Shanghai: reinforcing entrepreneur universities and the “ Tongji Model”

As the preceding analyses on ZGC demonstrate, higher educational and research institutions play key roles in facilitating institutional innovation and change. The “tri-party cooperation” is more than the creation of interface mechanisms between university and industry such as a liaison or transfer office to assist existing firms or create new ones. Most fundamentally, the faculty of universities view their research and teaching in a new light, looking to contribute to technology transfers and firm-formation as well as to the education of students and advancement of knowledge.⁴³

Similar to ZGC, the anchor university of Yangpu has played a key role in promoting the emergence of start-ups through university-owned incubators. Fudan University, for example, hosts the national scientific

43 Henry Etzkowitz and Chunyan Zhou, ‘Regional Innovation Initiator: The Entrepreneurial University in Various Triple Helix

parks and incubators located in Yangpu District. Tianchen, one of the Fudan-incubated companies, has successfully promoted itself as the leading firm in anti-counterfeiting and other related fields. Companies like Tianchen have used Fudan as a label to upgrade their status as high-tech companies. However, the major task of Fudan is to foster these start-ups and transform them into “normal” instead of “university-owned”

enterprises.⁴⁴ Normally the Yangpu District government holds 20% percent of these university-based scientific parks. These university parks co-exist with other district-owned parks such as the Wujiaochang High-Tech Park. The major administrators of the latter are also former faculty members of universities within the Yangpu District. In other words, the 15 universities of Yangpu have provided ample human resources to connect the academics and new start-ups in the region.

However, there exists a gap between the “ideal type” of university-led knowledge-based economy and the current situation in China. As the analysis on ZGC shows, China is strong in the basic research areas.

However, only about ten percent of its research outputs are transferred into industrial products with market values. Moreover, most of the Chinese universities establish links only with big enterprise groups. Small and medium-sized firms are excluded from such limited alliances. Universities in Yangpu District have begun to undertake the task of integrating with the local communities by spreading knowledge. Since 2006, prominent professors from Fudan and Tongji have established contacts with the local communities by organizing forums in the general fields of natural and social sciences. Topics of these forums include issues within the domains of environmental protection, international affairs, urban management, general physics, and bioscience. These prominent professors have also visited local elementary schools and high schools to give talks. This extension education is a common practice of the universities in the West. However, a closer interaction with the local communities is still a new phenomenon in China at the current stage.

Our field researches and interviews demonstrate that the Tongji experience has far-reaching effects for developing a knowledge-based economy in the region.⁴⁵ The cluster of design houses around the Tongji campus was not “invented” by the university or the district government. Compared with its more prestigious neighbor, Fudan University, Tongji does not boast the large-scale affiliated enterprises and incubators. The

44 Ronghua Wang, ed, Shanghai yangpuqu chanye fazhan yu minsheng wenti diaoyan baogao (Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, 2008), Chapter 8.

design cluster is purely bottom-up and grassroots oriented. The surrounding area gradually creates the spill-over effects to attract small firms from other areas. The regional amenities and culture of sharing still need a period of time to grow. However, the nascent atmosphere of a breeding ground of innovation has gradually emerged.

In contrast to the ZGC model of IT-oriented incubation, Yangpu has attempted multiple forms of fostering innovation and new industries. For instance, Tongji University identifies itself as the “Silicon Valley of Design” in China. Tongji also emphasizes its strength in the fields of urban planning and architectural design.

In the beginning stages of Yangpu’s development about eight years ago, Tongji professors and graduate students established numerous small-sized design houses along Chihfeng Street outside the Tongji campus near Wujiaochang. The mushrooming of such small companies created autonomous, bottom-up dynamics of cluster formation in the region. The university and district government will intervene after the formation of a design cluster. For instance, Tongji University recently purchased a big piece of land along neighboring streets and attempted to transform it into a world-class design center for automobiles. After the realization of the Chihfeng street experience, Tongji University has selected urban planning, environmental protection, and industrial design as their three pillars of a university-supported incubator.

In the case of rejuvenating the Tongji University and surrounding areas, Management Committee of Yangpu High Tech Park (MCYHTP)MCYHTP coordinated with the district government to transfer the abandoned bus station on the Siping road into a creative and innovation complex for the school of design. The alliance between Yangpu and Tongji even negotiated with the Shanghai Metropolitan Government about the location of exits of subway lines. The new exit is now just outside the Tonji Square, with steps away from the creative and innovation complex. Another case of Tongji circle of Knowledge is the renovation and transformation of the existing city-owned design houses into a complex of Tongji Science Park. This project also accommodates the Shanghai International Design Center designed by famous Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

Tongji Knowledge Circle provides a vivid case of combining district development and science park development. The formation of the cluster of design is more or less an unexpected result of the real estate

successful incubator on the Guokang road adjacent to the Tongji campus was originally used as a commercial residential house for sale. Due to its design as small apartment units, small and medium sized design companies found its convenience and gradually formed a cluster within the apartment building. Hudong Science Park, located on the Chifeng road in the southern rim of Tongji campus, is now one of the most successful design clusters in the area. Siping Street Office of Yangpu formed a strategic alliance with the state owned Fishing and Machine Research Institute to develop the old courtyard and transfer it into office building.

Because of its closeness to the Tongji University, the commercial building gathered more than 50 design companies. The district government then undertook the improvement and renovation of Chifeng street areas.

A design cluster finally emerged after 2005.