Abstract

This thesis will focus on three related studies about the innovation systems of Hong Kong and Shenzhen. The first study is about comparative analysis of innovation policy frameworks in the two cities. Through this analysis, I show that Shenzhen has a more well-differentiated and highly-targeted policy framework – implying an active government intervention strategy – than Hong Kong. The second study seeks to test whether such strategy leads to positive improvement in overall innovation performance. Having analyzed USPTO patent data registered from both Hong Kong and Shenzhen spanning 2001-2015 period, I find that even active intervention is not always guaranteed to improve innovation performance. The third analysis, also utilizing the same patent datasets, aims to identify the primary driving force of innovation dynamics in the two cities. In this regard, I conduct social network analysis, with a particular interest in inter-organizational ties and patent co-inventor networks.