The state and entrepreneurship in China: Essays from institutional and contingency perspectives

In this dissertation, I investigate the role of the state in entrepreneurship from an institutional lens. I suggest that simply viewing the state as a positive or negative factor is limiting and less than helpful in improving our understanding of the mechanisms through which entrepreneurial activities rise or fall. My dissertation takes a contingency approach and test my claims by studying the booming entrepreneurial activities in China where the state has been widely acknowledged as a strong one. In the first study, I examine institutional level contingencies of state actions that are designed to facilitate entrepreneurship. I find more developed market and more academic institutions in a province will strengthen the effect of the provision of public and social services by the provincial government on the growth of private enterprise founding rates in the province. My second study examines individual-level contingencies of the influence of government corruption on entrepreneurial firm performance. I find corruption will have a more positive effect on the performance of entrepreneurial firms founded by entrepreneurs with a transactional mindset relative to those with a principled mindset. There is also evidence that corruption has a more positive effect on the performance of entrepreneurial firms founded by entrepreneurs with more social capital. This dissertation provides a basis upon which future research on the relationship between the state and entrepreneurship can build.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business Administration

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2019

Author dc:creator

• Wei, Yifan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Love, E. Geoffrey
• Cheng, Joseph
• Kraatz, Matthew S.
• Yao, Fiona Kun
• Leblebici, Huseyin

• entrepreneurship, the state, institutional perspective

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2018 Yifan Wei

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/102937

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/102937