Abstract
In China, as in other countries, pre-competitive research constitutes the basis of techno-economic development beyond imitation and adaptation. While acknowledging the nation’s concerted efforts to improve the situation, most empirical accounts of science-industry linkages in China remain sceptical about local universities’ ability to meaningfully transfer knowledge and technologies. Against this background, we change perspective and analyse the perceptions of selected technology-oriented firms in Beijing. Interestingly, we find that there is a notable core of technology firms with fairly close linkages to universities and research institutions.
Highlights
As other countries which confronted institutional legacies of a planned economy, China had to substantially reform and adapt its higher education system in the course of the 1980s and the 1990s (OECD, 2008; Wu, 2010a)
We suggest that the overall level of technological capability in the Chinese industrial sector is more limited than that of innovating firms in Germany, even among those companies registered as “technology firms” (Lee et al, 2011; OECD, 2008)
Hypothesis 1: Lower Innovative Capacity, Higher Dependence on External Technology With a view to Hypothesis 1, our analysis finds that 81% of the firms surveyed in Germany sell products or services that can be regarded as international novelties, while two thirds of the Beijing firms offer products or services that are new to the domestic market, but exist in similar form elsewhere
Summary
As other countries which confronted institutional legacies of a planned economy, China had to substantially reform and adapt its higher education system in the course of the 1980s and the 1990s (OECD, 2008; Wu, 2010a). Institutions that used to be mere teaching facilities until the late 1970s gradually resumed their scientific activities and in some cases developed into internationally acknowledged hubs of cutting-edge research (Frietsch et al, 2008; Yang & Welch 2012). More importantly for this paper, the implications of this transformation have not remained limited to the realm of scientific merit, but have turned Chinese universities into more relevant sources of knowledge for the business sector than is common in other developing nations (Intarakumnerd et al, 2002; Liefner & Schiller, 2008).
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