Journal of Business Venturing November 1991 [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Recent entrepreneurial research suggests that people in different cultures are equally creative and entrepreneurial. "The remarkable fact," writes Merrifield (1989, p. 1), "is that the entrepreneurial spirit exists everywhere. Where it is not active, it is because it has been inhibited or even made illegal." Such is the case in the People's Republic of China. Entrepreneurial development in the P.R.C. has been accomplished through a constant struggle for more economic freedom in an economy dominated by a central planning system. Entrepreneurial research in the United States has emphasized the characteristics of entrepreneurs and their venture development strategies. This is primarily because the freeenterprise economy allows entrepreneurship to exist. But a more fundamental and urgent topic for entrepreneurial research in developing countries is the impact of barriers to entrepreneurship from culture and ideology. In China, we have seen the effect of these barriers. Wherever and whenever the government has lifted restrictions on free enterprise, we have seen pockets of entrepreneurship develop. ENTREPRENEURS IN RURAL AREAS When the P.R.C. is discussed, two facts are almost always mentioned. First, China has a huge potential markét with 1.4 biliion people. China has such a huge consumer markét, together with plentiful labor and intellectual resources, that "you can almost make and sell anything," as one Chinese entrepreneur remarked. Second, China is a socialist country that is still controlled by hard-liners who firmly believe that a central planning system will lead China to the perfect communist society. These two factors have shaped a unique route for Address correspondence to Ian C. MacMillan, Snider Entrepreneurial Center, 4th Floor Vance Hall, 37th and Spruce Streets, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6374. We would like to express our appreciation and gratitude to the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center at the University of Pennsylvania for the generous academic and financial support that has made this paper possible. Journal of Business Venturing 6, 375-3790883-9026/91/$3.50 1991 Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc., 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010