Essay

National Traits and the Nature of Innovation

The Chinese do not invent anything; they only copy. Italians design beautiful shoes, but who ever heard of a Tuscan computer programmer? Russians dominate chess, yet cannot seem to engineer a children's toy. Germans excel when they control all variables of a high-performance automobile. The French routinely lead in technologies that require large government subsidies


By G. PASCAL ZACHARY
from Stanford University, USA


Stereotypes about national origin are the dirty secret of technology communities. The riffs on nationalities go something like this: The Chinese do not invent anything; they only copy. Italians design beautiful shoes, but who ever heard of a Tuscan computer programmer? Russians dominate chess, yet cannot seem to engineer a children's toy. Germans excel when they control all variables of a high-performance automobile. The French routinely lead in technologies that require large government subsidies. The Japanese so yearn for acceptance that individuals won't promote a new idea without the approval of their peers.

If I have offended anyone, I will not apologize. I am recycling crass stereotypes about national traits in the service of a better understanding of how innovation works. Privately many people - from academia to venture capital firms - take for granted that a career in technology is often shaped by the national origin of the technologist.

"Though the reasons can differ a fair amount, national origin does correlate with the innovativeness of the people of a country," says Joel Mokyr, an economic historian at Northwestern University in Illinois. When a train set a new speed record recently by reaching an astonishing 575 kilometers an hour, there was no mystery about where the train's designers lived or where the test took place: France.

"The French government has always been very good at making things where government support is critical," like trains, nuclear power plants and airplanes, Mr. Mokyr says. "But the French are not terribly good at creating Googles or Microsofts, where private action is central." The French engineering company, Alstom, is the world market leader in high-speed trains. But most people would be hard-pressed to name a leading French information technology company.

"The French business system is constraining for individuals while supportive of scientists and engineers working on large, rigid systems that actually benefit from top-down decisions and slow change," says Jean-Louis Gassee, a former Apple executive who is a partner at Allegis Capital in Palo Alto, California.

Comprehending innovation through the prism of national identity has its risks. In the 1970s, many people dismissd the Japanese as mere imitators and failed to see how the knowledge gained from copying would lead to path-breaking technologies. The success of Toyota, Sony and Japan's animation industry provide cautionary tales for those who might dismiss entire nationalities as copycats.

Nations can and do change. Finland, home to the mobile phones powerhouse Nokia, was an agricultural country 50 years ago. So was Ireland, now home to thriving clusters in electronics and pharmaceuticals. Still, different technological strengths remain associated with different nations. So nations bent on becoming more innovative in other fields must confront their own strengths - and weaknesses. And that means taking stereotypes seriously, while not being imprisoned by them.

Consider China, the fastest-growing economy. "Chinese technologists are highly sensitive to their reputation as imitators, and they are trying to find areas where they can break through," says Carlos Genardini, an American who is chief executive of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks. "Building the designs of others is a hard habit to break," Mr.Genardini says. Sometimes success is the enemy. "The Chinese make a good living from making the products of others," he adds. "Why change?"

One reason is political pressure. The United States is asking the World Trade Organization to compelthe Chinese government to do more to reduce, if not eliminate, factories devoted to churning out copies of American movies and other products. Self-interest ultimately ought to persuade the Chinese that creativity trumps copying. That is because profits and industrial leadership often go to the companies and countries that create distinct technological systems. Think of Intel's microprocessor family and Microsoft's Windows operating system. Or France's high-speed trains.

Thinking ahead, China's technologists talk openly about "a second modernization" and the importance of creativity. Yer China's creative potential is limited by the hegemony of an authoritarian Communist Party. Despite exhortations to be more original, Chinese people "feel a widespread fear of stepping out of the box," says Justin O'Connor, a professor of "cultural industries" at the University of Leeds in Britain.

China, of course, was the world's leading technological power - 500 years ago. National traits are fluid. Always shaped by unpredictable experience, these traits are subject to design and redesign. Just as technologists invent great products, countries invent, and reinvent, people.