Moving to the Big City: Temporal, Demographic, and Geographic Influences on the Perceptions of Gender-related Business Acumen Among Male and Female Migrant Entrepreneurs in China

Do migrant entrepreneurs from rural areas hold more traditional or more egalitarian gender-role perceptions, when immersed in urban areas? This issue affects China's within-country migrant entrepreneurs, who are increasingly women, because egalitarian gender-role perceptions increase the resources provided to female entrepreneurs by key stakeholders, including other migrant entrepreneurs. Currently, we know little about gender equity and gender perceptions evidenced at the intersection of two significant trends in China: (a) rural-urban migration and (b) entrepreneurship. We first analyzed business acumen indicators of a nationally and geographically representa-tive sample of 4,660 entrepreneurs in China (Study 1). Second, we analyzed differences in gender perceptions regarding female business acumen of 293 migrant entrepreneurs in Beijing (Study 2). The perceptions of all entrepreneurs in rural areas (Study 1) and of male migrant entrepreneurs originally from rural areas (Study 2) are the most consistent with traditional gender-role stereotypes. However, male migrant entrepreneurs' tenure and interactions in Beijing and all entrepreneurs' exposure to higher proportions of female entrepreneurs were associated with more egalitarian perceptions. Migrant entrepreneurship in China provides insights into the differential influence of gender and home region socialization on the gender stereotypes and business-related perceptions of those immersed in locations with more egalitarian gender stereotypes.