Introduction

Innovation and entrepreneurship education are essential ways to promote high-quality development, boost a country’s modernization and achieve the goal of “quality education” in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) emphasizes “accelerating the implementation of innovation-driven development strategy” and “strengthening the deep integration of enterprises, education and research led by enterprises, highlighting a goal-driven roadmap, and improving the levels of transformation and industrialization of scientific and technological achievements” (Xi, 2022). From the “implementation of innovation-driven development strategy” proposed at the 18th National Congress of the CPC to the 19th National Congress of the CPC that “innovation is the primary driving force leading development”, to the fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee that “upholds the core position of innovation in China’s overall modernization drive”. The Party’s 20th National Congress further emphasized that “science and technology is the primary productive force, talent is the primary resource, and innovation is the primary driving force”, indicating that the Party’s understanding of the importance of innovation-driven development is deepening (Du, 2022). “Collaborative education is an important way and key vehicle for innovation and entrepreneurship education”, “but the inefficiency of collaborative education is increasingly prominent, while there has been little synergy in education among the parties”, as regards the collaborative education approach to “innovation and entrepreneurship” education in terms of concept, institution and supervision, there is insufficient attention, resource sharing system is not sound and lack of scientific evaluation system (Jian et al., 2019). At the same time, “the Entrepreneur-in-Residence system has emerged as an auxiliary measure to promote the communication of knowledge, technology, and information between academic institutions and enterprises”. “It can effectively make up for the organizational structural defects of universities themselves and play a role in promoting the marketization of scientific research achievements in universities and supplementing the professional teachers of entrepreneurship education” (Shi & Wang, 2023). Combined with the pioneering case of the pilot “Entrepreneur-in-Residence” in social entrepreneurship education conducted by SUIBE in recent years, and in comparison with the case of Entrepreneur-in-Residence pioneered by Harvard Business School and other colleges and universities, this paper aims to explore the problems, advantages and development strategies of the entrepreneur-in-residence mechanism in China, which may contribute to college collaborative education innovation to promote social entrepreneurship education and the formulation of guiding and supportive policy measures with an enhanced basis for the collaborative education model for social entrepreneurship education innovation, enrich the development connotation of quality education and meet the national strategic needs of reinvigoration through science and education, talent development and innovation-driven development in China.

Literature review

Collaborative education in “innovation and entrepreneurship” education has rich connotations and is increasingly important. School–enterprise collaborative education is a systematic activity, with universities, enterprises and research institutes as the main body, and the government and industrial institutions as the intermediary, improving the quality of talent training in universities through the sharing of talents, knowledge and material resources by combining with the law of education and teaching and the market. A reciprocal education mode promotes “innovation and entrepreneurship” education and school–enterprise collaboration and realizes a win–win situation between schools and enterprises. School–enterprise collaborative education can improve cooperation, the classroom teaching effect and students’ competitiveness in employment (Luo, 2017). “Collaborative education” plays a vital role in promoting the reform of “innovation and entrepreneurship” education, deepening the level of coordination among the participating parties, focusing on the core goal of “innovation and entrepreneurship” education, and then improving the overall quality and level of higher education. “Collaborative education is an important way and a key vehicle for achieving the goal of ‘innovation and entrepreneurship’ education”, “but at present, the inefficiency of collaborative education is becoming increasingly prominent, and all parties fail to form a joint force” (Jian et al., 2019). There are many difficulties in “innovation and entrepreneurship” education.

Zeng et al. (2017) reviewed the development course of innovation and entrepreneurship education in universities since China’s 12th Five-Year Plan, including five aspects: blatant policy promotion, the strengthening of curriculum development, the implementation of a flexible school system, the expansion of beneficiaries, and the innovation and entrepreneurship integration. The integration of innovation and entrepreneurship among them focuses on “exploring innovation-based entrepreneurship education, industry, university, research and application integration”, including the deployment of innovation and entrepreneurship training programmes for college students and the promotion of the actual development of school-level innovation and entrepreneurship training, such as the “innovation-based entrepreneurship” (IBE) education mode of Zhejiang University.

