Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2019, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (1): 211-236.

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Dialect Competence,Language Environment and Urban Migration Entrepreneurship

YANG Ye1, ZHU Chen2, TAN Yi3   

  1. 1. Department of Investment, School of Public Economics and Management, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics;
    2. Resarch Center of Regional Economy, School of Urban and Regional Sciences/Institute of Finance and Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics;
    3. Department of Finance, Antai College of Economics & Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
  • Online:2019-01-20 Published:2019-01-20
  • Supported by:

    This study was supported by the project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSSFC) in the title of "Research of Institutional Learning, Cultural Differences and Cross-border Risk Investment Behavior and Performance" (71573163) and "Research on Risk Investment Behavior in Early Stage of China from the Perspective of Uncertainty"(71573174)

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Abstract:

In China,language has the dual attributes of "communication" and "culture". On the one hand,good communication skills not only help businessmen grasp information accurately but also help them impress creditors to secure external financing.On the other hand, local dialect competence help promote shared identity and facilitate local social networking to gain access to business resources and ease business transactions. This paper applies the social identity theory to explore the important role of the cultural attributes of language in migrant entrepreneurial behaviors. The data is drawn from the Chinese Family Panel Survey Data (CFPS). The regulation effect of language environment is analyzed through indicators of linguistic diversity and popularity of Mandarin.The study finds that after controlling the "communication attributes" of the language, the "cultural attributes" of the language increased the probability of migrants' entrepreneurship by 1.8%. The outcome is consistently presented even after applying the "twin" sample to overcome potential selectivity bias and endogeneity. The study also finds that the significance of the "cultural attributes" of language affects the migrant group with "low material capital" but is not visible with the group with "high material capital", an indication that social capital of shared cultural identityis used to compensate for the lack of material capital.Also,areas with less linguistic diversity and a lower level of Mandarin usage see more effects of the "cultural attributes" of language in migrants' start-up business decisions,however, such attributes have no impact on business income.This study enriches the existing research on language behaviors by making a link between language and entrepreneurship that reveals the important role of "cultural attributes" of language in migrants' business behaviors.

Key words: entrepreneurship, linguistic diversity, cultural differences, identity, language ability