Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Persistence of culture: how the entrepreneurial culture of origin contributes to migrant entrepreneurship

  • Published:
Small Business Economics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Entrepreneurial activities differ substantially across populations. However, whether and how the entrepreneurial culture can contribute to these variations are not yet well understood. Using internal migrants instead of international migrants widely used in previous research, this study proves the original entrepreneurial culture’s persistent effects on migrant entrepreneurship. With a unique database, the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS), we reveal that every additional start-up per 1000 people in the city of origin in 2004 is associated with a 3.2% increase in the probability that the internal migrant will start a business in host cities during 2014 and 2016. Our results are consistent with several robustness tests, confirming the existence and persistence of the original entrepreneurial culture. Further analysis reveals that entrepreneurial culture of origin leads to migrant entrepreneurship through enhancing social networks, promoting role models, and cultivating traits that favor entrepreneurship. Through these channels, the intangible entrepreneurial culture of origin can be transformed into tangible business opportunities and migrants’ willingness and capability to do business, which stimulates their entrepreneurial activities in host cities.

Plain English Summary

Variations in entrepreneurial activities across different sub-groups of populations may be due to the imprint effect of entrepreneurial cultures that have long persisted within groups. Using unique data of Chinese internal migrants, this article finds that the start-up rate of migrants’ original regions can significantly predict internal migrants’ entrepreneurial activities in host cities, confirming the persistence of the entrepreneurial culture. Through the channels of social network, role model, and entrepreneurial traits, the intangible entrepreneurial culture of origin can be transformed into tangible business opportunities and migrants’ willingness to and capability of doing business. The principal implications for practice are two-fold: (1) the entrepreneurial culture is so persistent that it can exert a long-lasting effect on regional and individual entrepreneurial activities; (2) host cities could benefit from the migrants who have transplanted their entrepreneurial culture of origin into the destination and stimulate entrepreneurial activities in host cities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets and materials generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author by request.

Code availability

Code for data cleaning and analysis during the study is available from the corresponding author by request.

Notes

  1. In our empirical section, to capture the effect of original culture, we defined respondents whose residences at the age of 14 years are different from their current residence locations as migrants. However, we also apply the official definition of migrants in our robustness test of National 1% population sample survey and obtain consistent results.

  2. Wenzhou is a prefecture city in China that is famous for its private entrepreneurs.

  3. This index contains two aspects: friendly (including service of government, tax burden of enterprises) and honest (including incorruptibility and transparency of government).

References

  • Acs, Z. J., & Armington, C. (2004). Employment growth and entrepreneurial activity in cities. Regional Studies, 38(8), 911–927.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acs, Z. J., & Mueller, P. (2007). Employment effects of business dynamics: Mice, gazelles and elephants. Small Business Economics, 30(1), 85–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akee, R. K. Q., Jaeger, D. A., & Tatsiramos, K. (2013). The persistence of self-employment across borders: New evidence on legal immigrants to the united states. Economics Bulletin, 33(1), 126–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aldrich, H., & Zimmer, C. (1986). Entrepreneurship through social networks. In D. Sexton & R. Smilor (Eds.), The art and science of entrepreneurship. Ballinger.

  • Alesina, A., Giuliano, P., & Nunn, N. (2013). On the origins of gender roles: Women and the plough. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128(2), 469–530. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjt005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Algan, Y., & Cahuc, P. (2010). Inherited trust and growth. American Economic Review, 100(5), 2060–2092.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, W. D. (2000). Social networks and self-employment. Journal of Socio-Economics Bulletin, 29, 487–501.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andersson, M., & Koster, S. (2011). Sources of persistence in regional start-up rates - Evidence from sweden. Journal of Economic Geography, 11(1), 179–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Audretsch, D., Dohse, D., & Niebuhr, A. (2010). Cultural diversity and entrepreneurship: A regional analysis for germany. The Annals of Regional Science, 45(1), 55–85. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-009-0291-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Audretsch, D. B., Obschonka, M., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2017). A new perspective on entrepreneurial regions: Linking cultural identity with latent and manifest entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 48(3), 681–697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-016-9787-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, M., Bernard, A., Charles-Edwards, E., & Zhu, Y. (2020). Internal migration in the countries of asia. Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Caliendo, M., Fossen, F., & Kritikos, A. (2014). Trust, positive reciprocity, and negative reciprocity: Do these traits impact entrepreneurial dynamics? Journal of Economic Psychology, 33(2), 394–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cao, S. (2001). Zhongguo Renkou Shi (History of Chinese Population). Fudan University Press.