Wang (2021), while analysing the dilemma of China’s higher education lacking depth of school–enterprise collaboration in “innovation and entrepreneurship” education, points out that many colleges and universities “only conduct school–enterprise collaboration with mere words, remain only in the agreement; or even if there is cooperation, it is quite superficial, which usually is a short-term arrangement, with a lack of interconnection, integration or coordination to promote innovation and entrepreneurship talent cultivating mechanism. Jian et al. (2019) believe that the current collaborative education in “innovation and entrepreneurship” education has the dilemma of insufficient attention and imperfect resource-sharing systems with a lack of a scientific evaluation system. “The market and universities tend to stay at the inefficient level of cooperation, one that is formal, superficial and temporary, so inefficient that it is likely to be carried out only under external policy pressure”. “The process of collaborative education shows obvious characteristics of graft or assembly, and it is difficult to achieve the expected effect”. In addition, Zeng et al. (2017) believe that “in the process of innovation and entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities, it has always been a weakness in promoting the cooperation of schools, industries, enterprises and capital, as well as the application”.

The difficulties above are due to reasons within the university system and the participants’ concepts. The former includes the differentiation of higher education majors and the narrowing down of the disciplines, the squeezed space of interdisciplinary dialogue and resource circulation, resulting in resource integration difficulties, and the latter is reflected in the fact that the participants ignored the fact that the goal of collaborative education should be based on the lifelong development of students’ consciousness of and accomplishment in innovation and entrepreneurship. In contrast, the “innovation and entrepreneurship” education evaluation rarely includes the students as the subject (Jian et al., 2019).

Policies and mechanisms

To improve the ability of college students to carve out a career, enhance innovation vitality across China, and further support their innovation and entrepreneurship, the General Office of the State Council has implemented The Guideline to Ramp up Support for College Students in Innovation and Starting Businesses. In terms of improving the innovation and entrepreneurship ability of college students, it is pointed out that “the special talent plan for external mentors of innovation and entrepreneurship in colleges and universities should be implemented, with the implementation of the Entrepreneur-in-Residence system in schools explored, and more outstanding talents from all walks of life attracted to serve as ‘innovation and entrepreneurship mentors’, while the construction of several ‘innovation and entrepreneurship’ mentor training bases should be supported and regular training carried out” (General Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, 2021). Subsequently, local governments successively introduced relevant measures. For example, the Shaanxi Provincial Government announced the implementation of a special talent plan for off-campus “innovation and entrepreneurship mentors” to explore the system of Entrepreneur-in-Residence, stipulating that the number of off-campus “innovation and entrepreneurship mentors” should be related to the number of students in school. The ratio of the number of people should be at least 1:2000, and there should be at least three entrepreneurs in each school (General Office of the People’s Government of Shaanxi Province, 2022). The Yunnan Provincial Government also required that the special talent plan for off-campus mentors for “innovation and entrepreneurship” in colleges and universities should be implemented. The system of Entrepreneur-in-Residence should be explored, focusing on supporting the development of a group called “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Star Teacher Studios” to promote cutting-edge research and practical application of innovation and entrepreneurship. The teachers’ work guiding innovation and entrepreneurship and promoting the transformation of innovation and entrepreneurship achievements should be included in the school performance assessment as part of their teaching and scientific research achievements. Innovation and entrepreneurship teachers in colleges and universities can engage in multiagency teaching and obtain income legally (General Office of the People’s Government of Yunnan Province, 2022). As a critical measure to implement central policies, Entrepreneur-in-Residence has become a clear local policy goal with a quantitative indicator or requirements of supporting mechanisms and has since received special attention.

Characteristics and advantages of the entrepreneur-in-residence system

The Entrepreneur-in-Residence system is diversified, adaptive and inclusive; its primary connotation includes at least the following three aspects: first, the diversity of the participants. The emphasis on collaboration helps enhance the initiative of other participants in the education of innovation and entrepreneurship, improving their educational initiative and building a reciprocal partnership among participants. Second, adaptability, especially cultural adaptability, is reflected in the unity of value orientation. Third is inclusiveness, which is also reflected in the synchronization of the education process. Only by unifying the value orientation and coordinating all parties can a mutually independent and intrinsically connected collaborative education community be established in “innovation and entrepreneurship” education. The core of the Entrepreneur-in-Residence system is meant to build a healthy partnership between universities and the market.

