Chintrepreneurship – The China-way of Entrepreneurship Government Intervention, Seedling Approach – A Network-based Model of Entrepreneurship

Abstract

The development of entrepreneurship in China is coined in this paper as the ‘Chintrepreneurship’, namely, theChina-way of entrepreneurship, which is defined synthetically as an integral result of ideological transformation,industrial institutionalization and privatization, and technological transition from imitation and innovation. From anevolutionary perspective, China-way of entrepreneurship is resulted from the three-staged economic reformation.From a dialectic perspective, government intervention is not only a driver but also an obstacle to the formation ofChina-way of entrepreneurship, which is outlined as a compounded effect of dual-track policy, financial policy, FDIpolicy, science, technology, and innovation policy, education and human capital policy. As an exploratory study andrelying on an in-depth and extensive literature review, on-site observations and thousands of interviews, this paperendeavors to establish a theoretical framework, to contour the taxonomy and the four constraints, and to distinguishthe formational mechanism of China-way of entrepreneurship from the previously defined ones. Theoretically, thispaper proposes a need for a paradigm shift from polarized (Washington Consensus) to de-polarized (BeijingConsensus), and argues that, the network-based framework (aka: the neo-classical economics) fits to rationalize thepeculiarity and mechanism of China-way of entrepreneurship, uniquely incubated from the politically autocratic,bureaucratic and cronyism oriented social and institutional systems. This paper concludes that entrepreneurship doesexist in China, and that, government intervention and seedling approach serve as strategic and exogenous forces,while imitation and low marginal price act as tactical and endogenous factors – together, they constitute thedevelopmental mechanism of CHINTREPRENEURSHIP, in parallel with economic transition, from traditionally theglobal production networks (GPNs) to presently the global production and trade networks (GPTNs), frommanufacturing-based to service and consumption oriented. From the perspective of Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’,criticism is definitely needed, in order to legitimize the theory of CHINTREPRENEURSHIP.