In the past 30 years of reform and opening-up, China’s economy has developed rapidly, with market economy gradually showing its advantage and China’s economic development exerting a growing influence on and making an increasing contribution to the global economic development. China is playing a more and more important role in the changing global economic landscape. However, since the global economic recession, which first began in the U.S. Wall Street in 2008, has not yet come to an end, the rapid development of China’s economy has undergone great pressure from this global economic downturn. Faced with more and more severe challenges, we must try our best to ensure a healthy and sustainable development of the market economy, with fair and full market competition being one of the important features.

Since 2015, China’s economy has entered a new normal of adjusting the speed of the economic growth, optimizing the economic structure, and changing the driving force for the economic development, in which an innovation-driven economy has become a consensus. Innovation stems from competition. From the perspective of industrial innovation and development, fair and full market competition is the first essential element of industrial innovation ecosystem. It is not only vital to the healthy and sustainable development of China’s market economy, but also crucial for Shanghai to establish itself as a globally influential technology and innovation center.

How can we understand the fairness and fullness of market competition in Shanghai’s industrial innovation ecosystem? There is hardly any standard answer to this question, but it is beneficial that we think of and interpret it from the following four aspects.

Realization of the Market Value of Talent Resources

If we measure the market value of talent resources statically, we only need to answer questions such as “Is Shanghai a talent highland?” and “In how large an area and how many fields does Shanghai possess a distinct advantage of talents?”, which, however, only partly reflect the influence of Shanghai in talent resources and inevitably makes people indulge in an illusion. Therefore, we need to understand the market value of talent resources dynamically, with the key point being how to understand the flow of talents, including talent aggregation and talent overflow. It is easy to understand talent aggregation, but how about talent overflow? The value of Shanghai to establish itself as a technology and innovation center lies not only in its ability to attract and gather innovation talents, but also in its ability to provide innovation talents to other areas, for example, Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone and Yangtze River Economic Belt, etc. The flow of talents benefits from the support of market competition mechanism and shows the quality of the innovation ecosystem in Shanghai. When the flow of talents bears some industrial or industry-related features, for example, talents of design and innovation flowing to the Knowledge Economy Circle around Tongji University in Yangpu district and Hongkou district, talents of biology and medicine flowing to Zhangjiang Medicine Valley, etc., the market value of the talent flow will show the quality of industrial innovation ecosystem of Shanghai in this field.

Realization of the Market Value of Capital

We often describe the financial development of Shanghai in terms of the number of financial institutions in Shanghai and its advantage in finance compared with other cities. To support it some research institutes also provide data such as the GDP of the financial industry in Shanghai. However, this is limited to some extent. It should be noted that capital flow is the key to understanding the market value of capital. The role of Shanghai as a technology and innovation center lies not only in its ability to gather capital, but also in its ability to lead the flows of capital in some important industrial fields, also referred to as “overflow effect” of innovation capital. Recently the capital market has been exhibiting a trend of capital flow to “Internet+”, for instance, “Alibaba and SAIC”, “Alibaba and Shanghai Jiahua”, etc. The adequate capital flow benefits from the support of market competition mechanism and shows the quality of industrial innovation ecosystem of Shanghai in this field.

Realization of the Market Value of Enterprise-University-Research Institute Cooperation

We measure the market value of enterprise-university-research institute cooperation in Shanghai mainly from the transformation rate of the scientific and technological achievements. Actually, the contribution of universities and research institutes to the market is not limited to the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. The key to understanding the market value of enterprise-university-research institute cooperation is its diffusion effect from Shanghai to other areas and its contribution to comprehensively improving people’s livelihood from various aspects of material, spirit, and politics, etc. The transformation of scientific and technological achievements only focuses on its contribution to people’s livelihood from material aspect, but its spiritual and political contributions are often neglected, such as the spread of science, technology, culture, and knowledge, and the colorful cultural market, etc. The realization of the market value of the enterprise-university-research institute cooperation relies on the support of market competition mechanism and shows the quality of innovation ecosystem in Shanghai. When the enterprise-university-research institute cooperation is active in certain industry or shows some industry-related features, it indicates the quality of innovation ecosystem of Shanghai in this field. For example, Tongji University breaks down the “walls” among university campuses, sci-tech parks, and public communities to enhance “three zone integration” so as to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, which not only upgrades the strength of the design and innovation industry in the Knowledge Economy Circle around Tongji University and the economic and social activity of Yangpu District and Hongkou District, but also makes great contribution to the economic and social development of Shanghai and the whole country. Shanghai, as a technology and innovation center, should play a leading role in arousing concern on and making contribution to people’s livelihood from various aspects.

Realization of the Market Value of Big Data

With the dramatic development of the Internet and related industries, the concept of “big data” and the value of data resources have been widely accepted. However, this still cannot meet people’s needs of data resources; in other words, the market value of data resources has not yet been fully realized, for which an important reason is that some data resources are monopolized and there is no sufficient flow of data resources. When Shanghai is establishing itself as a technology and innovation center, an important task is to break the monopoly of data resources and make these data resources “big” enough in a real sense. It is hoped that, boosted by the market, such data resources could become a “gold mine” or a new way to stimulate Shanghai’s economic and social innovation and development in the setting of a new normal.

Resources such as talents, capital, enterprise-university-research institute cooperation, and big data can only fully realize their market value in a fair and full market competition. The flowing direction of resources serves as the indicator of competition. In an innovation-driven economy, the direction, speed, and activity of resource flow reflect the innovation ecosystem of a country, a city, a district or an industry. Therefore, in order to have a healthy industrial innovation ecosystem, we must start from the concept of “big market” and make the market active in competition. Fair and full market competition is the basis of market economy development, and also the first essential element of industrial innovation ecosystem.

Note: This article first appeared in Jiefang Daily on the following website:
https://newspaper.jfdaily.com/jfrb/html/2016-01/14/content_165667.htm