Entrepreneurship Education in China: A Sleeping Dragon No More?
Berry Kwock, Mark James, Jeff Vanevenhoven, Doan WinkelAbstract. To understand entrepreneurship education in China, this article begins with a summary of its history, and then describes the efforts by the government and universities to promote entrepreneurship and encourage young graduates to start new businesses. Subsequently, we analyze the current entrepreneurial practices at Chinese educational institutions, and present a theory on why China, despite considerable efforts, is lagging behind the Western world in terms of comprehensive entrepreneurship programs that produce innovative and creative entrepreneurs. Noting the United States is considered a leader in entrepreneurship programs (Zhou & Xu, 2012); we compare China to the United States. The comparison is limited to entrepreneurship programs in post-secondary education in order to offer a preliminary assessment of that gap. Although some Chinese local high schools do offer one or two elective courses on entrepreneurship, such programs do not play a significant role in the development of entrepreneurs (Xu & Li, 2008). pp. 110–124
Keywords: China; Entrepreneurship Education; Higher Education
JEL Codes: L26, I23, I25