  • Chen, G., Li, J., & Matlay, H. (2006). Who are the chinese private entrepreneurs? A study of entrepreneurial attributes and business governance. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 13(2), 148–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, B., Liu, D., & Lu, M. (2018). City size, migration and urban inequality in china. China Economic Review, 51, 42–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chinitz, B. (1961). Contrasts in agglomeration: New york and Pittsburgh. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 51(2), 279–289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crockett, D. R., & Thi Thanh Thai, M. (2013). Immigrant entrepreneurs’ selectivity: Host market distance and opportunity. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, 7(3), 196–212. https://doi.org/10.1108/jec-12-2011-0032

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du, X. (1991). Minzu Ziben Zhuyi yu Jiu Zhongguo Zhengfu (1840-1937)(National capitalism and the old chinese government (1840–1937)). Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press.

  • Du, X. (2019). Minzu Ziben Zhuyi (1927-1937)(National capitalism in china (1927–1937)). Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Press.

  • Elston, J. A., & Audretsch, D. B. (2010). Risk attitudes, wealth and sources of entrepreneurial start-up capital. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 76(1), 82–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2010.02.014

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, D. S., & Jovanovic, B. (1989). An estimated model of entrepreneurial choice under liquidity constraints. Journal of Political Economy, 97(4), 808–827.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairlie, R. W., & Meyer, B. D. (1996). Ethnic and racial self-employment differences and possible explanations. Journal of Human Resources, 31, 757–793.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernández, R. (2011). Does culture matter? Handbook of Social Economics, 1, 481–510.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez, R. (2008). Culture and economics. In S. N. Durlauf & L. E. Blume (Eds.), The new palgrave dictionary of economics. Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Fritsch, M., & Storey, D. J. (2014). Entrepreneurship in a regional context: Historical roots, recent developments and future challenges. Regional Studies, 48(6), 939–954. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2014.892574

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritsch, M., & Wyrwich, M. (2014). The long persistence of regional levels of entrepreneurship: Germany, 1925–2005. Regional Studies, 48(6), 955–973. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2013.816414

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritsch, M., Obschonka, M., & Wyrwich, M. (2019a). Historical roots of entrepreneurship-facilitating culture and innovation activity: An analysis for german regions. Regional Studies, 53(9), 1296–1307. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2019.1580357

  • Fritsch, M., Sorgner, A., Wyrwich, M., & Zazdravnykh, E. (2019b). Historical shocks and persistence of economic activity: evidence on self-employment from a unique natural experiment. Regional Studies, 53(6), 790–802. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2018.1492112

  • Fritsch, M., & Wyrwich, M. 2017. Persistence of regional entrepreneurship: Causes, effects, and directions for future research. Working paper.

  • Fuchs-Shuendeln, N., & Hassan, T. A. (2016). Natural experiments in macroeconomics. Handbook of Macroeconomics, 2, 923–1012.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glaeser, E. L., & Kerr, W. R. (2009). Local industrial conditions and entrepreneurship: How much of the spatial distribution can we explain? Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 18(3), 623–633.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaeser, E. L., Kerr, S. P., & Kerr, W. R. (2015). Entrepreneurship and urban growth: An empirical assessment with historical mines. Review of Economics & Statistics, 97(2), 498–520.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glaeser, E. L. (2009). Entrepreneurship and the city. In D. B. Audretsch & R. E. Litan (Eds.), Entrepreneurship and Openness: Theory and Evidence. Edward Elgar Publishing.

  • Hofstede, G. (1984). Culture’s consequence: International differences in work-related values. Sage.

  • Hu, F., Xu, Z., & Chen, Y. (2011). Circular migration, or permanent stay? Evidence from china’s rural–urban migration. China Economic Review, 22, 64–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang, Y. 2007. Ownership biases and fdi in china: Evidence from two provinces. Business Policy.

