E-commerce Development and Entrepreneurship in the People’s Republic of China

Bihong Huang, Mohamed Shaban, Quanyun Song and Yu Wu
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Bihong Huang: Asian Development Bank Institute
Mohamed Shaban: Asian Development Bank Institute
Quanyun Song: Asian Development Bank Institute
Yu Wu: Asian Development Bank Institute

No 827, ADBI Working Papers from Asian Development Bank Institute

Abstract: We utilize an e-commerce development indicator in tandem with big data to measure the variations of e-commerce development across counties in the People’s Republic of China and assess its impact on entrepreneurship in both rural and urban areas. We find that households living in counties with higher levels of e-commerce development are more likely to run their own businesses. Further study indicates that e-commerce development not only significantly increases the entry of new startups but also decreases the exit of incumbent businesses. We also find that e-commerce development induces sectoral change of household entrepreneurship. It promotes entrepreneurship in the manufacturing and wholesale sectors, but reduces the entrepreneurship in the retail, hotel, and catering sectors. We also show that e-commerce prosperity fuels entrepreneurship by alleviating the financial constraints and moderates the reliance of household entrepreneurship on social networks.

Keywords: e-commerce development; big data; entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2018-03-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-cna, nep-ent, nep-ict, nep-knm, nep-pay and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0827

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