In arguing that universities “lack effective transformation mechanisms, service platforms and professional teachers”, Shi and Wang (2023) propose the following,

Entrepreneurs-in-residence can bring hands-on experience in a natural business environment, allowing students to be influenced by interventions from the business world while being taught entrepreneurship on campus. The one-to-one dialogue between them can stimulate students to generate new business ideas and enhance their entrepreneurial ability. Entrepreneurs-in-residence have abundant social resources. On the one hand, they can serve as mentors to train and guide university students to establish enterprises and improve their entrepreneurial literacy. On the other hand, it can effectively connect with entrepreneurship education and teaching in the school and teach the entrepreneurship course with entrepreneurship education teachers to impart the skills and experience of founding enterprises.

And they further suggest that,

When students show sufficient interest in starting a business, entrepreneurs-in-residence can guide the entire entrepreneurial process, from ideas to start-ups, and improve the skills needed to engage in entrepreneurial activities, thereby enhancing students’ entrepreneurial ability, helping them deal with conflicts of interest and other issues in school, anticipating unknown risks in the start-up process, which can, promptly, connect them to regional resources that can help create businesses.

Categories and potentials of Chinese college entrepreneurs-in-residence

Sources indicate that Chinese college entrepreneurs-in-residence mainly include alums, other entrepreneurs or senior management personnel. According to the nature of their institutions, they can be divided into two categories: social public interest subjects and commercial subjects. In the participation mode, there are such main types as venture capital services that include venture capital institutions, education and training, postgraduate research institutions, successful entrepreneurs or “famous enterprise” executives, professional managers, entrepreneurial alums with alma mater who intend to do something in return to their teachers and students, social institutions with public relations professionals in social organizations and social activists.

Rooted in the socialist political system with Chinese characteristics, China has always adhered to the principle of education for the people and education that satisfies the people due to the top-level education design of the Party and the state. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee of the Party, with Xi Jinping at its core, has based itself on the overall situation of the cause of socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics in the new era. The Party’s Report on the 20th National Congress stated, “The root of education lies in moral integrity. We will fully implement the Party’s educational policy, carry out the fundamental task of cultivating people with virtues, and cultivate socialist builders and successors with all-round development in morals, intelligence, physical fitness, work, and aesthetics” (Zhang, 2022).

In the field of social entrepreneurship education, the Chinese college entrepreneurs-in-residence programme will have the opportunity to highlight the requirements of the Party and the state to “cultivate people with virtues” as the fundamental task of education by taking the best advantage of “Ideology and Innovation Integration”, and blazing a trail of development for entrepreneurs with Chinese characteristics. “Social entrepreneurship education expands the concept of business entrepreneurship, which refers to entrepreneurial behaviour that seeks social benefits for the public. Social entrepreneurship significantly affects employment, with many college students required to dedicate themselves to working in public welfare. The social entrepreneurship education and service system are an educational mechanism designed to meet the needs of social talent, which can relieve the mountain of pressure on the employment of college students” (Zhu, 2016). Therefore, it is of particular significance to play the role of entrepreneur-in-residence in social entrepreneurship. To realize the sustainable development of the entrepreneur-in-residence model on campus, Chinese colleges and universities should encourage industry experts or alum entrepreneurs with rich practical experience to be entrepreneurs-in-residence for college students and establish an effective and perfect incentive mechanism while taking advantage of alum entrepreneurs to help improve the Entrepreneur-in-Residence system. Colleges and universities can learn from alum entrepreneurs’ experience in starting successful businesses, and alum entrepreneurs can have access to the latest technology and scientific research achievements in related fields of their alma mater so that industry–education collaboration can be further promoted (Jian et al., 2019).

