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The purpose of this paper is to review the history, current activities, and prospects of Sino‐US cooperation in science and technology (S&T). It seeks to understand the role of S&T in Sino‐US relations, how the relationship has affected Chinese scientific development and, more generally, to better understand the ways S&T affect – and are affected by – the foreign policies of nation states.

Employing an institutional perspective, the paper is based on interviews in China and the USA and reviews of government documents and press reports.

Owing to the impacts of the Cultural Revolution on Chinese S&T, the relationship is highly asymmetrical when it began in the late 1970s. As Chinese capabilities have improved, aided measurably by the relationship with the USA, the two sides are now in a position to cooperate more fully across a wide range of areas of interest to both sides. Channels for cooperation have been developed through the two governments, through Chinese and US corporations and through academic institutions in the two countries. Together, these allow for collaborative activities in basic science, commercial research and development, and in S&T in support of public goods.

The Sino‐US relationship in S&T has become more important to the two countries as they face an array of daunting challenges of energy, public health, basic research, and new industrial technologies. Yet, the relationship has not been extensively studied in spite of its growing importance. This paper attempts to help overcome this neglect. A better understanding of the relationship will contribute to improved understandings of Sino‐US relations more generally, and to the ways in which S&T fit into the foreign relations of major powers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dynamics of China's health biotech clusters from an interregional perspective. By treating clustering as the result of firms' localization choices, the paper examines whether and why different types of firms agglomerate in the various locations.

The paper employs a demographic approach that is inspired by the 2006 work of Romanelli and Feldman on cluster development in the USA. It categorizes China's clusters based on differences in the degree of policy support and the nature of the science base. Then, it draws a sample of 75 of China's most visible firms and analyses them in terms of entrepreneurial origin, their location and, if applicable, the location of their subsidiaries. By matching types of firms with types of clusters, the paper highlights some characteristics of China's regional development.

Studies on China's high‐tech agglomerations unanimously complain about a lack of “creative buzz” compared to the vibrant clusters of for example, the Bay Area in the USA. The analysis indicates that the lack of a creative culture is associated with the anatomy of cluster development. China's clusters grow to a significant extent by attracting enterprise subsidiaries to their sites. The authors argue that these particular cluster anatomies are founded on China's capital market. As the capital market is not prepared to provide pre‐revenue firms with sufficient funds, firms have to earn revenue quickly in order to ensure their viability. Therefore, they concentrate on building up manufacturing capacity and exploiting given technologies. The main point is that local governments as major providers of financial support are instrumental in this process. The establishment of manufacturing subsidiaries in various locations rests on the rationale of collecting funds. This leads to the conclusion that national capital markets either reinforce or inhibit clustering depending on how much it allows the mobility of financial capital. Local government funds do not travel far. This has an impact on the firms' localization decisions and their business strategies, which, in turn, affects the “culture” inside the clusters.

This argument is based on a limited number of interviews conducted by the authors or other researchers. In order to corroborate the link between the capital market and local development trajectories, more evidence needs to be collected via interview surveys and other means to extract financial information.

Unlike other research on Chinese clusters, this paper offers an interregional perspective based on a demographic approach. The argument is original in linking regional cluster dynamics with the national institutional set‐up.

The purpose of this paper is to understand different institutional mechanisms for promoting effective innovation diffusion and maximizing spillovers from fruitfulness of university‐industry linkages.

The approach involved the content analysis of university documents and in‐depth interviews with university personnel. The paper investigated the types of changes which had been instituted by selected universities in regards to the management of invention disclosure and patent licensing procedures, policies for new business startups by faculty and graduates. The paper then studies how university incentive structures have been reshaped to encourage and facilitate engagement with industry.

The types of changes have been instituted by select universities enhance research commercialization capacity in regards to the management of invention disclosure and patent licensing, policies for new business startups by faculty and graduates, and provision of seed capital, training and incubator facilities, especially the relationship between technology transfer offices and university administration, as well as faculty; how university incentive structure has been reshaped to encourage and facilitate engagement with industry; how gross royalties and/or net royalty income are distributed between university and faculty.

This paper describes the important role of institutional underpinnings for building commercial linkages. It also explores what university policies and institutions shape the nature and fruitfulness of innovation diffusion in China.

This editorial aims to review various theoretical frameworks in measuring firm competences, including marketing competences, strategic flexibility, innovation capacity building of organizations and attempts to propose a conceptual framework to benchmark and rank the Chinese firms in terms of competitiveness.

An overview and conceptual paper based on observations and research experience. Drawing on the prevalent theoretical models of building up competitiveness and reports from well established research centres, government and international associations worldwide, this paper presents a strategic framework for evaluating and measuring firm competitiveness in China.

The paper stresses the importance of keeping‐up with the fast pace of technological change and the emerging new global paradigms of the business environment. It addresses the development trajectory and the way through which firms can contribute to capacity building and the creation of competitive advantage in facing the pressing challenges of globalization. It aims to establish the potential indicators of competitiveness by analysing the theoretic elements and the microeconomic business environment.

This paper presents the crucial tenets of the strategic framework of developing firm competitiveness, which include: creation of core competence, establishment of competitiveness index and competitiveness rankings. These are closely linked with the development of corporate strategy, marketing strategy and technology and innovation strategy within firms. These core features will have strong implication to Chinese and foreign enterprises and provide an invaluable instrument for firms to enhance their performance through benchmarking and evaluating their current competitive position and determine new strategies to create competitiveness.

A bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view is given. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 1,726 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1996‐1999.