Entrepreneurship in China: Work on the family business, or break free?

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Instead of the usual questions their parents faced, Gen Ys and Gen Zs in China find themselves looking at a much wider career horizon.

The rise of a new brand of entrepreneurial culture in China has been tracked in a report by CUHK Business School, titled 'A Handbook for the Modern Entrepreneur' which also explores how crucial it is that entrepreneurs have a wealth of experience under their belt as opposed to excelling only in product design and innovation.

Overall, the findings suggest the benefit of leveraging the capability of experienced entrepreneurs at the start of a new business venture, such as hiring them as mentors. They can guide the less-experienced entrepreneurs in seeing the big picture and thus avoid the inherent blind spots in starting a business from scratch.

As such, the lack of previous work experience can be a liability for young entrepreneurs.

Coming to the topic we've summarised for the benefit of those looking to better understand the motivators of Gen Y and Gen Z entrepreneurs, the research showed that compared to their parents, the younger generations of enterpreneurial families face more complex choices as the idea of a "lifelong career" has been shaken.

Introducing the concept of a "boundaryless career" to understand family entrepreneurship, the researchers found that young people today can switch roles, rather than only choose to "stay home" or "break free".

Having examined young people’s major career patterns, decision-making processes, and the influence of family factors on career decisions, the study suggests that there are four patterns of boundaryless careers.

The first type is the "legacy innovator", who focuses on internal venturing within the family business in order to grow the legacy.

The second type is the "family visionary", who sees opportunities to improve the performance and survival of the family business but faces internal barriers to realise these opportunities. To bypass them, they reach out externally to form joint ventures or spin-offs. If successful, these ventures may eventually be merged back into the family business.

The third pattern is the "reverse conqueror", who has one foot outside the family business leading to a successful career, and another foot ready to step in and support the family business when it faces a significant decline or needs an injection of new ideas and business models.

The fourth pattern is the "world explorer", who mainly works outside the family to be away from the politics and pressure, but remains opportunistic and may join the family business for brief windows. The key is that they do not see the family business as their final career destination.

On this aspect of boundaryless careers, the researchers confirmed the importance for family businesses to support and stay connected with the rising generations, and to encourage them to seek out new ventures in order to sustain their hard-earned legacies.

"Business families should use multiple ways to nurture and support the incoming generations of entrepreneurs," noted the report authors.

ALSO READ: Gen Z update: What's important to China’s 18–25-year-olds in the workplace