CUHK Business School Research Finds Rural Migrants in China Are Likely to Establish Bigger Companies

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 11 November 2021 – Big cities are where dreams thrive. Their cosmopolitan allure, together with the sweet smell of financial opportunity, have driven waves of migration to population centres throughout human history. In the modern era, one such narrative is continuing to rapidly unfold in China, where there were an estimated 286 million rural migrant workers in 2020, accounting for more than one-third of the entire working population in the country, and coinciding with a rapid rise in entrepreneurial activity. This coming together of two dramatic shifts has afforded a group of researchers an opportunity to look at how urban migration has helped to drive entrepreneurship in China, especially through the prism of the role of universities in churning out a steady supply of well-educated and innovative talent.