  • International Organization for Migration. (2020). World migration report 2020. UN Migration. https://worldmigrationreport.iom.int/wmr-2020-interactive/

  • Iyer, R., & Schoar, A. (2010). Are there cultural determinants of entrepreneurship? In J. Lener & A. Schoar (Eds.), International Differences in Entrepreneurship (pp. 209-240). University of Chicago Press.

  • Jia, P., Du, Y., & Wang, M. (2017). Rural labor migration and poverty reduction in china. China & World Economy, 25(6), 45–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kerr, S. P., Kerr, W. R., & Xu, T. (2018). Personality traits of entrepreneurs: A review of recent literature. Foundations and Trends® in Entrepreneurship, 14(3), 279–356.

  • Kloosterman, R. C. (2010). Matching opportunities with resources: a framework for analysing (migrant) entrepreneurship from a mixed embeddedness perspective. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 22(1), 25–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985620903220488

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knight, F. H. (1921). Risk, uncertainty, and profit. Houghton Mifflin.

  • Lassmann, A., & Busch, C. (2015). Revisiting native and immigrant entrepreneurial activity. Small Business Economics, 45(4), 841–873. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-015-9665-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lerner, M., & Hendeles, Y. (1996). New entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial aspirations among immigrants from the former ussr in israel. Journal of Business Research, 36(1), 59–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z., Li, Z., & Ma, Z. (2014). Changing patterns of the floating population in china, 2000–2010. Population and Development Review, 40(4), 695–716.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, C. Y., Ye, L., & Feng, B. (2019). Migrant entrepreneurship in china: Entrepreneurial transition and firm performance. Small Business Economics, 52(3), 681–696. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9979-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu, M., & Xia, Y. (2016). Migration in the People’s Republic of China. ADBI (Asian Development Bank Institute) Working paper.

  • Minniti, M. (2005). Entrepreneurship and network externalities. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 57(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2004.10.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muller, S. (2016). A progress review of entrepreneurship and regional development: What are the remaining gaps? European Planning Studies, 24(6), 1133–1158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nanda, R., & Sørensen, J. B. (2010). Workplace peers and entrepreneurship. Management Science, 56(7), 1116–1126. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1100.1179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nunn, N. (2014). Historical development. Handbook of. Economic Growth, 2A, 347–401.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nunn, N. (2012). Culture and the historical process. Economic History of Developing Regions, 27(sup-1), 108–126.

  • Obschonka, M., Stuetzer, M., Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., Lamb, M. E., Potter, J., & Audretsch, D. B. (2015). Entrepreneurial regions: Do macro-psychological cultural characteristics of regions help solving the “knowledge paradox” of economics? PLoS One, 10(6), e0129332. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Obschonka, M., Stuetzer, M., Rentfrow, P. J., Shaw-Taylor, L., Satchell, M., Sibereisen, R. K., Potter, J., & Gosling, S. D. (2018). In the shadow of coal: How large-scale industries contributed to present-day regional differences in personality and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 115(5), 903–927.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Obschonka, M., Zhou, M., Zhou, Y., Zhang, J., & Silbereisen, R. K. (2019). “Confucian” traits, entrepreneurial personality, and entrepreneurship in china: A regional analysis. Small Business Economics, 53(4), 961–979. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-0103-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rentfrow, P. J., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2008). A theory of the emergence, persistence and expression of geographic variation in psychological characteristics. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(5), 339–369. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00084.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saxenian, A. (1994). Regional advantage: Culture and competition in silicon valley and route 128. Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saxenian, A. (2002). Silicon valley’s new immigrant high-growth entrepreneurs. Economic Development Quarterly, 16(1), 20–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shen, J. (2013). Changing patterns and determinants of inter-provincial migration in china, 1985–2000. Population, Space and Place, 18, 384–402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stuart, T. E., & Sorensen, O. (2005). Social networks and entrepreneurship. In Z. J. Acs & A. D. B (Eds.), Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research. Springer.

