The impact of education on entrepreneurial entry in rural areas: the role of village entrepreneurial intensity and clan culture in emerging economies

Drawing on human capital theory, this study investigates how formal education, village entrepreneurial intensity, and clan culture shape entrepreneurial entry in rural areas, using large-scale longitudinal data from the China Labour Dynamic Survey (2012–2018). The analysis reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship between formal education and both necessity-driven and opportunity-driven entrepreneurship, indicating that additional education initially increases but eventually decreases the likelihood of entrepreneurial entry. Moreover, village entrepreneurial intensity broadens access to opportunity-driven entrepreneurship by lowering the educational threshold required to recognize and pursue opportunities, while clan culture exerts a stronger influence on necessity-driven entrepreneurship by enabling individuals with limited formal education to start businesses through kinship-based support. The findings underscore that the impacts of education on entrepreneurship are context dependent, offering new insights into the boundary conditions of human capital in rural entrepreneurship.