Research questions

Based on the literature review, this paper aims to explore the following research questions: How do we integrate the pioneering Western experience with the Chinese context in terms of the entrepreneur-in-residence mechanism? Moreover, what might be a potential solution to college collaborative education innovation that can help take the best advantage of the entrepreneur-in-residence mechanism and enrich the development connotation of quality education?

Methodology: research settings & participants

We focused on the representative cases of entrepreneur-in-residence practices from America, the UK and China, which included a local case as our field research target. A qualitative research method was employed, in which participant observation and in-depth interviews played essential roles. One of our observers also contributed to this research, underlining a reflective approach throughout the research design.

We also adopted a critical policy analysis to interpret the potential advantages and disadvantages of the implied mechanisms and relevant practices.

An overview of the global entrepreneur-in-residence programme

The Global Entrepreneur in Residence Programme, organized by Babson College in the United States, clearly proposes to provide entrepreneurs-in-residence with free office space and abundant entrepreneurial resources, but the salary is zero. Entrepreneurs-in-residence are required to act as entrepreneurial mentors to the school’s teachers, students and alums and support the school’s entrepreneurial research plans and activities. “Usually, staffed by industry leaders or a mix of academics with strong industry experience, they specialize in providing support services for entrepreneurship education in universities and regularly mentor the student and teacher’s start-ups which are just kicked off, also a move that further strengthens the links between the universities and the industry”. (Shi & Wang, 2023) As professional teachers, entrepreneurs-in-residence flooded into colleges and universities and participated in teaching, providing students with guidance on starting a business and making risk assessments, which also increased the success rate of students starting a business to a certain extent. Alum entrepreneurs account for a large proportion of entrepreneur-in-residence programmes in American universities. In general, alum entrepreneurs are willing to take on responsibilities and maintain ties with their alma maters and share experiences with students (Shi & Wang, 2023).

A comparative analysis: the cases in America, the UK and China

The earliest publicly available information about entrepreneurs-in-residence on the Harvard Business School website is the “Featured Alumni” story of “McCance First to Serve as Entrepreneur in Residence”, published on 1 June 2005. The story describes the background of the Harvard MBA Class of 1966 in sharing their expertise as venture capital experts with Harvard Business School faculty and students: McCance, the first HBS entrepreneur-in-residence and now chairman of Boston-based Greylock Management, shared the breadth and depth of his expertise with faculty and students. “Students are obvious beneficiaries of the Entrepreneur in Residence Programme; in addition to sitting in on a number of classroom discussions, McCance spoke at student club gatherings, served as an adviser on several field study projects, and left his door open to anyone who wanted to talk about the ups and downs of launching a company or a career in venture capital” (McCance, 2005). He believes that “HBS has had a tremendously positive effect on my career and my life” (McCance, 2005).

From the perspective of Harvard Business School’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence practice, with alums as the main body, the mechanisms of deep participation in the teaching and research activities of the business school through successful executives or entrepreneurs in the business field and the maintenance of a long-term cooperative relationship represent the features of the American Entrepreneur-in-Residence system. The US venture capital industry defines entrepreneur-in-residence as a position or title held by an experienced entrepreneur, usually brought on by a venture capital firm, university or other organization. Meanwhile, based on the case study of Lancaster University in the UK and its comparative analysis, and compared with the popular venture capital-backed entrepreneur-in-residence model in the US, entrepreneur-in-residence positions are usually awarded to brand-name entrepreneurs—high-profile public company executives or well-connected people.

Lancaster University in the UK has established an entrepreneur-in-residence mechanism with small and medium-sized entrepreneurs as the main body (George et al., 2010). What is required of the characteristics and abilities of an entrepreneur-in-residence as an educator or entrepreneurial facilitator should include services, a good reputation, positive thinking, dedication, adaptability, openness to learning and practical management skills in terms of effective mentoring, coaching, consulting, collaboration and networking, which can help students acquire the qualities needed for entrepreneurial competence (Christina et al., 2015).

