Ph.D. students from NORSI (Norwegian Research School in Innovation) visited Hangzhou. The visit was hosted by the Department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy, School of Management, Zhejiang University. The leader of the group was Professor Björn Asheim, founder of NORSI and a world-renown researcher in Innovation and professor at Lund University and the University of Stavanger. NORSI is the national research school for Ph.D. students in Norway within the field of innovation, which works to enhance innovation research education and strengthen connections in the innovation research community. During the two days’ visit, the group enjoyed the lectures given by Prof. Huang and Prof. Wu, as well as the visits to Hikivision and Future Tech City.
On the morning of Oct 19th, the group attended a lecture given by Prof. Huang Can from the department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship，and Strategy, on the topic of "Transforming Chinas IP system to stimulate innovation". In the lecture, Prof. Huang introduced in detail the IP Basics, the young intellectual property right system in China, recent progress on legislation towards a better IP system and the Quadic patent family and Multinational Corporations’ patenting activities in China.
In the afternoon, the group was led by Prof. Du Jian from the department and her Ph.D. students to visit Hikivision. Mr. Yao Lijian, vice-general manager of Hikivision’s International Marketing Center shared with the visitors the founding and developing history of the company, in particular, those milestones they met during the development of Hikivision’s internationalization.
Then, in the morning of Oct 20th, the group attended a lecture given by Prof. Wu Xiaobo from the department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy, on the topic of “From Catch-up to Beyond: Evidence and Strategic Implications from China”. In the lecture, Prof. Wu started from the rising of China’s economy and manufacturing industry from the 1970s to the present and explained the big question on “Why do some countries grow and others stagnate?” as well as pointing out the challenge China had been facing. Prof. Wu also introduced to all the achievements made by China’s leading companies as they grew from 0 to 1 and then, from 1 to N. With the audience showing great interest, he further explored topics on Unlearning, Paradigm Shift, from Catch up to Beyond, the Dynamic Evolution Model of Secondary Innovation Catch up and Beyond, as well as the strategic implication beyond.
In the afternoon, the group visited Future Tech City and was given a talk by Mrs. Zhang Jie，CEO of Baywest Accelerator, on the topic of “ the Entrepreneurship Eco-System of Hangzhou”. During the talk, Mrs. Zhang shared her insight on Hangzhou’s innovation system, service Eco-innovations, sustainably resulting to energy, competitive advantage in innovation processes, industrial dynamics, failures of innovation， and various areas of entrepreneurship.
After the talk, the group went to the exhibition hall of the Dream Town to learn the developing history of the town and its entrepreneurship policy. Zhejiang Oveasea High-Level Talents Innovation Park was the last part of the visit, where the professors and students watched the introduction video subtitled in English and got to understand better the innovation and entrepreneurship policies in Hangzhou.
Towards the end of the visit, Prof. Björn Asheim and Mrs. Birte Horn-Hanssen both shown their gratitude, on behalf of the whole visiting group, to the department for the time and effort put into the program and making the two days’ visit a great success.
