Acknowledgments
The subject of startups and their societal role has grown in salience over the years we wrote this book. Yet, public debate about what, exactly, startups are meant to contribute to society has not proliferated. Given the decline in business dynamism and simultaneous uptick in public support for startups in the twenty-first century, a comprehensive understanding of the aims and means of startup-fueled innovation has never been more important. With this book, we hope to inform public debate about why governments support startups—the first essential step in designing impactful policy.
We owe much to the ecosystem analysts, founders, investors, and policy makers who shared their time and insights. Their views helped to shape the empirics and the narrative on which this book stands, and we hope that we have done justice to their shared experiences and wisdom. Three anonymous reviewers offered constructive feedback that helped shepherd the book’s analysis. Jacqulyn Teoh, our editor at Cornell University Press, is to thank for this project having the analytical precision that it does. Jackie, thanks for believing in startup capitalism and for investing your sharp editorial eye, which no doubt made the book stronger.
Our work benefited from interactions with many colleagues and friends. Our academic community at King’s College London provided instructive feedback throughout. The book has been improved thanks to valuable comments we received in response to presentations at the International Studies Association annual conventions in Baltimore (2017) and San Francisco (2018), the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics annual conventions in Kyoto (2018) and New York (2019), an Economic and Social Research Council and National Natural Science Foundation of China networking event in Shanghai (2016), a workshop at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (2018), the Key Issues in the Current Global Political Economy conference at UC Berkeley (2019), Brussels Korea Forum (2022), British International Studies Association in Glasgow (2023), Asia in World Finance workshop in Frankfurt (2023), and a virtual workshop led by the World Bank Seoul Center for Finance and Innovation in March 2024. Conversations, and in some cases collaborations, with the following scholars were essential to shaping the project in various ways: Vinod Aggarwal, Adam William Chalmers, Koo Min Gyo, Steven Jiawei Hai, Kathryn Ibata-Arens, Michiko Izuka, Yu Ching Kuo, Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe, Nahee Kang, Chun-Yi Lee, Chen Li, Ye Liu, Johannes Petry, John Ravenhill, Lena Rethel, Elizabeth Thurbon, Robert Wade, Jing Wang, and Henry Wai-chung Yeung. Our research assistants, Xinchuchu Gao, Saeme Kim, Asha Naradate, Mitch Shin, Frida (Ziyi) Shui, Huang Wei, and Ester Zatkalikova, helped compile the historical policy data. Conversations with Anwar Aridi (World Bank Seoul Center for Finance and Innovation), David Hong (Plug and Play Taiwan), Rodrigo Mahs (former 500 Global), and James Mawson (Global Corporate Venturing) sharpened the book’s framing. Thanks also to Sasindu Silva for her excellent job designing the radar chart figures.
Financial support provided by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, through a Research Grant (RG013-U-18), enabled fieldwork and research assistance. We also received support from several units within King’s College London, including the Department of European and International Studies, School of Social Science and Public Policy, and King’s Business School.
Undoubtedly our greatest debt is to our families. They were gracious when we traveled and generous with feedback when we discussed the book. For this and much more, Robyn thanks her husband, Eze, and their children, Rafi and Maya, and Ramon thanks his wife, Mina, and their daughter, Hannah.