Policy
Where Are All the Entrepreneurs Gone in Japan?
For a nation that once boasted the likes of Sony, Toyota and Mitsubishi as its entrepreneurial heralds, Japan’s entrepreneurial record in the new millennium is surprisingly sparse. Indeed, entrepreneurs in Japan have become the exception rather than the norm. Common problems faced by aspiring entrepreneurs include the lack of venture capital, labyrinthine government regulations, and the dominance of large companies. Yet for all these factors, it takes two hands to clap – you need both an environment conducive to startups as well as people who aspire to be entrepreneurs.
“There’s A Killer in the House” Part 2: A Three-Step Solution for the Middle East and Ourselves
My last post described a terrifying scenario that could result if we do not help to overcome job creation problems in the Middle East, specifically Saudi Arabia. If the unrest in Libya were to be replicated in Saudi Arabia, 10 million barrels a day of oil exports would be at risk – plus equally importantly, the world’s 3 million barrel buffer. Now I would like to propose three steps toward a solution.
Egypt’s Twin Forces for Change: Tech-Saavy Youth and the Region’s Entrepreneurs
"This was not a generation gap as much as it was an information technology revolution" says Dr. Iman Bibars, Vice President at Ashoka and founding director of the Ashoka Arab World program.
Biotechnology Innovation: Emerging Opportunities in the Biologics/Biosimilar Market in the U.S.
The story of a generic pharmaceutical company (the proverbial ‘David’) attempting to overtake a large, branded pharmaceutical conglomerate (‘Goliath’) is an old tale, with deep roots dating back to the birth of modern medicine. But in recent past David has been quite successful. In 2007, for example, generics accounted for 65% of total prescriptions, with steady growth of 8-10% per year. Given this success and the overall benefit of generics in the US small molecule industry, why haven't generics been adopted in the biologics industry?
The Story of a Successful Virus
During the beginning of the 20th century, the historic Spanish Flu, a molecularly similar strain to the 2009 H1N1, caused 500 million known cases of infection and 50 million casualties worldwide. Today, collaboration between pharmaceutical companies and government organizations represents our main line of defense against pandemics. As human global travel has dramatically increased, so has the ability for these deadly viruses to infect a widespread population. In response, private companies and government agencies have invested heavily in understanding the mechanisms responsible for the spread of these deadly influenza strains.
Recovering Entrepreneurship: ARRA
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) represents an enormous one-off investment in science and technology by the federal government. The ARRA is primarily meant to stimulate economic activity by replacing private investment lost in the recession, so research is a small part of the total $878 billion spending package. But even that small part amounts to over $17 billion, including $10 billion to the National Institute of Health (NIH), which is a very large increase on normal funding levels. With a face value larger than the GDP of Australia, the ARRA itself is a vast topic, so we will focus on how the stimulus affects science and technology; specifically how money has been allocated, the strategies used by federal funding agencies to distribute money, and the long-term consequences on basic research and commercial opportunities.
Security Entrepreneurs Needed? Cyber-Crime and Internet Security
There are tremendous financial and social burdens linked with cybercrime. Perhaps even more seriously, on an international level, targeted cyber-terrorism has infiltrated the governmental infrastructure of multiple nations. For example, the Pentagon database was hacked and information on the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was divulged, while Google’s web site in China was targeted and disabled by hackers shortly before it exited the market there. In this respect, the responsibility to combat cybercrime and cyber-terrorism is representative of a classic collective action problem: states and individuals both have incentives to free-ride on each other’s efforts in order to defeat a common problem. What is clear, however, is that potential solutions to cybercrime must encompass three interlinked areas: political, scientific and entrepreneurial.
The Interaction Hierarchy: A Theory of Technical Standards and Regulations
Standards and regulations are at the very core of what makes us human. Without standard interactions and methods of communication, what we now consider “society” could never have developed. Nonetheless, we are constantly innovating, creating new products and processes that do not yet have standard parts or regulated interactions. This leads to one of the fundamental questions of human social organization as well as of innovation: when and how should standards and regulations be implemented?
