China & World Economy / 60–84, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2017

University Students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions:
A Comparative Analysis of Hong Kong and Guangzhou

Frank Bickenbach, Dirk Dohse, Wan-Hsin Liu

Abstract

Based on original survey data, this paper analyses and compares the role of personal traits and networks in determining entrepreneurial intentions of students in Hong Kong and in Guangzhou. The two cities are culturally closely related but differ strongly with respect to their labor market conditions and the maturity of their legal and business environments. We find that the determinants of students’ entrepreneurial intentions differ substantially between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, with the findings for Hong Kong showing much similarity with previous findings for Western economies. This suggests that differences in labor market prospects and in the maturity of their legal and business environments might be more important than cultural (dis-)similarities in identifying key factors forming students’ entrepreneurial intentions.

Key words: China, entrepreneurial intention, Hong Kong, personal networks, personal traits
JEL codes: J24, L26, M13, O15