Global Journal of Management and Business Research, A: Administration and Management, Volume 22 Issue 9

opportunities for foreign entrepreneurs in (Ahlstrom & Ding, 2015; Y. Zhang, Zhao, & Ge, 2016), there still exists a gap in the literature shows how foreigners can take advantage of these opportunities. To provide a clear description and hierarchy of the complex dynamic factors is the main objective of this study. This is important in bridging the gap between entrepreneurship theory and practice in migrant entrepreneurship and fill gaps in cross-cultural management of enterprises. This will be achieved through answering these questions: “Why does the market entry and penetration remain a problem for foreigners?” and “What are the most important aspects of China’s entrepreneurial sector that foreigners need to understand and take advantage of?”. The second contribution of this paper will be to test graph theory and matrix approach (GTMA) as a suitable method for undertaking entrepreneurship research. It has successfully been used in other fields of social science including organizational management (Gurumurthy, Mazumdar, & Muthusubramanian, 2013), logistics and supply chain management (Agrawal, Singh, & Murtaza, 2016; Gupta & Singh, 2015) as well as management science. This method can account for the bi-directional inter-relationships amongst the and to what extent each of them affects the business outcomes of entrepreneurial activities in a way that other methods cannot. In this way, this contribution offers a more holistic view of the business environment that foreigner in China will encounter and is therefore more comprehensive than other studies that focus on singular the point of view. In order to achieve these, the study will go on to outline a literature review of previous studies in section 2, define the variables based on a combination priori research consultation of experts in section 3, build and calculate the graph theoretic model in section 4&5 and discuss the results and research implication in section 6. II. L iterature R eview a) Concepts of Entrepreneurship There are many varying definitions of entrepreneurs given by a myriad of. Entrepreneurship is the creative process of monetizing problem-solving methods. The entrepreneur is therefore the one who changes a market or economic system through provision of an innovation product or business model often in response to a valuable economic opportunity (Devi, 2020). The country’s “mass entrepreneurship and innovation” policies are attractive to entrepreneurs and they offer lucrative opportunities for them. With over 600 000 foreigners living in China (NBSC, 2010), of which 7- 9% are entrepreneurs or business owners, the study must stipulate the difference between small business owners and entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs, that are the focus of this study, are innovative in creating new markets, new products, new organization structure and methods of production and service delivery. Furthermore, foreign entrepreneurs will mean migrant entrepreneurs (Ashourizadeh, Li, & Wickstrøm, 2020) that are native to countries outside the territories of China as well as Chinese entrepreneurs who were born outside of China and have naturalized in the countries of their birth. Going further, what really defines success to an entrepreneur? Wach, Stephan, Marjan, and Wegge (2018) connote that unlike manager, entrepreneurs measure their performance against their goals. So instead of pegging success with survival , return on assets, number of employees or even market share; entrepreneurs measure performance and success based on self-actualization, independence and autonomy over firms, social contribution, personal fulfillment and work-life balance (St-Jean & Duhamel, 2020). Their success can be grouped into business- oriented and personal-oriented. The former encompasses financial and also development of innovation capacity and enhanced status while the latter entails relationships formed and value of the impact of innovation on the community. This paper espouses these as the success which entrepreneurs in China will be aiming for. b) Theories of Entrepreneurship This study is based largely on Transnational Entrepreneurship Theory (TET) and Opportunity Recognition Theory. Transnational Entrepreneurship Theory (TET), insists that entrepreneurs that have networks embedded in the host country and their home countries can benefit from this (Ashourizadeh et al., 2020). This is true for some businesses particularly export and Belt & Road Initiative-involved (BRI) activities. Nonetheless for foreigners wishing to capture the Chinese consumers vertical ties in industry and local government are not readily accessible (Drori, Honig, & Wright, 2009). Their ability to foster these ties depends heavily on socio- economic relations between countries, visa and trade regulations as well as historical international relations (Sommer & Gamper, 2018). It also depends on their ability to foster social ties and earn social capital “Guanxi” (Gruenhagen, 2018; L. Zhou, Chan, & Song, 2017) that can give them access to supply chains and give rise to opportunities that can help overcome the disadvantage of being an outsider. TET also describes the advantages that migrant entrepreneurs have by bringing new skills they have learnt in their home countries. Therefore, entrepreneurs must learn and develop high quality skills and talents in order to create a competitive edge. As there is pressure to improve oneself for local entrepreneurs, foreigners have also been welcomed to get a slice of the pie if only they possess good quality skills (Wei, Jiao, & Growe, 2019). China is still one of the most challenging destinations for 10 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue IX Version I Year 2022 ( ) A © 2022 Global Journals A Study on the Complex Dynamic Factors Influencing Foreign Entrepreneurs in China: A GTMA Perspective