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International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal (2025) 21:12
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-024-01040-x
Abstract
This study explores foreign entrepreneurs’ motivations and obstacles in China’s
business landscape. The research question is: What prominent factors drive foreign
entrepreneurs to seek business opportunities in China, and what challenges do they
encounter? A mixed-methods approach was employed, including a questionnaire
survey of 240 foreign entrepreneurs in China, cross-tabulation analysis, chi-square
tests, and thematic analysis. The ndings reveal that nancial gain, market oppor-
tunities, access to resources or networks, personal aspirations, and cultural factors
motivate foreign entrepreneurs to venture into China. Language and communication
barriers, cultural dierences, administrative procedures, market competitiveness, lo-
gistics, remittances and international transfer issues, nancial instability, discrim-
ination, and racism pose signicant challenges. The study highlights substantial
similarities and dissimilarities in motivations and challenges based on gender and
ethnicity. The study’s novelty lies in its comprehensive exploration of the dynamics
of foreign entrepreneurship in China, incorporating gender and ethnicity consider-
ations and shedding light on logistics and shipping issues as obstacles. The study’s
practical implications could help policymakers and aspiring entrepreneurs formulate
strategies to improve China’s business landscape for foreign entrepreneurs.
Keywords International Entrepreneurship · China · Motivation · Obstacle ·
Gender · Ethnicity
Accepted: 4 October 2024
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
2024
Navigating motivations and obstacles: exploring the
dynamics of foreign entrepreneurs in China’s business
landscape
Arthur William FodouopKouam1
Arthur William Fodouop Kouam
willyfodouop@163.com
1 School of Management, Hebei University, Baoding City, Hebei Province 071000, China
1 3
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