Research On The Impact Of Internet On Entrepreneurship

Since the 1990s,the Internet has been rapidly becoming popular and widely used around the world,and has profoundly changed people's production methods and lifestyle.Studies have shown that the Internet has a significant positive impact on a country's economic growth,but we do not know much about the specific path of how the Internet can boost economic growth.In order to explore how the Internet can promote economic growth,this dissertation takes entrepreneurship as the starting point to study the impact of the popularization and application of the Internet on entrepreneurship,with a view to providing concrete evidence for the mechanism of Internet for economic growth.First of all,we conduct a theoretical analysis.We believe that the Internet will indirectly affect the individual's entrepreneurial decision-making,through changing of the entrepreneurial environment.In this dissertation,the impact of the Internet on the entrepreneurial environment is divided into two major aspects "technical effect" and "information effect"."Technical effect"refers to the influence of the Internet as a revolutionary technology;"Information effect" refers to the possible impact of the Internet on entrepreneurship as a means of information transmission.We further introduce a two-period career selection model to analyze how the individual's entrepreneurial probability will change under these effects.The model analysis shows that there are positive effects as well as negative effects,and there are also unclear parts.Therefore,what the impact of the Internet on entrepreneurship is in the real world needs to be answered by empirical research.In the subsequent empirical part,we give two empirical tests for the above theoretical analysis based on the data of China.First,at the micro level,we use the data of China Family Panel Studies to analyze the impact of Internet use on one's entrepreneurial probability.We find that the individual use of the Internet plays a positive role in promoting entreprenurship,indicating that the positive effect exceeds the negative effect,so the net effect is positive.Further,we find that compared to the ones who don't take the Internet as the information channel,the probability of entrepreneurship of the ones who do is higher.This can almost verify that the "information effect" generated by the Internet as an information delivery tool is positive.The empirical results also show that the Internet has a significant positive impact on opportunity entrepreneurship,which to some extent verify that the Internet can help entrepreneurs identify entrepreneurial opportunity.In addition,because China is a developing country,the institutional environment is an important factor affecting entrepreneurship,we further analyze the relationship between the Internet and the institutional environment in promoting entrepreneurship.We find that the better the institutional environment is,the greater the positive impact is.The empirical analysis on the micrio-level can provide some empirical evidence for the impact of the Internet on entrepreneurship.But it's not enough for us to fully understand the impact of the Internet on the entrepreneurial vitality for a certain industry.So we investigate the impact of Internet penetration at the city level on firm entry at the industrial level,by focusing on the service industries which is more information-intensive,based on the data of the second national economic census.The results show that the popularity of the Internet does not have a positive impact on the entry of business of all types,but rather plays a significant role in promoting the entry of private firms.Further,for the sample of private firms,the Internet has a greater impact on the entry of producer services,and has little impact on the entry of consumer services.Similar to the empirical study at the micro level,the Internet and the institutional environment also show a "complementary" relationship in promoting firm entry at the industry level.The possible innovation points of this dissertation are as follows.First,based on Chinese data,this dissertation provides new empirical evidence for the possible path of the Internet to promote economic growth.Second,we conduct empirical research from the micro level as well as the industry level,thus this dissertation can capture both the impact of Internet use on the probability of entrepreneurship,and the impact of Internet popularization on entrepreneurial vitality at the industry level,these two empirical studies can provide more accurate and comprehensive resluts.Third,in the theoretical analysis,the impact of the Internet on entrepreneurship is divided into"technical effect" and "information effect",this division can help pople fully understand the specific mechanisms.Finally,our discussion about the relationship between internet and the institutional environment in promoting entrepreneurship is a new footnote in understanding the relationship between information technology and institutions in promoting economic development.