Facing the challenging employment situation and the changing labor market, developing student entrepreneurial intention has attracted significant policy consideration in China. This study describes the background of entrepreneurship education in China’s higher education institutes and explores the influences of entrepreneurship education on student entrepreneurial intention. Using data from a survey on students in China, this study finds that students in different types of institutions and different major fields had a different level of engagement in entrepreneurship education. Further, the higher the level of entrepreneurship education the students received, the stronger their self-efficacy of entrepreneurial decision-making was, and the stronger their entrepreneurial intention was. Student entrepreneurial decision-making self-efficacy played a mediating role between entrepreneurship education and student entrepreneurial intention. We found that entrepreneurship education has a positive effect on entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurship education course-taking has a positive effect on entrepreneurial decision-making. Furthermore, the positive effect of self-efficacy of entrepreneurial decision-making on entrepreneurial intention was also confirmed. We also found that self-efficacy of entrepreneurial decision-making played the significant role of mediator between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. The findings also showed a difference between the current China context and the western context that taking entrepreneurship-related classes had more considerable influences on student entrepreneurial intention than entrepreneurship-related practicum. We discuss the implications of the improvement of higher education in China and relevance to other contexts.

The COVID-19 pandemic, a worldwide health and humanitarian crisis, has created unique challenges for citizens, governments, and organizations alike. Business leaders ask ‘what is the new normal, post-pandemic?’ while industries become more complex and uncertain. Premises sit empty, employees work remotely, and customers possess less disposable income. However bleak, opportunities do exist. Organizations will, however, need to transform. Technology will need to be used to respond to the pandemic, and organizations must re-structure to better function. This paper examines the role that digital technologies can play in responding to pandemics and outlines four classifications of digital technologies for pandemic response. An as-is/to-be pathway analysis is presented using case studies from Chinese enterprises to provide trajectory guidance for moving forward to the new normal. After analysis from an incorporated technology-centric and business model-based framework perspective, six fundamental enterprise strategies are presented that are derived from literature and empirical observations.