In this session of the Shorenstein APARC Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Liang Fang, China Sunrain Solar Energy Company, "Comparison of Mobile Internet Innovation between U.S. and China's Internet Companies"

The rapid penetration of smartphones in China has stimulated the innovation in mobile internet and therefore resulted in many new business models.  Today, China is highly developed in some areas like e-commerce, mobile commerce, social media and O2O (offline to online sales) based on the characteristic of China’s online world.  Other factors that are stimulating China’s speed of innovation in mobile internet are 1) economics of scale based on high numbers of users, 2)  a large supply of software engineers and ambitious entrepreneurs, and 3) the government’s encouragement for national innovation.  Fang has applied case-study methods to analyze several of China’s most innovative internet companies and compare them with players in the U.S.  Fang also tracked a few representatives Chinese internet companies which have moved beyond China to enter the U.S. market.  According to his findings, Fang tried to answer the question of “How differently are current Chinese internet companies from their peers in the U.S. in aspects of innovation?” and “How far will Chinese internet companies go beyond the China market with their own innovation?”

Wataru Fukuda, Shizuoka Prefectural Government, "Promotional Strategies and Tactics in the Tourism Market, Focusing on Practices in the U.S."

In 2014, nearly 900,000 Americans visited Japan.  However, only 2-3% of those travelers visited the Shizuoka area, which is located between Tokyo and Kyoto – two of the most favorites areas to visit in Japan.  Shizuoka has the largest number of Japanese Inns (Ryokan), and the fourth largest market share of Japanese travelers.  With the tourism resources and an ideal location, which is frequently accessed from Tokyo and Kyoto, Shizuoka has a huge potential to expand the market share.  In his research, the statistical framework first identified the demographics profile and the characteristics of American travelers to Japan.  Within the luxury market, there is a growing number of affluent millenials who are looking for authentic experiences in their travels.  Fukuda has researched the possibilities of developing an inbound tourism market in Japan, specifically in Shizuoka, learning from practices in the United States.  His research identifies the affluent millenials as specific potential customers for the next decade and investigates the possibilities of the tourism resources in Shizuoka to satisfy their wants and needs.

Ryuichiro Takeshita, The Asahi Shimbun, "Should Human Beings or Computer Algorithms Be the Editors of News? - A Case Study of SmartNews (a Tokyo-based media start-up)"

SmartNews is a Japanese news aggregation app which expanded its service to the United States in 2014. The app is beautifully designed and readers can enjoy a mix of news stories from different publishers such as CNN, NBC News, Wired, Etc.  Instead of human editors deciding which news to put on page one, SmartNews uses computer algorithms to collect and distribute news.  The computer program cannot only analyze social media, but is able to track down how and when people read news.  Therefore, instead of relying on human intuition and experience, it can calculate which article will be most “important” to the mass audience.  Is this a kind of artificial intelligence and a defeat of human knowledge?  Is it using technology to generate collective intelligence?  Takeshita will illustrate the race against machines in the media industry and try to figure out how human beings could build an ideal relationship with machines.

Professor Jaeho Yeom, president of the elite Korea University in Seoul and a Stanford Political Science PhD will examine the historical development, current changes, and future course of East Asian universities. Drawing on his own experience at Korea University, where his initiatives include the "pioneering intellectuals" program to encourage and support student creativity, President Yeom will examine many aspects of higher education, including shifts in educational methodologies, demographics, the pressures of globalization, and changes in government and private funding. 

Professor Jaeho Yeom earned a PhD in political science at Stanford University for his research on Japanese industrial policy for high technology. He has taught public administration at Korea University since 1990. He was Executive Vice President of Korea University before being appointed President in March 2015. President Yeom has also taught or conducted research in Japan, Australia, China, and the United Kingdom. He served as an expert member of the Korean Presidential Commission of Science and Technology Policy and a board member of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation. He also served as president of The Korean Association for Policy Studies in 2007 and of The Korean Association for Contemporary Japanese Studies in 2008. Currently, he is chairperson of the Policy Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, member of Public Service Evaluation Committee, and Editor in Chief of Asian Research Policy. President Yeom is the author of numerous books and studies, including Future Strategy for Test, Research, and Evaluation of Food and Drug (2011, NIFDS).

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Global Talent seeks to examine the utility of skilled foreigners beyond their human capital value by focusing on their social capital potential, especially their role as transnational bridges between host and home countries. Gi-Wook Shin (Stanford University) and Joon Nak Choi (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) build on an emerging stream of research that conceptualizes global labor mobility as a positive-sum game in which countries and businesses benefit from building ties across geographic space, rather than the zero-sum game implied by the "global war for talent" and "brain drain" metaphors.

