*4.2. Stage 2: Intra-Organizational Transformation in the Chinese University*

In the second stage, each organizational sector "takes the role of the other" (as secondary tasks), but they maintain their distinct identities and perform traditional roles (as primary tasks). In this stage, universities engage in industrial activities, enterprises further strengthen their R&D capacity, and governments also provide venture capital to help start new enterprises. The institutional logics underlining these changes are market-oriented organizational culture and process-oriented management culture in technology innovation [50].

In the case of Tsinghua, during the process of "taking the role of the other", the Triple Helix actors have respectively realized the need for engaging in each other's fields, but sometimes institutional conditions have not been ready [49].

The Tsinghua leadership took the pioneering initiative to establish the University–Industry Cooperation Committee (UICC) in early 1992, which was partly inspired by the Western experience of managing university–industry R&D cooperation. In addition, the joint R&D cooperation between Tsinghua and UTC started in 1995, among many other international joint endeavors. The international exchanges deepened understanding and belief of Chinese universities in technology and knowledge innovation and thus facilitated the institutional evolution.

As a leading science and technology university in China, Tsinghua's international R&D cooperation with industry is among the top in Chinese research universities, in terms of funding, disciplinary scale, and the qualifications of the international industrial partners [59]. More than 70 percent of Tsinghua's international R&D funds come from international enterprises. The primary pattern of international R&D cooperation with industry at Tsinghua is joint research projects. Most of the joint R&D institutes are established and sustained based on projects. The other two forms of international R&D cooperation with industry are: (1) university-based foundations set up by international enterprises and (2) licensed patents and know-how (Interview THU UA 2).

The business of Tsinghua's joint R&D institutes is related to three administrative departments: (1) the University–Industry Cooperation Committee (UICC); (2) the Overseas R&D Management Office (Overseas RDMO); and (3) the International Technology Transfer Center (ITTC) (http://www.kfb. tsinghua.edu.cn/qhw/index.htm (Accessed on 1 December 2019)).

The Tsinghua leaders have always been responsive to national tendencies. Since Xiaoping's call for accelerating economic reform and opening the door to the outside world during his publicized tour to southern provinces in early 1992, intra-organizational transformation has taken place, and organizations in university sectors have tended to be more market oriented [51]. In 1995, Tsinghua took a pioneering initiative among Chinese universities: it established the University–Industry Cooperation Committee (UICC), after then-President Wang Dazhong visited MIT. He was obviously inspired by the Western experience of managing university–industry R&D cooperation (Interview THU UA 2).

The organizational structure of the UICC is demonstrated in Figure 2:

**Figure 2.** Organizational structure of UICC. Source: http://www.kfb.tsinghua.edu.cn/jgjs/index\_jgjs.htm (Accessed on 1 December 2019). Translated and reorganized by the author.

The UICC serves as a platform connecting Tsinghua academia and enterprises. It functions like an enterprise club, accepting domestic and international enterprises as members. The enterprises need to pay an annual membership fee to get access to the events and meetings organized by the UICC. The UICC also helps the member enterprises organize job fairs and set up scholarships, and helps Tsinghua faculty members find industrial partners. Many joint R&D institutes at Tsinghua are incubated through the UICC's platform (Interview THU UA 02). The UICC serves as a market-oriented door to Tsinghua, as elaborated upon by a representative from an international enterprise member of the UICC:

We are very happy to have such a channel to connect us with Tsinghua. If we need to approach Tsinghua professors and invite them to be consultants for our R&D activities, it is very difficult to find the right persons. All the Tsinghua teachers are extremely busy. The UICC will do their best to help us find the professors we are looking for or recommend other appropriate candidates. Other than that, if we want to visit any institutes of Tsinghua or find out information about Tsinghua's organizations, they can act as our connection. (Interview IDS01)

After the UICC opens the door for Tsinghua's potential R&D cooperation with international enterprises, the following step is official negotiation between Tsinghua and international industrial partners. This process is managed by another administrative department, the Overseas R&D Management Office (Overseas RDMO). The Overseas RDMO manages legal issues, including IPR, contract review, and mid-term and final evaluation. It works closely with the UICC, and has an obvious marketing function. At the university level, the joint R&D institutes are managed by the Overseas RDMO (Interview THU UA 02).

The third administrative department related to the business of the joint R&D institutes of Tsinghua is the International Technology Transfer Center (ITTC). Different from the other two departments, the ITTC was established and funded by the government (Interview THU UA 01). In 2001, Tsinghua was authorized by the MOE and the former State Economic and Trade Commission to set up such a technology transfer institute together with five other science and engineering universities. Initiated by the government and integrated into Tsinghua's technology transfer system, the ITTC facilitates Chinese enterprises' international R&D cooperation, and provides channels for international technologies to be introduced to the Chinese market (International Technology Transfer Center. About us: Profile. Available online: http://www.ittc.com.cn/ittc/english/html/aboutus/profile.asp (accessed on 10 November 2019)). While the other five university technology transfer centers came

across bottlenecks, the ITTC at Tsinghua runs well. Nevertheless, it also is facing new challenges and demands. As a solution, the Triple Helix sectors need even closer cooperation and interaction [64,81].

The institutional setting for R&D cooperation between Tsinghua and international enterprises is comparatively mature, although Tsinghua does not have stated strategy and regulation to encourage and regulate such international R&D cooperation. Tsinghua leadership expects that its researchers can take on a dominant role in initiating and sustaining international R&D partnerships, rather than always taking the role of serving the large international enterprises by solving their technical problems. Cooperative technical projects can make money, but they do little to create knowledge spillover and contribute to the innovative capacity of the university (Interview THU UA 01).

In addition to UICC, Overseas RDMO and ITTC are functional departments to accelerate and manage the university's engagement with international industrial activities. Together with the ITTC of Tsinghua, the government created technology transfer centers in another five universities, but only the Tsinghua ITTC runs smoothly. Nevertheless, the governmental initiative demonstrates the logics of the market at the state level as well as beliefs in technology innovation as a key to economic growth. On the other hand, the international enterprises' increasing approach to Chinese research universities accelerated the government and university to perfect the corresponding institutional settings.

#### *4.3. Stage 3: Interactions between Chinese University and International Enterprise*

The joint R&D cooperation between Tsinghua and UTC started in 1995. After 12 years of partnership, the Tsinghua-UTC Center was established in September 2007. It started with a five-year renewable contract. UTC decided to invest one million US dollars in the Center every year continuously for five years, and the contract was completed by the end of the second five-year term (Interview THU-UTC 05, 06).