“Innovation and entrepreneurship” collaborative education platform at SUIBE

Background

The Shanghai University of International Business and Economics (SUIBE), one of China’s earliest universities to implement “innovation and entrepreneurship education”, has been exploring this field for years. SUIBE was selected as the Nationwide University with Typical Practice in Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 2019, the member of the first College Entrepreneurship Education Directing Committee of the Ministry of Education, the founding committee member of the UNESCO Entrepreneurship Education Network (EE-Net) National Chapter in China, the University of National-level Programme of College Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Implementation, the National Outstanding University of Entrepreneurship Education Research and Practice, and the Executive Committee Member of the Branch of College Student Management, Employment and Entrepreneurship Work Research of China Association of Higher Education (CAHE). The university has maintained two consecutive rounds of Employment and Entrepreneurship Demonstration Bases for College Graduates in Shanghai. It has also maintained four consecutive years of Shanghai A-level Entrepreneurship Guidance Stations in Colleges and Universities.

Entrepreneurship centre

The “Wenhui 580” College Student Entrepreneurship Center (from now on referred to as “Wenhui 580”) of Shanghai Songjiang University Town is mainly open to all college students and alums of the universities in the University Town to cultivate college students’ innovative consciousness, entrepreneurial ability and creative spirit. It provides physical space, consultation and guidance for college students’ innovation, entrepreneurship and creation practice as a public welfare service. Currently, the centre is operated by SUIBE, providing services to all the universities in Songjiang University Town. Seven universities in the Songjiang University Town region and several vocational colleges are nearby. At present, based on a tripartite agreement reached with Songjiang Vocational Education Group and an enterprise through the Entrepreneur-in-Residence, the mechanism has been created to build a school–enterprise cooperation base of vocational education in Songjiang District, which could facilitate the radiation of the entrepreneurship centre.

“Wenhui 580” has a usable area of more than 1000 square metres, which can provide more than 140 office stations and simultaneously accommodate more than 20 entrepreneurial enterprises or projects with perfect facilities to meet multiple needs. The centre has functional areas such as maker zones, start-up zones, roadshow halls, meeting rooms and negotiation rooms.

Alum mentor group

To further establish and improve the guarantee system of entrepreneurship service for college students, maximize the role of entrepreneurship alums in promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity of college students, improve the professional level of innovation, entrepreneurship and creation guidance services, and effectively help college students improve the practical ability of innovation, entrepreneurship and creation, employment competitiveness and success rate of entrepreneurship, the School of Entrepreneurship of SUIBE has begun recruiting “innovation, entrepreneurship and creation mentors” among alums at home and abroad, establishing an alum mentor group.

According to the published principles of recruitment, “innovation, entrepreneurship and creation mentors” are required to be enthusiastic about public entrepreneurship services, to have the professionalism and good professional ethics, to have rich practical experience in innovation, entrepreneurship and creation, to have excellent abilities in enterprise management or innovation and entrepreneurship guidance, and to be proficient in the policies of their departments or industries. The recruitment of “innovation, entrepreneurship and creation mentors” adheres to school-led, voluntary application and merit-based appointment principles. They must be competent in innovation, entrepreneurship and creation guidance and willing to accept relevant work arrangements and supervision of the school. In terms of recruitment, appropriate alums willing to participate in the university’s innovation, entrepreneurship and creation alum mentor group are welcomed, such as well-known entrepreneurs, enterprise executives, successful entrepreneurs of small- and medium-sized enterprises, financial institutions and other professionals; employees in government departments, including industry and commerce, tax, law, science and technology, economy and human resources, with professionals familiar with relevant policies and regulations; experts working in relevant intermediary service agencies and providing consulting services for enterprises; professionals engaged in innovation, entrepreneurship and creation education in training and consulting; university teachers engaged in the research and practice of innovation, entrepreneurship and creation education, while alums who have been employed as off-campus supervisors and visiting lectures/professors for professional master’s degrees, experts of innovation, entrepreneurship and creation competitions assessment at all levels, and alums who have been employed as entrepreneurship mentors of various departments and institutions at all levels are preferred.

