Foreign-firm work experience and entrepreneurial choice in China

Abstract

This paper analyses the effect of foreign-firm work experience on entrepreneurial choice in China. We propose a theoretical framework to explore the possible positive and negative effects of foreign-firm work experience on the decision to become an entrepreneur. Based on a large-scale individual-level database from China, this paper finds a significant and robust negative relationship between prior foreign-firm work experience and entrepreneurial choice, which can be explained by the characteristics of jobs in foreign firms in China. Our results indicate that FDI crowds out Chinese entrepreneurship at the individual level.