The Development Process of Chinese University-Run Enterprise: A Case Study of Tsinghua University

• Main Authors: Hsuan-Yi Wu, 吳宣儀
• Other Authors: 陳忠仁
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/uund6g

博士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 商學研究所 === 107 === In China, there is a so-called ‘university-run enterprise’ (URE). The university-run enterprise is the kind of enterprise owned by universities and belonged to the government. The university-run enterprises develop technologies and create business originated from university-owned IP with the mission to industrialize technology results in the market. Amongst all the URE, the most well-known one is Tsinghua Holdings Corp., an asset management company 100%-owned by Tsinghua University listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange. By the end of June 2017, the total assets of Tsinghua Holdings had achieved approximately USD 58 billion with sales of USD 7.5 billion. As an asset management company, by the end of 2016, Tsinghua Holdings hold equities from 1,432 companies involving businesses in asset management, investment, merge and acquisition, consulting and training, technology development, technology promotion, technical services, and high-tech business incubator etc. Tsinghua University and Tsinghua Holdings maintain strong relationship in developing technological entrepreneurship that enables an entrepreneurial ecosystem in China. This paper provides an exploratory study on making a portrait of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Tsinghua University to depict the strategy and how Tsinghua University builds up the entrepreneurial support system with Tsinghua University Science Park, the Office of Technology Transfer, Tsinghua Holdings, Tsinghua x-lab etc. The study concludes that with high flexibility and strong relationship with CPC and the government, Tsinghua University has received various resources to support its innovation and entrepreneurship. Its UREs are now important enterprises in multiple industries with high impact on domestic market. However, the breakthrough of Tsinghua’s action is not limited in China only, but also expands globally with alumni networks. With catch-up strategy as fast follower, the institutional innovation on organizations in Tsinghua’s ecosystem has brought rapid growth as a whole in its dynamic systems. Following CPC and National Plans, guanxi has played an important role for Tsinghua’s ecosystem becoming a strong system to sustain its businesses and influences around the world. Nevertheless, as a follower, it is still difficult for Tsinghua University to overcome the limit of growth while moving towards an innovation-driven society. As a follower, the meaning of “innovation” in China against the western world is different while considering originality and innovative culture. How to fight against the limit of growth and how to find the original thinking in Chinese way is what Tsinghua University has to face in the next stage of research and development.