IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/abaman/v15y2016i5d10.1057_s41291-016-0012-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The ‘feminine’ entrepreneurial personality trait: The competitive advantage of female college-student entrepreneurs in Chinese wei-shang businesses?

Author

Listed:
  • Jhony Choon Yeong Ng

    (Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics)

  • Metis Meng Die Huang

    (Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics)

  • Yiping Liu

    (Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics)

Abstract

We conducted this grounded theory research to study the motivation of wei-shangs (i.e., wechat businesspersons) in starting their own business ventures, and their business model and entrepreneurial behaviors. We found that many college-student wei-shangs are risk-adverse individuals who think of entrepreneurship merely as a leisure-time pursuit. We also found that ‘feminine’ characteristics seem to hold a key to successful entrepreneurship. Furthermore, we found that wei-shangs use the wechat platform to extend their social network and to gain the trust of potential customers to get them to buy their products.

Suggested Citation

  • Jhony Choon Yeong Ng & Metis Meng Die Huang & Yiping Liu, 2016. "The ‘feminine’ entrepreneurial personality trait: The competitive advantage of female college-student entrepreneurs in Chinese wei-shang businesses?," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 15(5), pages 343-369, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:abaman:v:15:y:2016:i:5:d:10.1057_s41291-016-0012-0
    DOI: 10.1057/s41291-016-0012-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41291-016-0012-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41291-016-0012-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Du Rietz, Anita & Henrekson, Magnus, 2000. "Testing the Female Underperformance Hypothesis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, February.
    2. Timothy B. Folta & Frédéric Delmar & Karl Wennberg, 2010. "Hybrid Entrepreneurship," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(2), pages 253-269, February.
    3. Robert A. Baron & Michael D. Ensley, 2006. "Opportunity Recognition as the Detection of Meaningful Patterns: Evidence from Comparisons of Novice and Experienced Entrepreneurs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(9), pages 1331-1344, September.
    4. Josh Lerner & Antoinette Schoar, 2010. "International Differences in Entrepreneurship," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number lern08-2.
    5. Ingrid Verheul & André Van Stel & Roy Thurik, 2006. "Explaining female and male entrepreneurship at the country level," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 151-183, March.
    6. Parker, Simon C., 2005. "The Economics of Entrepreneurship: What We Know and What We Don't," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 1(1), pages 1-54, May.
    7. von Graevenitz, Georg & Harhoff, Dietmar & Weber, Richard, 2010. "The effects of entrepreneurship education," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 90-112, October.
    8. Kalnins, Arturs & Williams, Michele, 2014. "When do female-owned businesses out-survive male-owned businesses? A disaggregated approach by industry and geography," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 822-835.
    9. Justo, Rachida & DeTienne, Dawn R. & Sieger, Philipp, 2015. "Failure or voluntary exit? Reassessing the female underperformance hypothesis," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 775-792.
    10. Kihlstrom, Richard E & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1979. "A General Equilibrium Entrepreneurial Theory of Firm Formation Based on Risk Aversion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 719-748, August.
    11. Boden, Richard Jr., 1996. "Gender and self-employment selection: An empirical assessment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 671-682.
    12. Andrew Burke & Felix FitzRoy & Michael Nolan, 2008. "What makes a die-hard entrepreneur? Beyond the ‘employee or entrepreneur’ dichotomy," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 93-115, August.
    13. Rosa, Peter & Carter, Sara & Hamilton, Daphne, 1996. "Gender as a Determinant of Small Business Performance: Insights from a British Study," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 8(6), pages 463-478, December.
    14. Fischer, Eileen M. & Reuber, A. Rebecca & Dyke, Lorraine S., 1993. "A theoretical overview and extension of research on sex, gender, and entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 151-168, March.
    15. Karen Verduijn & Caroline Essers, 2013. "Questioning dominant entrepreneurship assumptions: the case of female ethnic minority entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(7-8), pages 612-630, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Narisa Zhao & Hui Li, 2020. "How can social commerce be boosted? The impact of consumer behaviors on the information dissemination mechanism in a social commerce network," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 833-856, December.
