A comparison of innovation capacity at science parks across the Taiwan Strait: the case of Zhangjiang High-Tech Park and Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park

This paper aims to explore the innovation capacity in two different science parks across the Taiwan Strait. In both Taiwan and China considerable resources are being devoted to science parks as policy instruments aimed at promoting R&D-based as well as innovation activities. For this study, we chose the Zhangjiang High-Tech Park (ZJHP) of China and the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP) of Taiwan to compare innovation capacity. Based on Porter's (The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Free Press, New York, 1990; Cluster and Competition: New Agendas for Companies, Governments, and Institutions, on Competition, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 1998; Econ. Develop. Quart. 14 (1990, 1998, 2000) 15) model for the innovation orientation of national industrial cluster, this paper proposes a model to analyze the science parks in innovation capacity across the Taiwan Strait. We found differences in determinants for innovation capacity between the ZJHP and HISP, such as the “basic research infrastructure”, “sophisticated and demanding local customer base”, and “the presence of clusters instead of isolated industries”.