The 'feminine' entrepreneurial personality trait: The competitive advantage of female college-student entrepreneurs in Chinese wei-shang businesses?

摘要

We conducted this grounded theory research to study the motivation of wei-shangs (i.e., wechat businesspersons) in starting their own business ventures, and their business model and entrepreneurial behaviors. We found that many college-student wei-shangs are risk-adverse individuals who think of entrepreneurship merely as a leisure-time pursuit. We also found that 'feminine' characteristics seem to hold a key to successful entrepreneurship. Furthermore, we found that wei-shangs use the wechat platform to extend their social network and to gain the trust of potential customers to get them to buy their products.