The Role of Business Incubators in China
3.3 Two Cases on the Role of Chinese Business Incubators
3.3.2 Shenzhen: The Technology Business Incubator of China
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3.3.2 Shenzhen: The Technology Business Incubator of China
Shenzhen is another city that surprisingly has developed rather rapidly. It was the
first Economic Special Zone of China in 1980, enjoying special economic policies and
flexible government measures. It is notable that Shenzhen was the first region where
faced the first test of capitalism as the Chinese economy began to liberalize. For the last
20 years, there was a significant increase in their economic growth and industrial
success. Transforming from a world factory of light consumer goods to become one of
the major innovation and technology hubs of China. Shenzhen was the most
competitive city in China in 2016 according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
(CSSN, 2016). The statistics from Guangdong Statistical Yearbook of 2016 (2016)
pointed out that Shenzhen's per capita GDP has been the highest among all cities in
Guangdong province since 2000.
As the cradle of China's manufacturing industry, Shenzhen is seen to be the heart
of the hardware community for China. The city has become the country's largest
incubators cluster for hardware startups, as well as the center of the global electronics
hardware ecosystem. Shenzhen is also viewed as the incubator of technology for China,
and so-called “China's Silicon Valley” (Forbes, 2016).
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Shenzhen has the most innovation-driven capability among the Pearl River Delta's
nine cities in Guangdong province (深圳市科技创新委员会, 2016). According to the
local governmental reports and statistics, the number of BIs was less than 30 in 2001,
increased to 144 in 2015, including 12 state-level and 78 municipal-level BIs (深圳市
科技创新委员会, 2012; 深圳市统计局, 2016). As of the end of 2016, Shenzhen’s
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) filings received 15,386 PCT applications, which
accounted 50 per cent of China's application (深圳市科技创新委员会, 2016). This is
due mainly to the local government’s great support of BIs construction, considered that
BIs have become the city's important carrier in cultivating high-tech enterprises, which
are a key force in the construction of S&T transformation and regional S&T
development.
Shenzhen is in the top ranks among mainland Chinese cities in terms of
comprehensive economic power. In 2007, the primary industry of Shenzhen's GDP was
under 1 per cent, while the share of tertiary industry in Shenzhen has accounted for
nearly 50 per cent of the city’s GDP. The tertiary industry has gradually become the
largest industry in the region as well as being the main force to promote regional
economic growth. It is clearly that the tertiary industry has gradually replaced the
secondary industry, and became the main economic force of Shenzhen since 2007.
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proportion of secondary industry was much more than tertiary industry. Until 2015, the
percentage of service sector has finally become the largest industry in China. The result
given in Figure 8. It is no wonder that Shenzhen is one of the fastest growing cities in
China, and even in the world.
Figure 8. The percentage change of GDP in Shenzhen and China, 2007 and 2015
Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, http://data.stats.gov.cn/index.htm (accessed 1 July 2017) 0.10%
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Shenzhen is so-called China's ‘Technology Business Incubator’. Shenzhen's GDP
and its number of high-tech enterprises have shown a positive correlation according to
the National Bureau of Statistics of China during 2001 to 2011 (中华人民共和国国家
统计局, 2016). The positive correlation reflects Shenzhen’s gross output value in
high-tech enterprises, which grew 6.8 times over the past 11 years (2001-2011). The
evidence can be observed from the data of high-tech sectors in Figure 9 and Figure 10.
Figure 9. Shenzhen’s GDP, gross output, and number of high-tech enterprises, 2001-2011
Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, http://data.stats.gov.cn/index.htm (accessed 1 July 2017)
2001 僅佔 24
Shenzhen is a typical example that proving the innovation capability of BIs can
expand the S&T sectors and to promote regional economic transformation. The
136 156 273 276 287 348 349 381 399 505 618
1
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
GDP(RMB100million)
Gross Output Value in High-tech Enterprises (RMB 100 million)
Shenzhen's Gross Output Value in High-tech Enterprises (RMB 100 million) Shenzhen's GDP (RMB 100 million)
Number of High-tech Enterprises in Shenzhen (unit)
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contribution of gross output value in high-tech enterprises rose from 24 per cent in 2001
to 35.2 per cent in 2011. Figure 10 reveals the percentage change of Shenzhen's gross
output value in high-tech enterprises of GDP in 2001, 2005 and 2011. The results have
shown that the high-tech sectors have the most contribution to the tertiary industry.
Figure 10. Shenzhen's gross output in high-tech enterprises, 2001, 2005 and 2011
Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, http://data.stats.gov.cn/index.htm (accessed 1 July 2017) http://data.stats.gov.cn/easyquery.htm?cn=E0105&zb=A09®=440300&sj=2015
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The BIs industry could be a star industry in China as it made a great contribution
to Chinese economic growth. Along with the fact that the significant growth of
high-tech enterprise and gross industrial output in Shenzhen, attributing to the local
government attaching a great importance to the development of high-tech sectors. The
Chinese government plays a principal role in facilitating regional development. As the
largest S&T manufacturing centers in southern China, Shenzhen has a well-developed
incubation service system, and has become one of the most representative areas of
high-tech industry and entrepreneurial innovation in China.
In summary, the 'BIs industry' is a promising industry in China as it made a great
contribution to Chinese economic growth. The first case demonstrated that the
incubation of Wuhan EHDZ plays a significant role to nurture startups in various fields,
takes unprecedented steps to support incubatees, and put resources in place to
encourage regional entrepreneurship. The second case showed that Chinese BIs have
ability to facilitate regional development and economic output, such as the industrical
gross value added, high-tech enterprises and new registered companies.
Both of Wuhan and Shenzhen are the typical examples that provide the positive
correlation among high-tech enterprises, entrepreneurs and the data of economic
growth. It is clearly that BIs have the ability to connect various resources and linkage,
particularly in S&T sectors. It can be concluded that the Chinese BIs as the catalyst
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accelerate S&T development and provide matching service at technopreneurial
functions on the resources of knowledge (high-tech research to patents), communities
(high-tech SMEs, universities, and relevant entities), and networks (accessing
government, investors, and entrepreneurs).