Engaging alumni entrepreneurs in the student entrepreneurship development process: A social network perspective

Abstract

Using the social network perspective and a case study of Chongqing Jiaotong University, this study analyzes the engagement of alumni entrepreneurs in the university student entrepreneurship development process in China. It employs primary data gathered through interviews of senior university managers, alumni and student entrepreneurs, and student start-ups. The study found that the importance of alumni entrepreneurs is comparatively weak at the formation stage of student entrepreneurial intention but relatively strong at the entrepreneurial resource acquisition stage. The most important resource provided by the alumni is information, followed by materials, clients, and human, technological and financial resources. Professors play the most important role in nurturing student entrepreneurship, both at the formation stage and the resource acquisition stage. The findings suggest that universities should involve alumni entrepreneurs actively to foster student entrepreneurship as well as incentivize professors to proactively nurture student entrepreneurs.

Keywords:

• student entrepreneurship
• alumni entrepreneurs
• social network
• China

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by following funding agencies: The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE), China (Grant number: JBK2002028); Department of Science and Technology, Sichuan, China (Grant number: 2017ZR0240); The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number: G0302/71403221 and 71764026); and The Centre for Poverty and Development Studies (CPDS)/ Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, University of Malaya under the Research grant no: PD002-2018.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).