ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1573799
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Interface Between Social Psychology and Educational Psychology: Interactional Phenomena in Educational SettingsView all 7 articles
Decision-makings of Individual Innovative Behaviors in Different Educational Settings: A Case Study of University Student Innovation Competitions in China
Provisionally accepted
Jiao Feng1
Guoshuai Sun2*- 1Xinjiang University of Finance &Economics, Urumqi, China
- 2Xinjiang University, Urumqi, China
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With the intensification of global competition and rapid technological advancement, fostering innovation capabilities among university students has become a focal point of attention across society. However, within higher education environments, various contextual factors may exert direct or indirect influences on students' motivation and effectiveness in implementing individual innovative behaviors. In light of this, the present study aims to explore the decision-making mechanisms underlying students' engagement in innovation across diverse educational settings. Taking the rapid rise of university student innovation competitions in China as a background case, this research investigates how different educational contexts affect students' innovation-related behaviors. Adopting a dual perspective from social psychology and educational psychology, the study develops a tripartite evolutionary game model involving individual students, universities, and competition organizers. The model is designed to examine how students make strategic decisions regarding innovation under varying contextual influences, and how these decisions are shaped by the actions of universities and organizers.The findings reveal that supportive educational policies, innovationoriented campus cultures, and well-designed competition incentive mechanisms significantly enhance students' motivation and the effectiveness of their innovative efforts. Moreover, strategic support from universities and organizers plays a critical role in sustaining students' long-term engagement in innovation activities. By integrating psychological theories with evolutionary game modeling, this study offers novel insights into how contextual interactions shape individual innovation behavior.The results provide practical implications for optimizing educational environments and offer evidence-based guidance for policymakers and educators aiming to foster student-led innovation.
Keywords: educational setting1, individual innovative behavior2, social psychology3, educational psychology4, evolutionary game model5, innovation competition6
Received: 09 Feb 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Feng and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Guoshuai Sun, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, China
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