Unleashing Innovation the East Asian Way

This Open Access book provides a new perspective on startup ecosystems in East Asia – a region which has over decades shaped innovation and global competition. It specifically focuses on Japan, South Korea and Mainland China. The study of startup ecosystems in East Asia is of relevance not only because of their size and performance, but also because they continue to differ from their counterparts in Western countries in important ways. Country chapters sketch the dynamic development of East Asian startup ecosystems along diverse paths due to particular national conditions. Such differences matter for our understanding of startup ecosystems in general and their possible role for economic policy. East Asian startup ecosystems are mostly neglected by mainstream academic research in search for a universal model. The book systematically analyzes and compares startup ecosystems in East Asia considering their wider historical and national contexts. In this way, both commonalities and differences across East Asia are discerned. The chapters use both secondary sources as well as data from the authors’ decade long collaborative work. The book aims to make these findings, which have so far only been presented in academic journals, accessible to a wider readership.