College Student's Occupational Prejudice Toward Entrepreneurs:A Comparison Of China And The United States

There is a big difference in the number of entrepreneurship and the level of development in different countries,and this difference is not only related to the level of economic development,but also to the attitude of social culture to entrepreneurs.The purpose of this study is to explore the different evaluation of entrepreneurs in China and the United States,and analyze the mechanism of this difference on entrepreneurial career choice.The study combines situational method and questionnaire survey.Firstly,this study investigates the cognitive differences of social status between Chinese and American college students in seven different careers.Secondly,we investigate the differences of hiring decision on entrepreneurs(social selection)between Chinese and American participants.Finally,from the perspective of individual self and other important people's career choice(self selection),we introduce self-construal theory and the stereotype content model to explain the cultural difference and the intermediate mechanism of the entrepreneur's occupational prejudice.Results:(1)There are significant differences in the social status' s rating and ranking of entrepreneurs,managers,doctors and scientists between Chinese and Americans;Compared to the American students,the Chinese students think that entrepreneurs have a lower social status,and managers have a higher social status.(2)The interaction between nation and entrepreneurial situation has significant influence on the hiring decision.Specifically,the American is more willing to hire the entrepreneurs who have not experienced entrepreneurial failure,but the Chinese show the same low willingness to hire the entrepreneurs who have failed or not failed,and have hiring discrimination against the whole group of entrepreneurs.(3)The interaction between interdependent self-construal and entrepreneur or manager's occupational situation has significant influence on the individual career choice,but there is no significant interaction between independent self-construal and the occupational situation.(4)The interaction between interdependent self-construal and the occupational situation affects the individual career choice which partly goes through the mediating effect of warmth evaluation.The resultsshow that the people who have higher interdependent self-construal may pay more attention to warmth,and have lower willingness to make entrepreneurial career choice,so show greater prejudicial behavior.