The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research under the New Development Pattern – 2021 China Annual Conference on Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship was held online on November 6. This represented an active response to national policies and was aimed at ensuring that new developments prioritize internal economic flows while recognizing the interplay between internal and external activities. Wang Junsong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Shandong University, attended the conference and delivered a speech.
Wang Junsong first set out the original aspirations, approach to disciplines, and the educational achievements, in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship, of Shandong University. He noted the appropriate timing of the annual academic conference and acknowledged its significance. Conducting innovative and entrepreneurial research and education is essential for colleges and universities in their response to the government’s call to encourage economic and social development across the nation. This can improve both the method and quality of talent training while adhering to the mission and responsibilities of higher education. Cai Li, Chairman of CAM Entrepreneurship, SME Management Society, and Professor of the School of Management of Jilin University, said in her speech that the greatest changes seen in a century underlie the first year of the new development approach of China’s “14th Five-Year Plan.” She also noted that digitalization has permeated every field of life, raising some important questions. What are the new characteristics of China’s technological innovations and entrepreneurship? How can we forge ahead? What new problems should be considered by the academic community? She called on researchers to be more responsible, prudent, and inclusive when expressing China’s voice, and to continue to make outstanding academic achievements that can help rejuvenate the Chinese nation. Ji Xiaoqing, Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Management of Shandong University, presided over the opening ceremony.
Wu Changqi, Chair Professor of Shandong University and Dean of the School of Management, was invited to share his report at the Annual Conference. He addressed the topic of “Innovation and Change: Strategy and Mechanism of Digital Transformation” from three aspects: how digital technology is changing the world, enterprise strategic positioning in the digital era, and enterprise digital transformation. Professor Wu proposed the concept of a digital agility framework, and emphasized the coordinated development of a digital driving force and business agility, improvements in services, digitalization, the scale and specialization of enterprises, and the promotion of technological innovation and entrepreneurship. He noted the effects of information, communication, and artificial intelligence technologies on organizations and leadership, and suggested that enterprise digital transformation can be achieved through the three stages of pilots, expansion, and integration, and can be summarized into six key points. Professor Xie En, Associate Dean of the School of Economics and Management of Tongji University and the winner of the national “Excellent Youth” prize, shared his latest research insights concerning “Technology Accumulation and Overseas Investment in Developed Countries of High-tech Enterprises.” He believed that the technological development of Chinese enterprises is closely related to the country’s internationalization process, but that their investments in developed countries may be hindered by the rise of techno-nationalism in the West. Professor Xie En suggested that we should consider the influence of policy tools on the technology absorption and realization of the innovation value of Chinese enterprises through investment from developed countries. The uncertainty involved in acquiring technological capabilities from outside the country should also be acknowledged.
Ge Baoshan, Professor of the School of Management of Jilin University, Deputy Director of the Entrepreneurship Research Center of Jilin University, and Executive Director of the Chinese Society of Technology Economics, discussed the origin, concept and path of the theory of “team-focused entrepreneurship.” He explained in detail the Chinese history, theory, and practice of this form of entrepreneurship and emphasized that the new generation of successful entrepreneurs had this team-focused approach, in which the team was the key to the success of entrepreneurship. Professor Ge defined team-focused entrepreneurship as an entrepreneurial process in which the team integrates their limited resources and consistently focuses on opportunities to develop specific products/services, technologies and target markets. He considered both market- and technology-driven dimensions in his summary of team-focused entrepreneurship. Liu Xielin, Professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Editor-in-Chief of Science of Science and Management of Science and Technology, then offered his “Technology Catch-up in Complex Product Systems in China from the Perspective of the Innovation Ecosystem.” He identified through a review of the literature four ways in which China can catch up in terms of technology. He believed that the approach of “catch-up based on an innovation ecology” offered a good research framework when considering complex product systems. Professor Liu offered China’s high-speed railway and nuclear power industry as examples of successful technological catch-up, concluding that the integration of independent and open forms of innovation was important, and advocated assessing the technological catch-up of complex products from the perspective of innovation ecosystems. Chen Kaihua, Professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and researcher at the Institutes of Science and Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, summarized the unique characteristics of new digital features and offered his personal understanding of the digital transformation of innovation by addressing the “Research Framework and Future Prospects of Digital Transformation of Innovation and Development.” He identified four transformation trends, including digital empowerment in research and the integration of forms of intelligence, and four future goals, including the full convergence of developments in science and technology. He discussed future policy orientations and suggested three research frameworks that could be further explored. He finally emphasized how the integration of digital systems and approaches to innovation should be fully considered. Professor Li Yuan, Chairman of the CAM Technology and Innovation Management Society and Dean of the School of Economics and Management of Tongji University, and Professor Chen Zhijun, Dean of the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the School of Continuing Education of Shandong University, presided over the report.
Four sub-forums of the Annual Conference were held in the afternoon. These focused on the topics of “Green Technology Innovation in the New Development Pattern,” “Institutional Innovation and Entrepreneurship under the Digital Context,” “Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Teams in the New Development Pattern,” and “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Opportunities in the New Development Pattern.” Numerous insights were shared and the delegates came to a consensus.
Professor Liu Xielin announced the selected Excellent conference papers of the 2021 China Annual Conference on Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Professor Wu Changqi announced the First China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Excellent Doctoral Thesis.
Renowned scholars and experts in the field of technological innovation and entrepreneurship in China were invited at the Conference to gather online and exchange experiences and ideas, and to discuss how Chinese enterprises can conduct technological innovation and entrepreneurship activities in the new development approach. Through such activities, they can effectively respond to challenges and fully grasp any opportunities presented. By fully integrating industry, universities, and research, along with the reform of innovation and entrepreneurship education within “two overall situations,” cutting-edge research and innovation can be practically realized.
This annual conference was co-hosted by the CAM Technology and Innovation Management Society, CAM Entrepreneurship and SME Management Society, the School of Management of Shandong University, and the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Shandong University. More than 500 scholars and graduate students from nearly 40 Chinese universities, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin University, Tongji University, Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Sun Yat-Sen University, and Shandong University, attended the online conference.
