The Impact Of Informal Institutions On Entrepreneurial Intentions Among Chinese Females

Although the number of female entrepreneurs has grown in recent years,a gender gap persists globally.This is also applicable in the context of China,where women do not only exhibit lesser entrepreneurial intentions than men but are also more likely to initiate entrepreneurship out of necessity rather than by choice derived from perceived opportunities.Adverse social environment is proposed as one of the reasons for the lower rates of business start-ups among women.A supportive social environment is linked with increasing entrepreneurial intention,which is particularly relevant for women as they might encounter obstacles to start a business due to the impact of their family members,peers or society as a whole.Entrepreneurial intention in turn is crucial as it predicts future entrepreneurial endeavors.In this research,social values and subjective norms are selected to represent informal institutions,examined in the light of entrepreneurial intentions model(EIM).The objective is to examine the interplay between informal institutions and entrepreneurial intentions with the aim to understand the current social environment towards female entrepreneurship in China.This research adopted both qualitative(in-depth interview)and quantitative(questionnaire survey)research methods.The results confirm that informal institutions have an impact on entrepreneurial intentions among Chinese women.Social values and subjective norms generate positive significant results on entrepreneurial intentions as was anticipated.Moreover,the findings imply that social values and subjective norms in close circles have a stronger impact compared to subjective norms in a broader environment.Hereby,Chinese women’s entrepreneurial intentions are more impacted by social valuations and the approvals of their closer circles in contrast to general society’s opinion on female entrepreneurship.The hypotheses for role models(i.e.,mother entrepreneur)and demographics(i.e.income,not being only child,no brother)are partially supported.Moreover,the mediation analysis for social values yields more significant results for the predictors of the role model and demographics items than for subjective norms.Therefore,social values do not only have a stronger effect on entrepreneurial intention,but also illustrate the underlying factors to a greater extent.Based on the findings,it is encouraged to implement female-friendly policies and educational measures to ensure the social environment to be appropriate for female start-ups.Moreover,future studies should consider potential differences in the perceptions of the social environments among Chinese women across the country,for which reason conducting a cross-province study is recommended.