Academic Firm. A Pilot Program in Facilitating Regional Economy Transformation

Since the onset of the economic reforms in 1978, China has disrupted the manufacturing sector from being a marginal player on the global stage to a world-manufacturing powerhouse. In the second quarter of 2010, China became the worlds second-largest economy behind the United States. Economists generally attribute much of Chinas economic growth to two main factors: large-scale capital investment (financed large domestic savings and foreign investment) and rapid productivity growth, due to the reallocation of resources to more productive uses . Chinas ability to disrupt mass production domain could be described as the collaborative efforts of people + infrastructure . A digital revolution is rapidly taking root in China. In a few short years, China has gone from being a minor player in the Internet era to a full-fledged participant, and now it is actually a front-runner. As of December 2014, China has around 649 million Internet users and 557 million mobile Internet users. Authors of this paper propose a new approach based upon the concepts of startup accelerator and platform ecosystem to foster an environment favorable for the creation of next generation digital disruptor to lead to massive digital disruption, at a scale and a pace most are simply not prepared for.\n\nKeywords:Academic Firm,Knowledge-based Startup,Technology Transfer, Startup Accelerator, Platform Ecosystems, University-Industry linkage, Digital Disruption