Research

Current Projects

Academic Entrepreneurship in Asia (Newly Released Publication)

Edward Elgar has recently released this timely volume, documenting the findings from a two-year research project coordinated by NEC. This book examines the rising phenomenon of academic entrepreneurship and technology commercialization among leading universities in Asia.

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Intellectual Rights in the Digital Convergence Space

The rapid development of digital technology in recent years, particularly quantum advancements in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) with the advent of the Internet as an enabler, has driven the phenomenon of Digital Convergence globally. This growing phenomenon presents opportunities for the creation of a regional hub providing professional IP services for the range of technologies and spin-off activities arising from convergence. This project aims to identify the issues and opportunities arising from the growth of Digital Media and to assess the development of IP hub services in Singapore.

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Past Projects

The Role and Impact of Universities in a National Innovation System

This project examines how selected universities in Asia approach academic entrepreneurship and technology transfer activities. The Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF) of Japan approved a grant for NEC to lead and co-ordinate this 2-year collaborative research project involving 13 research-intensive universities from 9 Asian economies (Japan, China, India, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore). Under this project, researchers from major universities in Asia examine the emerging role of universities in their national and regional innovation systems. The report, comprising chapters on the experiences of 13 leading universities in Asia, has been accepted for publication in book form by Edward Elgar and is currently in production.

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Asia Pacific Intellectual Property Scorecard 2009

IP Academy (IPA) of Singapore has commissioned NEC to follow up on an earlier project which developed an annual Scorecard of IP performance among Asian nations and organisations.  Modeled after MIT Technology Review’s annual global ranking of leading patenting organisations in the world (now published by The Patents Board), the original Scorecard project focused on Asia and developed additional performance indicators. This follow-on project updates the previously constructed AsiaPac IP Scorecard with patents granted by the USPTO and EPO up to June 30th 2009.  The scorecard ranks the leading patent producing economies and provides insights into the trends of IP creation and quality in the Asia Pacific Region.

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Publications

Journal Articles & Book Chapters

Entrepreneurial intentions: The influence of organizational and individual factors

An individual’s intent to pursue and entrepreneurial career can result from the work environment and from personal factors. This paper examines why individuals intend to leave their jobs to start business venture. Findings, using a sample of 4192 IT professionals in Singapore, suggest that work environments with an unfavourable innovation climate and/or lack of technical excellence incentives influence entrepreneurial intentions through low job satisfaction

University Patenting Activities and Their Link to the Quantity and Quality of Scientific Publications

An individual’s intent to pursue and entrepreneurial career can result from the work environment and from personal factors. This paper examines why individuals intend to leave their jobs to start business venture. Findings, using a sample of 4192 IT professionals in Singapore, suggest that work environments with an unfavourable innovation climate and/or lack of technical excellence incentives influence entrepreneurial intentions through low job satisfaction

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Conference & Working Papers

Do co-publications with industry lead to higher university technology commercialization activities?

This paper examines the relationship between university-industry R&D collaboration and university technology commercialization by investigating the extent to which the latter may be influenced by the involvement of the universities in research collaboration with industry, as evidenced by their propensity to generate co-publications with industry.

Home-base-exploiting vs home-base-augmenting strategies of foreign R&D by US electronics firms

This exploratory paper uses US patents to investigate the R&D locational strategies of the top patenting US electronics companies over 1976-2005, with a focus on non-Japan Asia.  Our analysis suggests that home-base-exploiting R&D remains the dominant R&D strategy for US electronics firms in Asia, but there is a trend towards more HBA R&D in Korea and Taiwan in recent years.  Policy implications for the host economies in Asia are discussed.

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