"Advanced economies like Korea face a growing mismatch between low birth rates and increasing demand for skilled labor. Shin and Choi use original, comprehensive data and a global outlook to provide careful, accessible and persuasive analysis. Their prescriptions for Korea and other economies challenged by high-level labor shortages will amply reward readers of this landmark study."  —Mark Granovetter, Professor of Sociology, Stanford University

The book empirically demonstrates its thesis by examination of the case of Korea: a state archetypical of those that have been embracing economic globalization while facing a demographic crisis—and one where the dominant narrative on the recruitment of skilled foreigners is largely negative. It reveals the unique benefits that foreign students and professionals can provide to Korea, by enhancing Korean firms' competitiveness in the global marketplace and by generating new jobs for Korean citizens rather than taking them away. As this research and its key findings are relevant to other advanced societies that seek to utilize skilled foreigners for economic development, the arguments made in this book offer insights that extend well beyond the Korean experience.

Books will be available for purchase at the event or  purchase online

Gi-Wook Shin is the director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center; the Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Chair of Korean Studies; the founding director of the Korea Program; a senior fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; and a professor of sociology, all at Stanford University. As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, and international relations.

Shin is the author/editor of more than a dozen books and numerous articles. His recent books include Global Talent: Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea (2015), Criminality, Collaboration, and Reconciliation: Europe and Asia Confronts the Memory of World War II (2014); New Challenges for Maturing Democracies in Korea and Taiwan (2014); Asia’s Middle Powers? (2013); Troubled Transition: North Korea's Politics, Economy, and External Relations (2013); History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia: Divided Memories (2011); South Korean Social Movements: From Democracy to Civil Society (2011); One Alliance, Two Lenses: U.S.-Korea Relations in a New Era (2010); Cross Currents: Regionalism and Nationalism in Northeast Asia (2007); Rethinking Historical Injustice and Reconciliation in Northeast Asia (2006); and Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy (2006). Due to the wide popularity of his publications, many of them have been translated and distributed to Korean audiences. His articles have appeared in academic journals including American Journal of Sociology, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Political Science Quarterly, International Sociology, Nations and Nationalism, Pacific Affairs, and Asian Survey. Shin is currently writing a book on historical memories of the Asia-Pacific wars with Daniel Sneider. 

Joon Nak Choi is an associate professor in the Department of Management at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Prior to joining HKUST, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. He earned his Ph.D and M.A in Sociology at Stanford  University and his B.A. in Economics and International Relations from Brown University. His ongoing research continues to focus upon the effects of social and political capital, especially in Korea.

Hwy-Chang Moon joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for the 2015-2016 academic year. During his time at Shorenstein APARC, Moon will be working on a research project titled, “The Global Strategy of Korean Firms in Silicon Valley.”

Moon received his PhD from the University of Washington and is currently a professor of international business strategy in the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University in South Korea, where he also served as the Dean. He has previously taught at the University of Washington, University of the Pacific, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Helsinki School of Economics, Keio University, and Hitotsubashi University. Moon has also consulted for several multinational companies, international organizations, and governments (e.g., Malaysia, Dubai, Azerbaijan, and the Guangdong Province of China).

This is a time at which the global movement for universal health coverage (UHC) is under intense review.  As an isolated country which recently opened up to the world, Myanmar has endorsed the goal of achieving UHC by 2030. However, current evidence has shown that there will be significant challenges for Myanmar to achieve this target.  The Myanmar health system comprises a pluralistic mix of public and private systems both in financing and provision. It was ranked the second worst in terms of ‘overall health system performance’ by the WHO in 2000. According to World Bank (2012), the country’s out-of-pocket payment burden is one of the highest in the world, at 81% of total health expenditures, resulting in high levels of catastrophic health expenditure. About three-quarters of Myanmar’s citizens, including the poorest and most marginalized communities, find themselves with very limited access to essential health services. And too many of these same populations suffer a further burden of being pushed, or kept, in poverty because they have to pay for their health care. Recognizing the fragility of its health system, Myanmar launched some transformations in the health sector in 2011. The most significant changes were increasing the health budget four-fold since 2011, launching some health insurance programs in some areas, starting to collaborate with a diversity of actors in the health sector, and major structural changes in the Ministry of Health, Myanmar. This colloquium will reflect upon these transformations and discuss how the changes will shape Myanmar’s future health system, drawing upon comparisons with health reforms in other South East Asian countries.

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After receiving her MBBS degree from the University of Medicine (Mandalay), Phyu Phyu worked for two years at a public hospital. In 2009, she became an active researcher at the Department of Medical Research (Upper Myanmar). As a researcher, she participated in various clinical and public health researches and presented papers at national and international conferences. She was also actively involved in the welfare of underprivileged groups in Myanmar. She earned her PhD in Epidemiology from the Prince of Songkla University, Thailand in 2013. After her PhD, she continued her work at DMR (Upper Myanmar) as a research officer as well as a member of the secretariat of the Academic Committee. She was also as a field supervisor in two national surveys on HIV and RH commodities and services in Myanmar. She has also published journal articles on equity, gender differences and RH services utilization among the poor.

At APARC, Phyu Phyu will study the current trends of Myanmar health policies in general, as well as the specific sex education programs of the country. She will investigate how Myanmar/Burmese culture affects the objectives of the current sex education programs at schools based on the perceptions of adolescent students, teachers and parents.