  • Stuetzer, M., Obschonka, M., Audretsch, D. B., Wyrwich, M., Rentfrow, P. J., Coombes, M., Shaw-Taylor, L., & Satchell, M. (2016). Industry structure, entrepreneurship, and culture: An empirical analysis using historical coalfields. European Economic Review, 86, 52–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2015.08.012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stuetzer, M., Audretsch, D. B., Obschonka, M., Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Potter, J. (2018). Entrepreneurship culture, knowledge spillovers and the growth of regions. Regional Studies, 52(5), 608–618. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2017.1294251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Tubergen, F. (2005). Self-employment ofimmigrants: A cross-national study of17 western societies. Social Forces, 84(2), 709–732.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vinogradov, E., & Kolvereid, L. (2007). Cultural background, human capital and self-employment rates among immigrants in norway. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 19(4), 359–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Z., Yang, H., & Zhang, X. (2021). History matters: The effects of chinese ports from 170 years ago on entrepreneurship today. Regional Studies, 55(4), 630–644. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2020.1839641

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1904). The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Scribner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westlund, H., Larsson, J. P., & Olsson, A. R. (2014). Start-ups and local entrepreneurial social capital in the municipalities of sweden. Regional Studies, 48(6), 974–994. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2013.865836

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westlund, H., & Adams, F. (2010). Social capital and economic performance: A meta-analysis of 65 studies. European Planning Studies, 18(6), 893–919. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654311003701431

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, O. E. (2000). The new institutional economics: Taking stock, looking ahead. Journal of Economic Literature, 38(3), 595–613.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yeh, A. G. O., Yang, F. F., & Wang, J. (2015). Economic transition and urban transformation of china: The interplay of the state and the market. Urban Studies, 52(15), 2822–2848. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098015597110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, C. (2020). Clans, entrepreneurship, and development of the private sector in china. Journal of Comparative Economics, 48(1), 100–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, W., & Zuo, Y. (2021). Creating a makerspace in a characteristic town: The case of Dream Town in Hangzhou. Habitat International, 114, 102399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2021.102399

  • Zheng, X., Fang, Z., Wang, Y., & Fang, X. (2022). When left-behind children become adults and parents: The long-term human capital consequences of parental absence in China. China Economic Review, 74, 101821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2022.101821

  • Zheng, L., & Zhao, Z. (2017). What drives spatial clusters of entrepreneurship in china? Evidence from economic census data. China Economic Review, 46, 229–248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2017.09.014

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project [Grant number 2018BJB018]; the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Funding Projects [Grant numbers 2021110794, 2020110574, 2020110516, 2020110082, 2019110273, and CXJJ-2021–438).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Urban and Regional Science, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China

    Huan Yang & Xinning Zhang

Authors
  1. Huan Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xinning Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Huan Yang and Xinning Zhang. The draft of the manuscript was written by Huan Yang and Xinning Zhang. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huan Yang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix

Appendix

Fig. 1

Fig. 1
figure 1

Source: Data on migrants and total population are from National Bureau of Statistics of China (1982, 1987, 1990, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2021)

Number and share of migrants in China (1982–2020).

Full size image

Table 4

Table 4 Scale of outmigrants in China
Full size table

Fig. 2

Fig. 2
figure 2

Number of migrants and total population in original provinces. The source of migrant data in the left figure is from China Labor-force Dynamics Survey in 2014 and 2016, which is consistent with our 4.1 baseline regression. The source of migrant data in the right figure is from National 1% population sample survey in 2015, which is the same as the Section 4.2.3 in robustness checks. Data on total population is from National Bureau of Statistics of China (2016). According to Fig. 2, out-migration covers all 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China, and the out-migration size is highly related to the regional population size using two data sources, which suggests that no restriction exists on internal migration among regions

Full size image

Tables 5 and 6

Table 5 Host-city characteristics and migrants’ destination selection
Full size table
Table 6 Individual characteristics and migration selection
Full size table

Fig. 3

Fig. 3
figure 3

Distribution of contemporary start-up rate 2004

Full size image

Tables 7, 8, and 9

Table 7 Definition and summary statistics of variables
Full size table
Table 8 Correlation matrix of variables
Full size table
Table 9 Index selection of entrepreneurship traits
Full size table

Fig. 4

Fig. 4
figure 4

Correlation of historical and contemporary start-up rate

Full size image

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yang, H., Zhang, X. Persistence of culture: how the entrepreneurial culture of origin contributes to migrant entrepreneurship. Small Bus Econ 61, 1179–1204 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-022-00699-2

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-022-00699-2

Keywords

JEL Classification

Search

Navigation