICY IN CHINA’S
TRANSITIONAL ECONOMY
HKUST IEMS Academic Seminar (2014. 02.10)
Bilian Sullivan
Joon Nak Choi
David Zweig
Video recordings of the
presentations are available at
