This dissertation looks at the technological innovation and market competitiveness of the solar PV industry in China, and examines the role played by policy and markets in the development of the industry. Using solar cell lab efficiency and the quality and quantity of solar PV patents as indicators, this study finds that, unlike what conventional wisdom assumes, China is closing the innovation gap between itself and the world’s leading innovators. This is mainly due to three reasons: a national strategic vision for innovation, growing public and private R&D investment, and an innovation ecosystem made of government sponsored science and technology programs and technology-specific global innovation networks. Solar PV manufacturing in China thrived on a fully-developed self-sufficient domestic supply chain that features a few highly concentrated industrial clusters, such as the one in the Yangtze River Delta area. The agglomeration economies it created, combined with economies of scale development, commercialization-oriented innovation, and attention to low-cost production are mainly responsible for the competitiveness of the solar PV manufacturing industry in China. However, weakness in tooling and material production due to a lack of advanced scientific knowledge and manufacturing skills constrains the further development of the supply chain. The emphasis on process innovation also renders the industry vulnerable to disruptive technologies. Moving forward, policymakers should continue to promote global research networks and local production networks, and use innovation as a crosscutting lever to integrate R&D conducted in labs with innovation needed in the manufacturing sector and the supply chain.

The contemporary era is witnessing a systemic transition in the Canadian science and research paradigm. The research world is shrinking rapidly in response to modern technological developments, commercial and regulatory integration, faster communications and transportation and proactive science, technology and innovation policy. It is increasingly challenging to make competitive progress in world-class innovation or to gain global leadership in science. Big-science is now proposed as one of the means to realize national innovation goals and international competitiveness. As a result, government support for large-scale innovation projects has increased multifold. This dissertation examines a range of hypotheses large-scale research projects enhance investigator exchanges and generate social capital that has significant downstream benefits, which would provide a reason to support big science beyond the instrumental goals of the projects themselves. Taking Genome Canada as an example, this dissertation examines the production and role of social capital generated through large-scale research projects to assess the evidence base for funding big science research. A group of 139 investigators who raised capital in the Genome Canada Applied Bioproducts and Crops (ABC) Competition in 2009 are examined in the context of their engagements and networks in 2000-2009 in four relational arenas, namely their area of expertise, institutional connections, research grants, and co-publications. The investigation reveals three main findings. First, large-scale innovation projects as delivered through Genome Canada, comply with the fundamentals of contemporary innovation network theory. Second, the ties amongst investigators generate social capital, which offers positional advantage and differential superior access to networked resources. Third, the social capital generated in actor relations has pronounced long term impacts on downstream research success. Inter-disciplinary and cross-institutional large-scale research projects that have strong elements of knowledge production and financial exchange are found to assist the federal government in advancing research and innovation objectives. The results of the current investigation provide a strong rationale for the integration of people, disciplines, and institutions under the umbrella of large-scale genomics and proteomics research, and possible lessons for other research fields.