Entrepreneurs' resilience and its relationship with entrepreneurial type: a study of national Chinese entrepreneur sample

Introduction: Entrepreneurial resilience characteristics are core contributors to the early development stage of business enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings on resilience among Chinese entrepreneurs, and its relationship with business types. Methods: A cross-sectional cohort study design and multilevel random sampling approach was used. 50,000 entrepreneurs were randomly selected from 228 cities across 30 provinces in China, of which 38,890 agreed to participate, representing a 78% response rate. Questionnaires on resilience characteristics were developed. The reliability and validity of these questionnaires were tested using factor analysis. The effects of demographic factors, locus of control and the type of business on the relationship between resilience and type of business were analysed using a binomial regression model. Results: Results indicated that the questionnaires are valid and reliable. Entrepreneurs who commenced a resource based business type had a three fold likelihood of matching their resilience characteristics to the business type than other entrepreneurial types. They also had higher resilience scores than those who are risk based and knowledge based venture. Resource based and skill based entrepreneurs were similar in terms of creativity and innovation, knowledge seeking and flexibility. Creativity and innovation, knowledge seeking, flexibility were important resilient characteristics that distinguished the resource and skill based group from the risk taking and knowledge based entrepreneurs. Guanxi Self-efficacy did not differ across the four groups, suggesting that this characteristic may serve a less important role in the development of competence in the face of challenges entrepreneurs face in establishing business enterprise in China. Conclusions: Resilience factors are important to resource based and skill-based entrepreneurs in terms of business success. Further investigation is needed to look at longitudinal correlations between resilience and the performance of entrepreneurs.