Public-Private Collaboration in China´s Innovative Rise: Effects and Mechanisms

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We apply for a one-year extension of our ongoing research project. This ongoing project aims at a better understanding of the sources of China’s innovative rise by studying the effects and underlying mechanisms of the most important form of public-private collaboration: linkages between the public science system and industry. We found full or partial support for our hypotheses, especially regarding beneficial effects of science–industry linkages on innovation, and the role of three underlying mechanisms (information exchange, resource co-ordination, and self-monitoring) as a precondition for a rise in innovation output. Our (preliminary) findings helped us also to refine our hypotheses: we found that the innovation outcome tends to be incremental, and that the mechanism of self-monitoring rather is substituted by external market monitoring. In addition, we identified a surprisingly proactive, entrepreneurial role of Chinese universities in creating linkages mostly to “catch-up” firms. This contrasts with the 2000s, when a considerable mismatch existed between the supply of knowledge from China’s universities and the demand of firms.In our project extension, we strive to study this new entrepreneurial role of universities in more detail. In particular, we aim to analyse the effects and mechanisms of university technology transfer. First, we evaluate the effects of universities’ technology transfer administrations on outcomes such as spin-offs (based upon number of spin-offs) and joint research (based upon co-patenting) by a statistical analysis. Second, we unpack the main mechanisms that shape technology transfer administrations through selected in-depth case studies of two representative types of universities in Guangdong province. Again, our research departs from theoretical insights into the potentially beneficial effects of collaboration in the industrial policy and the innovation systems literature. Again, we employ a mixed-method design. Extraordinary field access is gained through close co-operation with the UNESCO Chair in Science and Technology Policies at Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou. This also allows us to interpret and contextualise the data from the quantitative analysis. Overall, we expect new empirical insights that will complement findings on science-industry linkages from our ongoing research. Theoretically, we will contribute to a refined understanding of why, and, if so, how, technology transfer administrations enhance innovation capacities in emerging countries, thereby enriching the industrial policy and the innovation systems literature. Moreover, our findings will enable us to draw more general conclusions for innovation policy design in other emerging countries.