Chinese entrepreneurial proclivity and the conjectured link with the experience of foreign sojourns: an empirical study involving undergraduate students based in Beijing
Liu, T. (2023) Chinese entrepreneurial proclivity and the conjectured link with the experience of foreign sojourns: an empirical study involving undergraduate students based in Beijing. Doctoral thesis, Harper Adams University.
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Abstract
This research set out to investigate whether a sojourn abroad experience can develop the entrepreneurial proclivity of Chinese university students, and whether the sojourn abroad experience positively promotes student’s entrepreneurial behaviour and may lead to them to start-up their own business. This PhD aims to explore the impact that a sojourn abroad experience has on the entrepreneurial proclivity (enterprising tendency and entrepreneurial intention) of current students, and also explore the sojourn abroad impact on entrepreneurial behaviour of gradates. Thus, the research objectives of this study were to (i) examine whether Chinese university students who had the opportunity to study in the UK developed or enhanced their entrepreneurial proclivity through a period of study abroad; (ii) if so, why entrepreneurial proclivity developed or was positively enhanced through the study abroad experience, and (iii) to investigate the entrepreneurial behaviour of returnee entrepreneurs. This PhD undertook two studies which started with a quantitative study (Study One), using sojourning students as a treatment group and domestic students as a comparison group. Study One made use of an adapted General Enterprising Tendency Test (GET2) to explore the enterprising tendency of the students. Study Two was qualitative and further explored the impact of an overseas sojourn amongst returnee entrepreneurs. The most important finding of this project is that international education can develop entrepreneurial proclivity, as the Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach by means of independent sample t-tests, ANOVA and a Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) model does show a positive effect on entrepreneurial proclivity from studying abroad, and there are substantial returns to international education in terms of entrepreneurial behavior. The findings of this PhD make a number of contributions to the current literature in the field of “entrepreneurship” and “international education”. Firstly, this is the first study to link the students’ foreign sojourn experience with entrepreneurial proclivity in developing countries like China. Secondly, this is the first study to explore enterprising tendency among university students in China using a reliable and validated quantitative scale – the General Measure of Enterprising Tendency (GET2) test. Finally, the research findings support the argument that study abroad enhances an inclination towards entrepreneurship development (entrepreneurial proclivity and entrepreneurial behaviour).
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | entrepreneurial proclivity, enterprising tendency, entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial behaviour, entrepreneurship education, international education, study abroad, Transnational education (TNE) |
| Divisions: | Food, Land and Agribusiness Management |
| Depositing User: | Mrs Rachael Giles |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Apr 2023 15:34 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Apr 2023 15:34 |
| URI: | https://hau.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/17934 |
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