Higher Education and Local Innovation Systems: Lessons From Public Attitudes in Shenzhen, China

This article examines public attitudes on the local innovation system of Shenzhen with a focus on the role of the local government and higher education (HE). Based on data collected from an online platform, Zhihu, this article examines netizens’ perceptions of local government, institutional environment, HE and labour force development. Text analysis reveals that netizens hold relatively positive attitudes towards the local government and the future development of Shenzhen due to its fair institutional environment. Local HEIs needs to be further developed to support Shenzhen’s economic transformation but the close linkage with Hong Kong universities help to mitigate the challenges in human capital supply. This paper presents a novel way of examining public perceptions on local innovation systems and the case of Shenzhen also provides policy lessons to other cities aiming at developing innovation centres.