Innovation in Low Income Countries
Xiaolan Fu, University of Oxford
The talk presents the findings of an ESRC-DFID funded 3-year project on the diffusion of innovation in low-income countries (DILIC), which is carried out by a joint team of scholars from Oxford University, UNU-MERIT and STEPRI (Ghana) led by Prof Xiaolan Fu and Pierre Mohnen. The DILIC project aims to provide the first comprehensive and evidence-based study on innovation in low-Income Countries based on more than 30 in-depth case studies and a novel firm level survey of 530 firms in the formal and informal sectors in Ghana. Using a framework of Open Innovation Systems, it analyses the nature of innovations in low-Income countries, identifies their origins and channels for diffusion, elucidates barriers to innovation, and clarifies the role of innovation in sustainable development in the LICs.
About the speaker
Xiaolan Fu (傅晓岚) is the Founding Director of the Technology and Management Centre for Development (TMCD), Professor of Technology and International Development and Fellow of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include innovation, technology and industrialisation; trade, foreign direct investment and economic development; emerging Asian economies; innovation and productivity in UK/US. She has published extensively in leading international journals. Her recent books include China’s Path to Innovation, China’s Role in Global Economic Recovery, and The Rise of Technological Power in the South. She is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, and serves on the Editorial Boards of Industrial and Corporate Change, International Journal of Technology Management, and four other international journals. She was appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the Ten-Member High Level Advisory Group of the UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism. Prof Fu has received the European Commission Gate2Growth 2005 'European Best Paper' Award. She received large research grants from prestigious funding bodies including the European Commission, ESRC, EPSRC, British Academy, and the Cairncross Foundation. She has been consultant for UNDESA, UNCTAD, UNIDO, the World Bank, OECD, European Commission, ILO, the Commonwealth Secretariat, UKTI and the Chinese government. Prof Fu serves on the Advisory Expert Group of the OECD Global Investment Forum and the DFID/ESRC Economic Growth Directorate (DEGP), and is President of the Chinese Economic Association (Europe) and CEA (UK) in 2010-11. She is also a Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge and University of Tsinghua, and a Visiting Professor at Fudan University. As a leading China expert, she has participated in various interviews and panel discussions at main stream media including BBC, Sky News, People's Daily, and China Daily. In 2014 she was invited to give a talk on ‘Science, technology and innovation in developing countries’ at the UN General Assembly. Prof Fu came to Oxford from Cambridge University, where she was a Senior Research Fellow. Before coming to the UK, she had five years’ work experience in the business sector in China before embarking on her academic career
Venue: Conference room (room 0.16 & 0.17)
Date: 26 May 2016
Time: 12:30 - 13:30 CEST