Entrepreneurial motives and characteristics: An analysis of small restaurant owners

• Studies investigating the behavior of small restaurant owners in developing countries are scarce.
• The data for this study was hand collected by survey questionnaires in four cities in three provinces in China.
• Small restaurant owners in China consisted of those with three distinct motivations: autonomy seekers, family protectors, or profit seekers.
• Funding sources for Chinese small restaurants were predominantly private rather than institutional.
• This study appears to be the first to empirically investigate entrepreneurial activity among small business owners in the Chinese restaurant industry.

The purpose of this study was to gain information about the characteristics of small restaurant owners in China. The data for the study were hand-collected by survey questionnaires in four cities across three provinces in China. We found three main results. First, small restaurant entrepreneurs were characterized by one of three distinct motives in that they were autonomy seekers, family protectors, or profit seekers. Second, their funding sources were predominantly private rather than institutional. And third, the entrepreneurial business was the main source of the family's income. These findings have implications for development programs, financing, and education in developing China's restaurant industry. This study appears to be the first to investigate empirically entrepreneurial activity among small business owners in the Chinese restaurant industry.