IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v33y2011i3p200-211.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The challenges in Singapore NEWater development: Co-evolutionary development for innovation and industry evolution

Author

Listed:
  • Chew, Michele Y.C.
  • Watanabe, Chihiro
  • Tou, Yuji

Abstract

Co-evolutionary dynamism between innovation and institutional systems by transforming external crises into a springboard for new innovation is crucial for innovation and industry evolution in resource-constrained nations. This has been demonstrated by Japan’s success in overcoming the energy crises in the 1970s and subsequent high-technology miracle in the 1980s. Similar to Japan’s energy security, securing water is crucial for Singapore as approximately a third of the water supply is imported. This study traces the extensive stepwise endeavors Singapore undertook to address this problem. Initial attempts of learning from imported technology lead to the development of indigenous capabilities followed by export acceleration. This in turn has lead to a phenomenon observed and described as co-evolutionary “acclimatization”, which has enabled the nation to successfully substitute 30% of water demand with technology-driven NEWater. This paper demonstrates the challenges faced in developing and disseminating these leading-edge technologies. The final result is “localizing” knowledge and creating local innovation using the knowledge from leading global firms thereby providing mutual benefits to competitors leading to the co-evolution between innovation and institutional systems. This co-evolutionary process provides new insights into innovation and industry emergence, particularly for inducing the economies at the bottom of the pyramid.

Suggested Citation

  • Chew, Michele Y.C. & Watanabe, Chihiro & Tou, Yuji, 2011. "The challenges in Singapore NEWater development: Co-evolutionary development for innovation and industry evolution," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 200-211.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:33:y:2011:i:3:p:200-211
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2011.06.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X11000364
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2011.06.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. North, Douglass C, 1994. "Economic Performance through Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 359-368, June.
    2. Watanabe, Chihiro, 1992. "Trends in the substitution of production factors to technology--empirical analysis of the inducing impact of the energy crisis on Japanese industrial," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 481-505, December.
    3. Watanabe, Chihiro, 1999. "Systems option for sustainable development--effect and limit of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry's efforts to substitute technology for energy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(7), pages 719-749, September.
    4. K. J. Arrow, 1971. "The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: F. H. Hahn (ed.), Readings in the Theory of Growth, chapter 11, pages 131-149, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Jovanovic, Boyan & Lach, Saul, 1989. "Entry, Exit, and Diffusion with Learning by Doing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(4), pages 690-699, September.
    6. Nelson, Richard R. & Sampat, Bhaven N., 2001. "Making sense of institutions as a factor shaping economic performance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 31-54, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wong, Chan-Yuan, 2011. "Rent-seeking, industrial policies and national innovation systems in Southeast Asian economies," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 231-243.
    2. Watanabe, Chihiro & Naveed, Kashif & Zhao, Weilin, 2015. "New paradigm of ICT productivity – Increasing role of un-captured GDP and growing anger of consumers," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 21-44.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boyan Jovanovic & Peter L. Rousseau, 2002. "Moore's Law and Learning-By-Doing," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 5(2), pages 346-375, April.
    2. Emmanuel Petrakis & Eric Rasmusen & Santanu Roy, 1997. "The Learning Curve in a Competitive Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(2), pages 248-268, Summer.
    3. Strupeit, Lars, 2017. "An innovation system perspective on the drivers of soft cost reduction for photovoltaic deployment: The case of Germany," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 273-286.
    4. Philip Franses & Rianne Legerstee, 2014. "Statistical institutes and economic prosperity," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 507-520, January.
    5. Watanabe, Chihiro & Naveed, Nasir & Neittaanmäki, Pekka, 2019. "Digitalized bioeconomy: Planned obsolescence-driven circular economy enabled by Co-Evolutionary coupling," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 8-30.
    6. Timothy J. Foxon, 2014. "Technological lock-in and the role of innovation," Chapters, in: Giles Atkinson & Simon Dietz & Eric Neumayer & Matthew Agarwala (ed.), Handbook of Sustainable Development, chapter 20, pages 304-316, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Pieper, Ute, 2002. "Patterns of inter-sectoral diffusion of technological growth: income, concentration, and public capital stocks," Research Memorandum 012, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    8. Götz, Georg & Ederington, Josh, 2017. "Leapfrogging: Time of Entry and Firm Productivity," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168126, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Bernardino Adão & Borghan N. Narajabad & Ted Temzelides, 2022. "Renewable Technology Adoption Costs and Economic Growth," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2022-045, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    10. Levin, Mark (Левин, Марк) & Matrosova, K. (Матросова, К.), 2016. "Research, Modeling and Process Management Dissemination of Innovations in Socio-Economic Systems [Исследование, Моделирование И Управление Процессами Распространения Инноваций В Социально-Экономиче," Working Papers 1443, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    11. John Dunning & Sarianna Lundan, 2008. "Institutions and the OLI paradigm of the multinational enterprise," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 573-593, December.
    12. Dosi, Giovanni & Nelson, Richard R., 2010. "Technical Change and Industrial Dynamics as Evolutionary Processes," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 51-127, Elsevier.
    13. Tou, Yuji & Watanabe, Chihiro & Moriya, Kuniko & Naveed, Nasir & Vurpillat, Victor & Neittaanmäki, Pekka, 2019. "The transformation of R&D into neo open innovation- a new concept in R&D endeavor triggered by amazon," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    14. repec:bdi:workqs:qse_7 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Ugur, Mehmet, 2010. "Institutions and economic performance: a review of the theory and evidence," MPRA Paper 25909, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Oct 2010.
    16. Angela Ambrosino & Magda Fontana & Anna Azzurra Gigante, 2018. "Shifting Boundaries In Economics: The Institutional Cognitive Strand And The Future Of Institutional Economics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 767-791, July.
    17. Kobos, Peter H. & Erickson, Jon D. & Drennen, Thomas E., 2006. "Technological learning and renewable energy costs: implications for US renewable energy policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(13), pages 1645-1658, September.
    18. Toshihiko Mukoyama, 2003. "A Theory of Technology Diffusion," Macroeconomics 0303010, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 03 Jun 2003.
    19. Bossink, Bart, 2020. "Learning strategies in sustainable energy demonstration projects: What organizations learn from sustainable energy demonstrations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    20. Jeremy Greenwood & Boyan Jovanovic, 2001. "Accounting for Growth," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 179-224, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Mukoyama, Toshihiko, 2006. "Rosenberg's "learning by using" and technology diffusion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 123-144, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:33:y:2011:i:3:p:200-211. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.