Transnational entrepreneurs with technological know-how have been promoted as a central force for the regional development of industrial competitiveness by the Chinese state and in academic literature. Yet what motivates them, and what do they experience, when building a start-up in China? Olivia Yijian Liu addresses these questions by examining the dark side of entrepreneurship and innovation.
“There is a mechanism in China that steers transnational talents from elite schools or elite professions into high-tech entrepreneurship. This mechanism, employed by the Chinese state, intertwines the privileged social label with governmental precarisation through selectively applying governing strategies, has induced an enterprising ethos among transnational talents to encourage them to become an entrepreneur,” says Olivia.
Drawing on seven months of participant observation in Shenzhen-based start-ups and incubators as an intern, and 95 semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs, start-up executives, and support organisation actors, Olivia suggests that entrepreneurial talents are oftentimes “entrepreneured” (bei chuangye) in Shenzhen. She further argues that the state-endorsed entrepreneurial talents are not necessarily recognised by market actors such as venture capitalists as having the potential to succeed in business. Two contradictory standards of entrepreneurial talent selection leads to localised precarity.
Olivia Yijian Liu successfully defended her dissertation on 16 June 2023.
Trial lecture
Designated topic: "The Chinese Between Communist and Neoliberal Governmentality since 1978"
Evaluation committee
- Professor Heidi Wiig, BI Norwegian Business School (first opponent)
- Associate Professor Jesper Willaing Zeuthen, Aalborg University (second opponent)
- Professor Vladimir Tikhonov, University of Oslo (committee administrator)
Chair of the defence
- Head of Department Rune Svarverud
Supervisors
- Professor Heidi Østbø Haugen, University of Oslo
- Associate Professor Stine Haakonsson, Copenhagen Business School