Sustainable development and social entrepreneurship network

In October 2022, SUIBE held an international round-table online forum on “Sustainable Development and Future Innovation”. At the forum, the organizers, co-organizers and participants jointly initiated the “Sustainable Development and Social Entrepreneurs Network (SDSEN)”, aiming to develop and share the network resources with educators, practitioners, researchers, managers and entrepreneurs at home and abroad. In response to the “Sustainable Development Movers Programme” in China, empowered and advocated by the UNDP, SDSEN is committed to promoting the international collaborative innovation of “sustainable development and social entrepreneurship education” and providing innovative solutions to achieve progress in reciprocal ways. The establishment of SDSEN has, in the industry–education integration context, further expanded the school’s network and resources for collaborative education in social entrepreneurship.

Other integrated platforms

SUIBE and teachers in the field of “innovation and entrepreneurship” also cooperate closely with the Shanghai Opensource Information Technology Association (SOITA) and jointly launch the Open Innovation Alliance for New Business Education and Teaching, which further establishes an important integrated platform for scientific and technological innovation and a collaborative network for “new business” education and innovation. SOITA, a professional non-profit social organization established in March 2020, comprises voluntary enterprises, universities, research institutes and social organizations devoted to open-source information and technology innovation. The Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau approves the association, and the competent authority is the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology (SAST). The association serves as a Shanghai-based and China-oriented third-party service platform. Based on the self-organized, innovative and entrepreneurial community model, the association actively plays a bridge-building role between enterprises and the government, holding essential values such as professionalism, openness, fairness and transparency. It also services Shanghai’s digital economy development strategy and promotes building an independent and controllable national public infrastructure of innovation and entrepreneurship in the digital economy. The Open Innovation Alliance for New Business Education and Teaching is a non-profit organization jointly launched by digital economy innovation enterprises and those from the economic, management, law and higher education sectors. Based on the mode of consensus, openness, equality, sharing, collaboration and globalization operation, the alliance explores the digital economy innovative talent training mode and curriculum planning and teaching mode while promoting the development of digital economy and management innovation theory, cultivating innovative business talent with a digital world view and digital mindset to understand the digital economy business model and operating rules thoroughly.

A typical case: YZ institute

There is one of the earliest entrepreneurs-in-residence at SUIBE, who graduated with his degree Bachelor of Arts in English for International Business and Master in Translation and Interpreting (MTI), both from SUIBE. He is then an alumnus of SUIBE and has been employed as a mentor in entrepreneurship and off-campus supervisor for MTI students at SUIBE. During his entrepreneurship mentor period, he also served as the secretary general of the alum mentor group. Before he founded the Shanghai Crafted EdTech Co., Ltd. (“Shanghai Crafted” for short), he had participated in the industry–education integration process at SUIBE as the alum mentor of “all-round education”. In 2019, the Shanghai Crafted signed a contract with the School of Languages of SUIBE to initiate the “YZ Institute (YZI)”, the first social entrepreneurship project located in the “Wenhui 580” College Student Entrepreneurship Center, Songjiang University Town in Shanghai. The YZ Institute (YZI) is a “social innovation learning community” targeting young people. It is a Think Tank, Do Tank and Learning Community with cross-cultural attributes in youth-led innovation. The YZ Institute (YZI) actively participates in “sustainable development” action and research, empowers high-quality education and lifelong learning, and is well supported by and integrated with the Shanghai Opensource Information Technology Association (SOITA), as well as the Open Innovation Alliance for New Business Education and Teaching. Meanwhile, as a co-founding fellow in the Sustainable Development and Social Entrepreneurship Network (SDSEN), he can connect and seek cooperation with network members worldwide, with the primary obligation such as formulating and implementing relevant work plans and proposals, planning and conducting communication activities for alums and the industry, and guiding students in research and practice projects.

The achievements and social benefits: highlighting sustainable developments with participation and action by college students

In 2022–23, based on the YZ Institute (YZI), the alum mentioned above, as a social enterprise entrepreneur-in-residence, conducted a series of thematic e-events for approximately 500 students from a dozen prestigious universities across China, such as Fudan University, Communication University of China, Tianjin University, Nankai University, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Southwest Jiaotong University, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Shanghai University of Finance, Shanghai International Studies University and Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, in cooperation with the “Movers Programme”, empowered and advocated by the UNDP for the promotion of UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In October 2022, the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate, initiated by 15 member universities, such as Tsinghua University, Yale University and Oxford University, recognized the YZ Institute (YZI) as the cosponsor of “Global Youth Climate Week”. In 2023, as a result of the successful application of the Entrepreneur-in-Residence Programme, YZ Institute (YZI) will also be recognized as a “Community Partner” by the “Movers Programme”, enabling more youth, especially college students, to learn and do by participating in sustainable development goals and actions.

