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Entrepreneurship in China

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Abstract

China’s economic transition has greatly unleashed entrepreneurship and private enterprise development since the 1980s. In this article, we review the recent literature on entrepreneurship in China and summarize 11 articles included in this China special issue. Our literature review shows that the unique institutional and cultural settings behind the Chinese economy have led to some distinct perspectives of studying entrepreneurship. The articles included in this special issue further advance the entrepreneurship research embedded in the Chinese context and shed lights on entrepreneurship policy in emerging economies. Most recently, China has recognized entrepreneurship as one of the key driving forces of sustained economic development and is accordingly making many efforts to encourage and facilitate entrepreneurial activity. Following this new development, it is imperative to study China’s national and regional entrepreneurship systems in future research.

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Acknowledgements

The articles included in this special issue were presented in the International Workshop on Entrepreneurship in China held in Peking University on October 14–5, 2016, co-organized by Canfei He, Jiangyong Lu, and Haifeng Qian, who also serve as the guest editors of this special issue. The guest editors would like to thank Zoltan Acs, Editor-in-Chief of Small Business Economics, for his support of this special issue. He was also the keynote speaker of the workshop. Canfei He acknowledges the support by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 41425001). Jiangyong Lu acknowledges the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 71472010 and 71525004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Canfei He

  2. Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, R476, Building #2, Beijing, China

    Jiangyong Lu

  3. School of Urban and Regional Planning, The University of Iowa, 338 Jessup Hall, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA

    Haifeng Qian

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  1. Canfei He
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Correspondence to Haifeng Qian.

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He, C., Lu, J. & Qian, H. Entrepreneurship in China. Small Bus Econ 52, 563–572 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9972-5

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