Business Environment and Entrepreneurial Motivations of Urban Students

Abstract

College students’ perceptions of entrepreneurial environments exert significant influence on their entrepreneurial motivations. With China’s increased focus on entrepreneurship and innovation, an increasing number of college students have embarked on a journey of self-employment and entrepreneurship. Due to disparities in the urban entrepreneurial environments, however, their entrepreneurial ventures in urban spaces are characterized by extreme phenomena such as entrepreneurial clusters and human capital flight, thus constraining economic development. This study sampled 244 college students from Wenzhou, China, and analyzed their opinions on the relationship between their perceptions of the entrepreneurial environment and associated motivations. We concluded that college students’ entrepreneurial motivations are significantly and positively affected by their perception of socio-economic conditions, education and training, and availability of financial and non-financial support, and insignificantly affected by their perceptions of the favorability of government policies as related to entrepreneurial development.