Empowering college students with innovative and entrepreneurial capabilities

The YZ Institute (YZI) actively plays a synergistic role in providing intellectual support and extended resources for cultivating student innovation and entrepreneurship ability under the joint guidance of the Alum Association and Entrepreneurship School at SUIBE. The empowering events or projects that have been carried out include the “Social Entrepreneurship” course, the Symposia on Social Entrepreneurship in the cities of Shanghai and Suzhou in nearby Jiangsu Province, open-source communication and community activities with the Shanghai Opensource Information Technology Association (SOITA), the “VIM Career Pilot”, an integrated media creative service programme, collaboratively operated by dozens of college students, and many other projects. Some of the related entrepreneurship projects are also integrated with and enhanced by the China College Students’ “Internet + ” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, on which specialized guidance is provided by the YZ Institute (YZI), including the entrepreneur-in-residence himself, to help the participating college students from China and other countries better prepare for their business proposals. Through continuous empowering and facilitating activities, the YZ Institute (YZI) has been incubating many projects through synergy between operation and competition, which also co-created meaningful, sustainable results in addition to winning dozens of relevant honours and awards across national, provincial and municipal levels. Meanwhile, as a co-founding fellow in the SDSEN, the YZ Institute (YZI) has also conducted a series of social entrepreneurship activities in terms of lectures, seminars, workshops, research, training, coaching and information dissemination in collaboration with people such as the teachers, academics, experts of regional and international studies, social entrepreneurs, practitioners, who were from institutions such as Zhejiang University, Tongji University, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Shanghai Base for Charity Entrepreneurs, China’s Social Entrepreneurship Research Center, UNDP, and many others in the field of sustainable development.

Results

Social entrepreneurship is consistent with the inherent value orientation of ideological and political education in Chinese colleges and universities and powerfully connects with voluntary services and community activities. It is increasingly becoming a critical field of “innovation and entrepreneurship” education in Chinese colleges and universities. Given the path and success factors of entrepreneurial talent cultivation, Jian et al. (2019) believe that the key is to build a collaborative education field, reshape the habits of all participating parties, establish a resource-sharing system based on consensus and create an evaluation and supervision system with scientific standards. Only by constructing the collaborative education field can we hope that all parties have the habit of collaborative education and effectively promote realizing the goal of “innovation and entrepreneurship” education. This situation emphasizes that under declining collaborative education resources, an effective sharing system should be established based on consensus through consultation to enhance the initiative of collaborative participation of all parties effectively. “The purpose of consensus is to achieve a reciprocal interaction of various resources (Jian et al., 2019)”. Based on clarifying the number of resources owned by the participating parties, the screening system of “innovation and entrepreneurship” education resources should be systematically developed to achieve that consensus. At the same time, it is necessary to design a resource-sharing system systematically. By breaking the existing institutional barriers against the participating parties, they determine their rights and responsibility boundaries in the collaborative process, fulfil the function of collaborative education and remain sensitive to the dynamic changes in the demand and supply of collaborative education resources. Given the operation mode and mechanism of the off-campus practice teaching base, Lü (2019) proposes that “colleges and universities should hire some technical personnel from enterprises to serve as part-time teachers, who should be responsible for arranging and implementing the students’ internship plan, and guiding the whole process during the internship”, producing a perfect effect. Meanwhile, this emphasizes strengthening teacher team development and training, formulating policy incentive mechanisms and building a network communication platform for college student innovation and entrepreneurship education.

