“…Since the Reform and Opening-up in 1978, China has moved from a closed, centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented one, based on the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the growth of the private sector and small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and a focus on the innovative performance of start-ups (Li, 2011;Paulet & Rowley, 2017b;Rowley & Cooke, 2010;Warner & Rowley, 2011). In particular, the Chinese government has made great efforts to legitimate and incentivize entrepreneurship, including the Provisional Regulations on Private Enterprises in 1988, which recognized private enterprises as profit-making businesses in the form of individual enterprises, partnerships, or limited liability companies, and the SME Promotion Law in 2002, which recognized the role of SMEs in scientific and technological development (Atherton, 2008). As a result, China has jumped from a relatively small economy to the world's second-largest, with entrepreneurship being a major driver (Bruton et al, 2018).…”