Entrepreneurship of Chinese traditional men: gender identity, social capital and self-employment

In this paper, we empirically study the impact of gender identity on men’s entrepreneurial decision in urban China and find that the traditional gender identity has a statistically significant and positive impact on men’s entrepreneurial activity. The heterogeneous effects of gender identity for cohorts with varying entrepreneurial types, age, education levels and marital status are also studied. Supporting empirical evidence is explored from the perspective of social capital: men with traditional gender identity tend to have more social capital measured by trust, social network, or parents’ entrepreneurial role model.