Entrepreneurship is hot. China is hot. Combining these two concepts could therefore be a dangerous act, as it may cause overheating. Chinese entrepreneurs are indeed the subject of a rapidly growing body of literature, academic and popular. However, the bulk of it tends to focus on a few aspects. There are the biographies of ‘famous’ entrepreneurs. While informative, these are usually of a non-academic nature. Academic studies tend to focus on the political and economic environment in which present day Chinese entrepreneurs have to operate. Both types of publications slight the entrepreneurial identity. This study aims at filling this gap with its core question: why do some people become entrepreneurs? The authors have analysed the life stories of a number of Chinese private entrepreneurs to reveal how the entrepreneurial identity of each of them has emerged at the cross section of an number of other identities. This book therefore contributes to a better understanding of Chinese entrepreneurship and the study of entrepreneurship in general.

Presents a story of two Chinas – an entrepreneurial rural China and a state-controlled urban China. In the 1980s, rural China gained the upper hand. In the 1990s, urban China triumphed. In the 1990s, the Chinese state reversed many of its rural experiments, with long-lasting damage to the economy and society. A weak financial sector, income disparity, rising illiteracy, productivity slowdowns, and reduced personal income growth are the product of the capitalism with Chinese characteristics of the 1990s and beyond. While GDP grew quickly in both decades, the welfare implications of growth differed substantially. The book uses the emerging Indian miracle to debunk the widespread notion that democracy is automatically anti-growth. As the country marked its 30th anniversary of reforms in 2008, China faces some of its toughest economic challenges and substantial vulnerabilities that require fundamental institutional reforms.

Through a collection and juxtaposition of various case studies, this volume offers a wide-ranging exploration and evaluation of Chinese entrepreneurship in contemporary Asian contexts.

After more than 30 years of reformations in agriculture, manufacturing and trade and industry, China’s economy has grown to become the second largest in the world. This book examines the contributions of dynamic entrepreneurs to the economic development of mainland China and Hong Kong – an analysis that is largely lacking in existing studies China’s economic stronghold. This book adopts theories of entrepreneurship and market processes as major analytical frameworks to conclude that entrepreneurship is the true engine of growth in mainland China and Hong Kong. Chinese Entrepreneurship focuses on the knowledge drivers and systemic challenges of these businesses to examine how entrepreneurs under uncertainty identify and pursue profit opportunities, and how their efforts have enhanced China’s economic dynamics. This book offers vital insight to students, teachers and researchers of Chinese business and economics, along with Chinese culture and expanding economies.

The emergence of China as a major world economy is of great importance to the global political economy and to international business. There has been much research on the macro level of institutional reform but little detailed work on the grassroots level of entrepreneurship in China. This innovative book addresses this gap by investigating how an economic system dominated by central plans, communist ideologies and suppressing bureaucracies could generate such energy from the bottom of society, fuelling the country's economic growth. Keming Yang’s theory of entrepreneurship is based on two interrelated concepts: double entrepreneurship and institutional holes. He argues that the two concepts bridge a gap between the neo-classical institutionalism of economic development and entrepreneurship studies that emphasize individual choice. The rigorous theoretical framework is supported by substantial empirical research, offering statistical analyses of survey data as well as detailed case studies. This timely book will appeal to an interdisciplinary readership in sociology, economics, business studies and Chinese and Asian Studies.

China is the second-largest economy in the world, and it stands poised to become the largest. China s geopolitical power is also developing at a stunning pace. It has been predicted that China will have more impact on the world over the next 20 years than any other country. The world order as we have known it is changing, and China is becoming its leader. But, contrary to the belief that China's economic miracle is solely due to its government, the reality is that it has been fuelled by its people's pent-up ambition and entrepreneurial spirit. Private-owned companies account for about 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and about 75 percent of the country's jobs. The real secret to the Chinese economy s outstanding development had most to do with the nature and attitude of the Chinese people. This book is about models of Chinese entrepreneurship. It tells the stories of fifteen women entrepreneurs, but dealing with them just as entrepreneurs. They have been chosen because in today's China, women are closer to the junzi ideal of Confucius. The book shows that Chinese entrepreneurs' good performance is based on principles and values shaped over the millennia. It sheds light on the approaches and rationale of the entrepreneurial paths Chinese follow. A striking feature of Chinese entrepreneurs is how they all seem to go with the flow of things. So, they are not afraid to face risks or to start all over again. They do not panic when adversities arise, for they know that success will always follow adversity. For Chinese entrepreneurs the world is a place where anything is possible. This makes them creative and able to persevere, willing to try what for others may seem impossible or unrealistic. They are brimming with a unique inner strength, self-motivation and self-control. Chinese entrepreneurs have a tremendous emotional intelligence and are experts at generating new ideas and strategies. They regard their employees and the building of an internal corporate culture as the soul of their business. For them a crisis is an opportunity to improve and learn, to focus on working hard and being efficient today in order to succeed tomorrow. Chinese entrepreneurs operate in the Chinese Paradigm, a paradigm which overlaps very little with our Western paradigm. But, while the Chinese are very familiar with Western modes of business, we Westerners are unaware of how they operate. This book is aimed to shine some light on this.

As we enter the 21st century it is clear that the economic growth China has enjoyed has been extraordinary. Although Western countries continue to dominate the world economy and financial markets, the capital markets of Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, and Shenzen have matured considerably and are eager to become major global players.As business own