Sociodemographic correlates of business ethics, family values and personal beliefs among Chinese entrepreneurs

Abstract

Based on an interview survey of 146 private business owners in a major city in China, this study investigated the owners' personal values, beliefs, business ethics, and the sociodemgraphic correlates of such beliefs, values and ethics. Although in most aspects they were not much different from their counterparts in other societies, the emerging Chinese business owners showed uniqueness and ambiguities in some of their values, beliefs, and ethics. They attributed little of their business success to Confucianism or any religious values. The relationship of religion to economy, as espoused by Weber and others, was inapplicable to the Chinese socialist system.