Prof. Alberto Moel of HKU Business School told SCMP that Hong Kong is at a stage where university research projects are the ones driving the pool of innovation. He encouraged young entrepreneurs to explore opportunities arising from university research projects or collaborate with exiting platforms.
Referencing insights published in the Hong Kong Economic Policy Green Paper 2026, an article published in the South China Morning Post on Sunday highlighted some key bottlenecks in technology development and talent attraction that policymakers must confront.
Startups are often drivers of innovation, job creation, and economic growth. As Hong Kong undergoes a reinvention of its innovation and technology development, there is a need to frame Hong Kong's startup ecosystem development from a qualitative firm-level microeconomic perspective. In chapter 5, Alberto Moel examines how the ecosystem structure relates to startup lifecycles and finds that the ecosystem is weakest at the intermediate "Valley of Death" stages – precisely where startups need the most support. Because technology entrepreneurship in Hong Kong remains poorly understood, existing research often develops in isolation from industry needs, making it difficult to tease out a product and market. Moreover, interactions and integration between business schools and early-stage R&D efforts are weak, and the current accelerator and incubator programs usually fail to provide tools for long-term growth.
