Using Chinese universities as a source of Technology Scouting in China

Over the last few decades trends such as globalization have sharpened up competition on the market. To meet customers demand, high level of technological and competitive uncertainties have increased the pressure of reducing R&D budgets, innovation cycles and shorten the time to market, as a consequence of the rising competition and as a result forced companies to source external knowledge. One way of doing this is by tapping external information and knowledge from universities. China is a country with a steady rapid growth in science and technology with a progressively increasing R&D. This is an opportunity for Western MNCs to establish collaborations in order to gain competitive advantages and create new technologies. This study focuses on Industry- University (I-U) collaborations in China for high technological companies and the process of finding knowledge and establishes networks at Chinese universities. Based on literature review and a qualitative study of Chinese universities, this thesis explores how MNC:s can build a network of local universities connection in a fast growing market and use this network as a source of Technology Scouting.