Translating the Mfp: National Innovation Management Policy, High Technology Incubators and Australia-Japan Relations

Abstract

The drive by governments to find new means of managing technological change in the quest for competitive advantage has led to an expansion in the international construction of high technology incubators for the purpose of accelerating innovation rates. In 1987 the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) asked the Australian government to jointly build in Australia a ‘city of the future’ known as the Multifunction Polis (MFP) which would incubate high technology industries for the twenty-first century. An analysis of the curious course of MFP design negotiations sheds light on a number of important issues including cultural differences in constructing solutions to national innovation problems and the use of the promise of innovation in shaping international relations.

From citadels to clusters: the evolution of regional innovation policies in Australia

“…From the 1980s, technology incubators and S&T parks proliferated under the State governments and there are now around 17 in operation. As Roberts (1996) notes, these developments tended to follow the British science park model, centred on a university and/or other public sector research institute. The intention was two-fold: first to encourage the public sector research institutions to contribute more strongly to industrial development and, second, as an attempt on the part of the State governments 'to use the highly regarded universities as a bait to lure the business sector into performing and investing in R&D' (Roberts, 1996, p. 223).…”