Over the past two decades, East Asian economies have experienced transformative institutional changes, whether in South Korea, China or Japan. At the same time, recent works have explored the issue of institutional resilience and the extent to which institutions that are newly introduced into a given environment achieve their intended purpose (Streeck and Thelen 2005, Deeg 2007). The papers in this session assess the impact of institutional change in several Asian economies, looking into a number of intersecting realms, from entrepreneurship, the labour market, to innovation.

The first paper by Debanes looks at the endurance of developmental institutions established during South Korea's high growth period; and how these continued to shape the country's labour market amidst the neoliberal reforms of the past two decades. The second paper by Anchordoguy assesses how changes in the institutional environment in Japan over the past 15 years have altered the landscape to high tech entrepreneurship in Japan. To do so, Debanes consults those engaged in the workers' movement, while Anchordoguy consults a range of economic actors, from angel investors to incubation facilities for startups.

The third paper by Umemura follows Anchodoguy's theme of investigating how recently reformed institutions have altered firms' engagement in high tech industries. To assess the extent to which institutional environments define innovative competences, Umemura examines how firms in three economies – Japan, South Korea, and the UK – engage in innovation in an industry at the technological frontier: cell therapy. The fourth paper expands the geographical and sectoral dimensions of the panel, and extends Umemura's attempts to connect specific institutional environments to innovative strategies. In particular, Liu and Tylecote consider the impact of alternative sources of patient capital – family consortia and employee shareholding schemes – on telecommunications equipment firms at the technological frontier in contrasting institutional settings: Huawei (China) and Ericsson (Sweden).