The Changing Motives for Nascent Entrepreneurship in China: Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Data

This paper explains individual start-up activities of China on the basis of the demand side and supply side of entrepreneurial processes. The analysis is based upon micro data from the GEM adult population survey of China from 2002 to 2006 except 2004. Since there are considerable differences between nascent opportunity entrepreneurship and nascent necessity entrepreneurship in the enhancement of economic growth and technology spillovers, and GEM data show that the ratio of nascent opportunity- to necessity-driven entrepreneurship rises greatly from 2002 to 2006 in China, the paper analyzes the roles that the demand- and supply-side determinants of entrepreneurship play in the changing motives for nascent entrepreneurship, and finds that work status and education experience which are supply-side determinants have significant influence on the increasing ratio of nascent opportunity- to necessity-driven entrepreneurship.