Regional development through autonomy establishment in contemporary Western China

In an effort to narrow the technological gap between itself and the eastern region, Western China is actively engaged in promoting the development of high-tech industry. In the process of that development, local universities play an essential role directly or indirectly as a source of new knowledge and advanced technology. University-run enterprise (URE) is the primary way which the universities engage directly in regional economic development. This paper describes the new dynamics of university-run high-tech enterprises in Chengdu by observing two cases of UREs. We found that, despite being the less developed area in China, Western China has latecomer advantages even in growing high-tech UREs. This analysis was done in two dimensions, i.e., endogenetic and exogenous factors of the business development of the two companies. Also, similarities and differences in the management model and business strategies of the two cases are examined. The key focus of analysis here is autonomy establishment. Through analyzing performance and characteristics of the companies, the following implications are induced: 1) For the high-tech university-runs in Western China, latecomer advantages are more effective when they have enough autonomy and suitable support from the outside world. 2) The nature of partners is one of the most significant factors of support from the outside, because it will affect the performance of UREs, particularly regarding social responsibility or economical efficiency. Now is the right time for the development of the UREs in Western China. Even though the performance of UREs would vary from one to the other because of the different characteristic of their partners, they can utilize the suitable situation for developing business by establishing their autonomy.