    2. Young Zik Shin & Jeung-Yoon Chang & Kyeongmin Jeon & Hyunpyo Kim, 2020. "Female directors on the board and investment efficiency: evidence from Korea," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(4), pages 438-479, September.
    3. Qiang Zhang & Yan Wang, 2018. "Struggling towards virtuous coevolution: institutional and strategic works of Alibaba in building the Taobao e-commerce ecosystem," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(3), pages 208-242, July.
    4. Jing Zheng & Yuxin Pei & Ya Gao, 2020. "Social Media as a Disguise and an Aid: Disabled Women in the Cyber Workforce in China," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 104-113.
    5. Masoud Karami & Yousef Mohammad Karimi & Mohsen Akbari & Juergen Gnoth, 2024. "Rural women entrepreneurship: when femininity compensates for institutional hurdles," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(5), pages 738-766, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Justo, Rachida & DeTienne, Dawn R. & Sieger, Philipp, 2015. "Failure or voluntary exit? Reassessing the female underperformance hypothesis," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 775-792.
    2. Tesfaye T. Lemma & Tendai Gwatidzo & Mthokozisi Mlilo, 2023. "Gender differences in business performance: evidence from Kenya and South Africa," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 591-614, February.
    3. Sirec, Karin & Mocnik, Dijana, 2012. "Gender specifics in entrepreneurs’ personal characteristics," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 17(1), pages 11-39.
    4. Ana Tur-Porcar & Alicia Mas-Tur & José Antonio Belso, 2017. "Barriers to women entrepreneurship. Different methods, different results?," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 2019-2034, September.
    5. Sabarwal, Shwetlena & Terrell, Katherine, 2008. "Does Gender Matter for Firm Performance? Evidence from Eastern Europe and Central Asia," IZA Discussion Papers 3758, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Jörn H. Block & Andreas Landgraf, 2016. "Transition from part-time entrepreneurship to full-time entrepreneurship: the role of financial and non-financial motives," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 259-282, March.
    7. Kalnins, Arturs & Williams, Michele, 2014. "When do female-owned businesses out-survive male-owned businesses? A disaggregated approach by industry and geography," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 822-835.
    8. Maksim Belitski & Sameeksha Desai, 2021. "Female ownership, firm age and firm growth: a study of South Asian firms," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 825-855, September.
    9. Elert, Niklas & Andersson, Fredrik W. & Wennberg, Karl, 2015. "The impact of entrepreneurship education in high school on long-term entrepreneurial performance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 209-223.
    10. Sara Poggesi & Michela Mari & Luisa Vita, 2016. "What’s new in female entrepreneurship research? Answers from the literature," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 735-764, September.
    11. Marco Vivarelli, 2013. "Is entrepreneurship necessarily good? Microeconomic evidence from developed and developing countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(6), pages 1453-1495, December.
    12. Joachim Wagner, 2007. "What a Difference a Y makes-Female and Male Nascent Entrepreneurs in Germany," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 1-21, January.
    13. Verheul, I., 2007. "Commitment or Control? Human Resource Management Practices in Female and Male-Led Businesses," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2007-071-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    14. Verheul, Ingrid & Uhlaner, Lorraine & Thurik, Roy, 2005. "Business accomplishments, gender and entrepreneurial self-image," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 483-518, July.
    15. Burmeister-Lamp, Katrin & Lévesque, Moren & Schade, Christian, 2012. "Are entrepreneurs influenced by risk attitude, regulatory focus or both? An experiment on entrepreneurs' time allocation," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 456-476.
    16. Bach Nguyen & Nguyen Phuc Canh, 2021. "Formal and informal financing decisions of small businesses," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1545-1567, October.
    17. Watson, John & Stuetzer, Michael & Zolin, Roxanne, 2017. "Female underperformance or goal-oriented behavior?," MPRA Paper 88403, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Ingrid Verheul & Martin Carree & Roy Thurik, 2009. "Allocation and productivity of time in new ventures of female and male entrepreneurs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 273-291, October.
    19. Douwere Grekou & Jenny Watt & Horatio M. Morgan, 2023. "Gender productivity gap: does gender-equal ownership compensate for female entrepreneurs’ lack of prior industry experience?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 1543-1571, April.
    20. Watson, John & Robinson, Sherry, 2003. "Adjusting for risk in comparing the performances of male- and female-controlled SMEs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 773-788, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:abaman:v:15:y:2016:i:5:d:10.1057_s41291-016-0012-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.