Founder Expertise, Strategic Choices, Formation, And Survival Of High-Tech Smes In China: A Resource-Substitution Approach

This paper uses a resource-based perspective to better understand how the three most established expertise possessed by founding entrepreneurs influence the development path of firms operating in the high-tech industrial sector. The longitudinal evidence from two rounds of face-to-face interviews with the owners of Chinese high-tech SMEs in 2004 and 2009 identifies three business strategic choices innovation, product, and production that are essential to optimize the expertise and sources of finance available for creating and growing a high-tech business. The findings from the interview evidence offer novel insights into the entrepreneurial development path of firms associated with types of entrepreneurs and availability of financial sources possessed by founding entrepreneurs.