Entrepreneurial Typology: The Case of Owner-managers in China

WAI-SUM SIU IS A LECTURER IN THE department of marketing at Hong Kong Baptist College, Kowloon, Kong Kong. Research studies into entrepreneurial typology have proliferated but fundamental problems still exist. This paper reviews problems encountered in entrepreneurial categorisation and suggests a research strategy to overcome those barriers. Owner managers in China are selected as an illustration for the usefulness of this proposed research strategy. Based on in-depth interviews with 30 private entrepreneurs in China, a typology of Chinese entrepreneurs is identified. They are ‘senior citizen’, ‘workaholic’, ‘swinger’, ‘idealistic’, and ‘high flyer’. The evidence of this paper reveals that a combination of qualitative data processing skills and quantitative datas analytical methods is a viable route of identifying entrepreneurial typology and is useful in entrepreneurial research.