Examining the interrelationships among entrepreneurial self-efficacy, perceived accessibility of resources, and entrepreneurial intentions in a Chinese village context: an exploratory study.

Abstract

This study explores the inter-relationships among the entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial intentions and a newly developed concept: perceived accessibility of resources in a Chinese village context for both entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. This is an important area of research because most research that focuses on these types of constructs occurs in a Western context. Yet, the importance of China in world economic affairs is growing exponentially and China would not be the economic power that it is without the entrepreneurial spirit engendered in village communities. Although entrepreneurship in Chinese cities contributes significantly to economic development, Chinese village entrepreneurship is the backbone of Chinese economic development. From an entrepreneurship perspective, understanding the entrepreneurial mind of two groups is important for economic development. First, there are those who are not current entrepreneurs who want to start new businesses (referred to as "nascent entrepreneurs"), and second, those who are already entrepreneurs who could potentially start other new businesses and become serial entrepreneurs. Within the Chinese village context, it is the individual entrepreneur who drives the entrepreneurial process. Thus, developing a better understanding of these two groups, the nascent and the potential serial entrepreneurs, is important for Chinese regional economic development. This research involves a comprehensive literature review, interviews, and a survey with a group of Chinese village entrepreneurs in order to better understand their entrepreneurial cognitions. In the first stage of the research, a theoretical model is developed based on the literature review and interviews. This model informed the development of a questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed to 950 villagers with 768 questionnaires being returned. Of the returned questionnaires, usable questionnaires were received from 296 non-entrepreneurs and 285 entrepreneurs. The findings identify the important role played by the perceived accessibility of resources when examining entrepreneurial intentions in a Chinese village context. More specifically, what was highlighted was the importance of the perceived accessibility of family resources for non-entrepreneurs and the perceived accessibility of public resources for entrepreneurs in a Chinese village context. With both groups, the results confirmed the significant positive relationship of perceived accessibility of resources to entrepreneurial intentions. In terms of the types of resources perceived to be important by Chinese village entrepreneurs: social capital, business advice, and technical support appear to be key. In contrast, non-entrepreneurs identified social capital, business advice, and business property as key resources for influencing entrepreneurial intentions. This study also found that entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a positive relationship with perceived accessibility of resources and entrepreneurial intentions. However, there was a need to modify the Western-developed entrepreneurial self-efficacy measure when it was applied in a Chinese village context. The research contributes to an improved theoretical understanding of (1) the importance of the perceived accessibility of resources in a Chinese village entrepreneurial intentions model from both family and public source perspectives, and (2) entrepreneurial self-efficacy when examined in a Chinese village context. This study is significant since it builds upon underlying Western theory and then expands this theory to develop entrepreneurial cognition concepts that help to explain Chinese village entrepreneurship. The research makes a particular contribution to the field of entrepreneurship research through development of an instrument to measure perceived accessibility of resources – an element which is vital to the understanding of the entrepreneurial mind in a Chinese village context and which may have ramifications for entrepreneurship research conducted in village contexts in other developing countries.