INTRODUCTION:Entrepreneurship has always been one of the key topics of interest to governments around the world because it is one of the main drivers of national economy (Xu, 2009), and it is also an effective channel for job creation and economic resuscitation during troubled times (Gao, Cheng, Li & Jiang, 2008). In order to encourage more people to become entrepreneurs, countries such as the United States and Netherland have made 'entrepreneurship education' a part of the curriculum of their compulsory education (Oosterbeek, Praag & Ijsselstein, 2010).Being one of the largest emerging economies that face challenges from economic slowdown, China tried to rejuvenate their economy by encouraging more of its citizens to start their own businesses. One of the main policies that the Chinese government uses in order to achieve this goal is to give incentives to college students who have entrepreneurial potentials to start their own businesses (Fang, 2004). For example, starting from 2006, the local government of Shanghai City invests one hundred million RMB every year to encourage its college students to engage in entrepreneurship (Yan, 2011). Similar finical supports are also given by the local governments of the other major Chinese cities (Chen & Sun, 2009).The Chinese government usually provide financial support to colleges and public organizations to organize college-student-targeted entrepreneurship competitions (Xu, 2011). In such competitions, college students are asked to write a business proposal and present it to a panel of judges. The winners of such competitions receive the support necessary for them to start and run the business that they proposed in the competition (Du, 2011; Xia, Luo & Yan, 2012). Essentially, such college student entrepreneurship competitions are an effective avenue for the government to locate and invest in high potential business proposals. The government hopes that by investing in these proposed business ventures, these businesses can become successful and contribute to the country's economy.However, while such competitions organized, could attract college students to participate and contest for the prizes, we ask: are these competitions effective in creating entrepreneurs? For example, although there were more than 20,000 entrepreneurship competitions organized in 2010, attracting more than 3 million college students, the number of entrepreneurial activity did not increase proportionately (Huang & Shi, 2010).Hitherto, there is a dearth of literature that examines the effectiveness of such programs in encouraging college students to become entrepreneurs. Hence, we conducted this research to fill the gap in literature by studying whether organizing college student entrepreneurship competitions in China could successfully motivate college students to engage in entrepreneurship. We hope the findings of our research can provide insights to college managers and policy makers in general who are interested in motivating college students to become entrepreneurs by organizing such activities.LITERATURE REVIEW:Entrepreneurship refers to new venture creation (Low & MacMillan, 1988). It is believed that entrepreneurship can make important contribution to a country's economy, especially when it is experiencing changes (Kanter, 1989). Thus, many countries made entrepreneurship education compulsory, hoping that it could inspire more individuals to start their own business venture, and contribute to the economy (Gibb, 1996; Oosterbeek et al., 2010).One of the main targeted groups to receive entrepreneurship education is college students. Governments hope that, by encouraging college students to start their own business ventures, it could reduce the pressure on the job market when they graduate because these college students will become self-employed, and, potentially, also employ some of the other graduates (McMullan & Long, 1987). …