A topic for discussion: the necessity

“Ideology and Innovation Integration”, namely, the integration of ideological and political education and innovative entrepreneurship education, is not meant to put things together merely. It is neither teaching ideological and political education theory in an innovation and entrepreneurship class nor conducting innovation and entrepreneurship training in an ideological and political theory course. However, it combines it with the learning process and their characteristics to guide students through the national conditions by rooting themselves in the land of China, developing their abilities in innovation and entrepreneurship, and struggling to steel themselves for all kinds of adversity. The first classroom of ideological and political education is apt to lack practice, while the second classroom lacks guidance; it may be just superficial or mechanical inculcation about ideological and political education, while it may be over-formalized or apt to be just for pleasure about practical education. With the same direction, the goal of both kinds of education nevertheless is consistent, and the contents are interlinked. Combining the two can take most of their respective advantages and inject new elements, such as keeping up with the times and Chinese characteristics and providing opportunities and platforms for practice.

Measures to improve pedagogy

“Ideology and Innovation Integration” needs to integrate the two aspects of ideological and political education and innovative and entrepreneurship education and include three integration steps, namely, from knowledge teaching through ability training to value shaping, in order to realize the three educational goals of establishing a rich knowledge system, improving practical abilities and shaping correct fundamental values and entrepreneurship views. Innovation and entrepreneurship education and ideological and political education are integrated and promote each other. The pedagogy for that integration must strengthen the development of three essential elements: curriculum, teaching staff and classrooms. First, the top-level design needs to be strengthened regarding the curriculum. Courses such as Basics of Entrepreneurship, Learning Entrepreneurship from the Party and Social Entrepreneurship can be provided. Students could be encouraged to participate in innovation and entrepreneurship projects with scholarship programmes. Second, teachers should be able to conduct cooperative design of teaching content, joint teaching and regular academic exchanges by crossing the subject border. Finally, the classroom can be the field of knowledge creation by integrating the classic Party’s history story into the innovative curriculum, exploring the entrepreneurship factors of the school and conducting case discussion, group interaction and theory application to cultivate students’ critical thinking and creative abilities as a solution to practical problems in combination with competence training in areas like leadership, organization, coordination and psychological resistance. Meanwhile, based on strengthening the construction of the three essential elements, traditional media and new media inside and outside the school can be employed, with a complete application of school radio, bulletin board, newspaper, BBS, WeChat official accounts, websites, posters, vlogs, tweets and other forms of personal media, as well as major official new media, such as xuexi.cn, the Party’s platform for the promotion of cultural learning for all party members and the whole society.

The prospect of a new mechanism: social entrepreneurship-oriented innovation and entrepreneurship education

With the establishment of an all-community-involved, whole-process and all-round innovation and entrepreneurship education system, innovation and entrepreneurship education is moving from “elite education” to “empowerment of everyone” (Zeng et al., 2017). However, “in the context of the new normal, the growth rate of education resources supply from the government is likely to slow, affecting the growth rate of innovation and entrepreneurship education resources and aggravating the phenomenon of insufficient total resources for innovation and entrepreneurship education (Jian et al., 2019). In the context of innovation and entrepreneurship education guided by “all-round education”, collaborative education involving the social entrepreneurship-oriented entrepreneur-in-residence, who actively participates in academic–business interaction, has become an increasingly significant practice, which could serve as an example. However, its success depends on the continuous promotion and interaction between industry–education integration and innovation in social entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities. In this spiral interactive development mode, the concept and approach of cooperation and shared benefits based on diversity, adaptability and inclusiveness can provide valuable insights into effectively dealing with the complex relationship between the participants involved in collaborative education with the entrepreneur-in-residence and universities. Through the prism of social entrepreneurship, this research reveals that entrepreneurs-in-residence can actively be responsible for cultivating people in entrepreneurship education in the context of innovation and entrepreneurship education in Chinese colleges and universities while learning from the good practices and mechanisms of pioneers from the Western world. High-quality and sustainable collaborative education calls for tripartite cooperation among government organizations, universities and enterprises, taking universities as the main guarantor of microsystems and resources. In contrast, more available resources should be supplied. Finally, the social entrepreneurship-oriented entrepreneur-in-residence mechanism should adhere to the public welfare attributes by emphasizing community-based learning programmes and empowering the development of social entrepreneurial talents.