Table 3 Examples of Activities in Division of Labor

Task Division

Category design by architect

Preparatory research;

The design of ZGC;

Learning from foreign countries;

Experience of former projects;

Emphasizing the diversity of resources;

Policy support;

Government guidance.

“In the initial stage of this project, we designed the main structure of ZGC, in which some specific members are necessary, such as acceleration centers, venture capital, collocation places and so on.”

“You may see more than 20 accelerators in this street and they all call themselves ‘accelerator’. However, each of them has exclusive resources or a service point. For instance, A focuses on chips research and development, B prefers smart hardware, and C has massive media channels. This diversity was designed before we invited them.”

Co-specialization

Needs exploration in entrepreneurial process;

Self-development of accelerators;

Emergence of special clusters;

Cooperation with third-party service providers.

“Due to resource limitations, most entrepreneurs don’t have the ability or attention to solve legal problems, such as equity contract formulation, patent applications and so on. Therefore, I established this legal firm mainly to offer legal services to accelerators and entrepreneurs.”

“We (an accelerator) do not have a team to offer financial or legal services, but we can introduce third-party service providers to entrepreneurs who need these services.”

Task Allocation

Captain assignment by architect

Involving key resources;

Resource filter;

Operating by state-owned company;

Specialization of accelerators and service providers.

“In the early stages of ZGC, we (the architect) would filter the members that could work in ZGC, and assign them to lead certain fields of entrepreneurship.”

“Before involving these accelerators and other service providers, we have already researched them. If we think they are good, we will send an invitation to them to enter this street.”

Self-selection based on competition

Cooperation in the same field;

Entrepreneurial mentor;

Self-Selection of service providers;

Competition within accelerators;

Competition among service providers and VCs;

Conflict in recognition.

“During the process of entrepreneurship, many problems need to be solved. And we (service provider) catch this opportunity to help them solve these problems quickly and well.”

“As an entrepreneur, I actually want to join in the best entrepreneurial accelerator to develop my start-up company. However, the best means the hardest to enter. I have to compete with other brilliant start-ups.”

“A good entrepreneurial project or team makes it easier to get investment and enter a good accelerator, especially entrepreneurs from big companies such as Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba. What’s more, many investors and accelerators compete to invest or service a famous entrepreneur, or what we call a ‘star entrepreneur’. Because this famous one also makes these investors and accelerators more well-known.”