Entrepreneurial leadership of academic managers in cram schools under double reduction policy in China: conceptualizing competencies and resilience

Leadership issues in shadow education are under-researched in national, regional and international contexts. In China, local and central governments have imposed stringent control on academic K9 paid tutorial lessons, provided by cram schools under the new double reduction policy (DRP). Many large-scale cram schools have undergone drastic changes in their organizational structure, marketing strategies and the working environment under the COVID-19 attack and DRP. This study aims to conceptualize how their academic managers in some regions of China exhibited traits of entrepreneurial leadership involving competence and resilience. Qualitative research methods included content analysis of policy documents, observation of tutorial lessons and semi-structured interviews with academic managers. Without overgeneralization, this study merely acts as a motivational guide for complementing the existing research literature on cram schools in China and enriching the international research literature on entrepreneurial leadership in mass tutoring.