Explaining the “University-run enterprises” in China: A theoretical framework for university-industry relationship in developing countries and its application to China

This paper explains and evaluates the evolution of the UREs (University-run Enterprises) in China by building a new theoretical framework on the university-industry relationship. Unlike the Triple Helix or the New Economics of Science that advocates a certain type (integration or separation) of university-industry relationship, we take a contingent or context-specific perspective on the relationship, having the context of developing countries in mind. The framework developed in this paper explains in what condition universities would keep distance from industry or become entrepreneurial to take a part in the functions of industry (i.e. setting up and running their own business enterprises). In this typology the basic determinants are internal resources of university, absorptive capacity of industrial firms and existence of intermediary institutions, as well as the propensity of university for UREs. The paper has argued that the Chinese universities since the market-oriented reform had strong propensity to pursue economic gains and strong internal (R&D and other) resources to launch start-ups, and thus established their own firms (i.e. UREs), given the low absorptive capacity of industrial firms and the underdeveloped intermediary institutions. The recent adjustment of the UREs in China can also be understood in terms of changes in the above three factors, such as universities’ weakened propensity to pursue economic gains, relative decline of superiority of university resources, and improved external environment.