Entrepreneurship as a Contributor to Growth in Asia: The Case of Hong Kong

Abstract

The article explores the relationships between entrepreneurship and economic growth, theoretically and then by using the concrete example of Hong Kong. It is shown that the entrepreneur stimulates growth in at least three different ways: by means of the creation of markets; by means of the creation of networks; and by means of collecting and disseminating information. These three functions, which played a major role in Hong Kong growth, concurrently modified the nature of the entrepreneur, who had to adapt to the new institutional environment he contributed to changing. Finally, while the economic difficulties of the past few years provoked a decrease in the number of entrepreneurs, Hong Kong has transformed itself into a genuine "entrepreneurial city." Résumé L'article étudie les relations entre l'entrepreneuriat et la croissance économique de façon théorique, puis en prenant l'exemple de Hong Kong. Il est montré que l'entrepreneur agit sur la croissance de trois manières au moins : en créant des marchés, en créant des réseaux et en collectant et disséminant l'information. Ces trois fonctions, qui ont joué un rôle majeur sur la croissance de Hong Kong, ont en même temps modifié la nature de l'entrepreneur qui s'est s'adapté au nouvel environnement institutionnel qu'il contribuait à modeler. Enfin, si les difficultés économiques de ces dernières années ont impliqué une baisse sensible du nombre d'entrepreneurs, Hong Kong s'est transformé en une véritable « cité entrepreneuriale ».

Entrepreneurship and Growth in Emerging Mini-dragon Economies: A South-East Asia Perspective

“…In Hong Kong's context, entrepreneurship is related to its competitiveness (Augustin-Jean, 2010), which is same as in Taiwan. The high entrepreneurial attitude also has its contextual factors such as influence of Chinese cultural values (Man & Lau, 2005), and they are hard workers and achieve social status through business success.…”

“…while Hong Kong is famous for its free market policy and non-government intervention in business, there are government interventions to support entrepreneurship and SMEs, which are backbone of the economy (Augustin-Jean, 2010;Man & Lau, 2005). Hong Kong has been regarded as one of the most dynamic entrepreneurial economies in the world with a business environment favouring entrepreneurship (Yu, 2000;Man & Lau, 2005), which is shifting towards a knowledge economy (Man & Lau, 2005).…”