Investment with Intangible Assets of Chinese Research Institutions

Abstract

Chinese research institutions and universities used to have to face many problems when they invested with their intangible technical assets, such as complicated examination and approval procedures for the disposal of scientific and technological achievements, unreasonable design of income tax system for technology investment, the difficulty in executing equity incentives, and the lack of motivation to researchers. The newly revised Law of the People's Republic of China on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements in 2015, and the supporting policies and measures subsequently introduced improved the systems regarding the management of scientific and technological achievements and technology investment. However, after a large number of interviews and literature research, the authors find that now there are still some obstacles for value-based investment, such as the mandatory technology investment evaluation does not conform to the law of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, corporate capital increase and exit mechanism are not smooth after technology investment, ownership of state-owned influence the enthusiasm of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. At the same time, get the conclusion that duties, obligations, and interests of researchers, technology transfer personnel and institutions, legal entities, and government departments are important factors that influence the transfer of technology conducted by research institutions and universities; As a special commodity, scientific and technological achievement can realize their real value only after it enters the market. Its industrialization process may be successful or failed, as there are lots of uncertainties and risks; Existing state-owned asset management policy equates technical intangible assets with tangible assets management, and stipulates that public research institutions and universities must evaluate the value of scientific and technological achievements they possess or enterprises invested when investing with technology, increasing capital or withdrawing shares, to fulfill the obligation to maintain and increase the value of state-owned assets of scientific and technological achievements. Formalistic assessment, long review cycle and the lack of evaluation standards are obstacles for investment with technical intangible assets by research institutions. For this, the author suggests exploring the mixed ownership for scientific and technological achievements, establishing special intangible assets evaluation criteria based on The General Rules for Science and Technology Research Projects Evaluation , and a system combining mandatory assessment evaluation and selective evaluation.