The results can be viewed as a model for technology diffusion in China, and can be useful for researchers, policy-makers and business managers. This argues the need for a new approach to the management of academic researchers and their research work. This is accentuated by the significant challenges in the knowledge production system. An approach is outlined to micro-level management of academic researchers, which seeks to strike a balance between academicautonomy and organisational steering. Statistical data test the validity of a certain number of theoretical models of the organisation of innovation.
Some collaborations are between veritable strangers discovered on a notice-board.
In the desperate search for appropriate partners, the requirement that collaboration facilitate innovation gives way to the requirement that collaboration serve political and pragmatic purposes.