IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i13p7568-d844074.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustaining Higher Education Quality by Building an Educational Innovation Ecosystem in China—Policies, Implementations and Effects

Author

Listed:
  • Tengteng Zhuang

    (Institute of Higher Education, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Baocun Liu

    (Institute of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

Abstract

This article analyzes how China has worked to develop and build a higher education innovation ecosystem in the past decade. Binding its analysis to three types of data, namely clusters of national policies issued by important Chinese government bodies, dozens of articles in an internal journal of the Ministry of Education, and various Chinese media accounts, the article unravels how resources are mobilized and the direction chartered for unprecedented engagement between different stakeholders for education purposes. The findings reveal that the establishment of a higher education innovation ecosystem derives from the need to improve the overall higher education quality in full swing and has been realized as a strategic consensus among the government, enterprises, higher education, and social forces. The ecosystem is underpinned by the assigning of different roles to different stakeholders based on collaboration and division of labor. At the same time, there is also substantive capital, resource mobility, and the infusion of industrial technological expertise underpinning such an innovation ecosystem that involves six categories of collaboration at macro and micro levels. The impact of the higher education innovation ecosystem thus far includes deepened and extensive participation in higher education quality improvement by multiple types of stakeholders and the same type of stakeholders across different tiers. Instructors’ teaching and students’ learning have experienced changes due to the ecosystem’s impact at a micro level, and many institutions have increased shared governance practices to better cater to the synergy among different sides. At the same time, there is an unevenness in the innovation ecosystem in terms of participating higher education institutions and enterprises.

Suggested Citation

  • Tengteng Zhuang & Baocun Liu, 2022. "Sustaining Higher Education Quality by Building an Educational Innovation Ecosystem in China—Policies, Implementations and Effects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-22, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7568-:d:844074
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7568/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7568/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sandra Caeiro & Leyla Angélica Sandoval Hamón & Rute Martins & Cecilia Elizabeth Bayas Aldaz, 2020. "Sustainability Assessment and Benchmarking in Higher Education Institutions—A Critical Reflection," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-30, January.
    2. Gawer, Annabelle, 2014. "Bridging differing perspectives on technological platforms: Toward an integrative framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1239-1249.
    3. David J. Teece & Gary Pisano & Amy Shuen, 1997. "Dynamic capabilities and strategic management," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(7), pages 509-533, August.
    4. Granstrand, Ove & Holgersson, Marcus, 2020. "Innovation ecosystems: A conceptual review and a new definition," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 90.
    5. Ron Adner & Rahul Kapoor, 2010. "Value creation in innovation ecosystems: how the structure of technological interdependence affects firm performance in new technology generations," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 306-333, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yuzhuo Cai & Lili-Ann Wolff, 2022. "Education and Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-5, December.
    2. Jian Li & Eryong Xue, 2022. "A Social Networking Analysis of Education Policies of Creating World-Class Universities for Higher Education Sustainability in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-13, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Baldwin, Carliss Y. & Bogers, Marcel L.A.M. & Kapoor, Rahul & West, Joel, 2024. "Focusing the ecosystem lens on innovation studies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(3).
    2. Hou, Hong & Shi, Yongjiang, 2021. "Ecosystem-as-structure and ecosystem-as-coevolution: A constructive examination," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. Gomes, Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos & Flechas, Ximena Alejandra & Facin, Ana Lucia Figueiredo & Borini, Felipe Mendes, 2021. "Ecosystem management: Past achievements and future promises," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    4. Yanzhang Gu & Longying Hu & Hongjin Zhang & Chenxuan Hou, 2021. "Innovation Ecosystem Research: Emerging Trends and Future Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-21, October.
    5. Shi, Xianwei & Liang, Xingkun & Luo, Yining, 2023. "Unpacking the intellectual structure of ecosystem research in innovation studies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    6. Robertson, Jeandri & Caruana, Albert & Ferreira, Caitlin, 2023. "Innovation performance: The effect of knowledge-based dynamic capabilities in cross-country innovation ecosystems," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(2).
    7. Liu, He & Li, Xuerong & Wang, Shouyang, 2021. "A bibliometric analysis of 30 years of platform research: Developing the research agenda for platforms, the associated technologies and social impacts," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    8. Dietlmeier, Simon Frederic & Urmetzer, Florian, 2023. "Policy-Driven Industrial Ecosystems," MPRA Paper 120559, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Guo Bai & S. Ramakrishna Velamuri, 2021. "Contextualizing the Sharing Economy," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 977-1001, June.
    10. Satish Nambisan & Shaker A. Zahra & Yadong Luo, 2019. "Global platforms and ecosystems: Implications for international business theories," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(9), pages 1464-1486, December.
    11. Tóth, Csilla & Fehérvölgyi, Beáta & Háry, András & Kovács, Zoltán, 2024. "Az innovációs ökoszisztémák ágazati sajátosságai és osztályozásának lehetőségei [Sectoral features of innovation ecosystems and an opportunity for classification]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 957-987.
    12. Lijie Feng & Jiarui Lu & Jinfeng Wang, 2021. "A Systematic Review of Enterprise Innovation Ecosystems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-26, May.
    13. Cristina C. Amitrano & Mariarosaria Coppola & Marco Tregua & Francesco Bifulco, 2017. "Knowledge Sharing in Innovation Ecosystems: A Focus on Functional Food Industry," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 14(05), pages 1-18, October.
    14. Gomes, Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos & Facin, Ana Lucia Figueiredo & Salerno, Mario Sergio & Ikenami, Rodrigo Kazuo, 2018. "Unpacking the innovation ecosystem construct: Evolution, gaps and trends," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 30-48.
    15. Silva, Lucas Emmanuel Nascimento & Gomes, Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos & Faria, Aline Mariane de & Borini, Felipe Mendes, 2024. "Innovation processes in ecosystem settings: An integrative framework and future directions," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    16. Stornelli, Aldo & Simms, Christopher & Reim, Wiebke & Ozcan, Sercan, 2024. "Exploring the dynamic capabilities of technology provider ecosystems: A study of smart manufacturing projects," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    17. Spaniol, Matthew J. & Rowland, Nicholas J., 2022. "Business ecosystems and the view from the future: The use of corporate foresight by stakeholders of the Ro-Ro shipping ecosystem in the Baltic Sea Region," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    18. Peter E. Harland & Zakir Uddin & Sven Laudien, 2020. "Product platforms as a lever of competitive advantage on a company-wide level: a resource management perspective," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 137-158, February.
    19. Amel Attour & Pierre Barbaroux, 2015. "Le rôle des processus de connaissances dans le cycle de vie d'un écosystème d'affaires," Post-Print halshs-01244401, HAL.
    20. Suzanne G. Tilleman & Michael V. Russo & Andrew J. Nelson, 2020. "Institutional Logics and Technology Development: Evidence from the Wind and Solar Energy Industries," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 649-670, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7568-:d:844074. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.