Promoting Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Enhancing Research and Reforming University Curriculum in China

Abstract

Consisting of 28 provinces and three special administrative regions that present considerable diversity in resource endowment as well as policy preferences, China can be seen as a large national innovation system (NIS) with the integration of numerous regional innovation systems (RISs). While NIS is important in the context of China’s highly centralized authoritarian regime which set the basic parameters and guidelines for regional diversification, it might be profitable to also take the RIS seriously, since it comprises distinguishable private and public actors in the market interacting to create local arrangements and promote indigenous innovations (Hu and Mathews 2005). This chapter sets out against the context in which the Chinese government has called for advancement of technology and promotion of innovation and entrepreneurialism in higher education with a strong conviction to transform the country from a “world factory” which primarily depends on manufacturing to drive economic growth to a culturally strong, technologically advanced and innovative country, and examines the major strategies adopted by the Chinese government to achieve these goals. The first part of the chapter provides the historical and policy context for promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in China. The second part focuses on how research has been enhanced through various state-driven initiatives to transform Chinese universities into world-class universities with strong research capacity. The last part of the chapter discusses how university curriculum is being transformed to promote entrepreneurial education in China.