TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to find out the causes of Chinese graduate entrepreneurship dilemma (both the Chinese graduate entrepreneurship rate and the Chinese graduates' entrepreneurship low success rate) and then to propose some suggestions to the dilemma.Design/methodology/approach– The study is conducted on the basis of 20 graduate entrepreneurship cases to summarize the necessary qualifications for graduates to start new businesses and then uses Global Entrepreneurship Monitor's (GEM) theory of entrepreneurial climate to analyze the entrepreneurial climate faced by Chinese graduates.Findings– This paper points out the internal and external causes of Chinese graduate entrepreneurship dilemma: the internal one is that most graduates do not have the qualifications for entrepreneurship; the external one is that the present entrepreneurial climate in China is poor, resulting in difficulties for Chinese graduates to start new ventures.Practical implications– The paper proposes the following countermeasures to help Chinese graduates get out of the entrepreneurship dilemma: undergraduates actively participating in social practice activities, establishing and improving the entrepreneurship education system, perfecting government policies and creating a strong entrepreneurial culture, respectively.Originality/value– Nowadays, there is much research into the causes of the Chinese graduate entrepreneurship dilemma from various viewpoints. However, an analysis of the causes using GEMs theory of entrepreneurial climate is rare. This paper analyzes the problem from this aspect. VL - 3 IS - 3 SN - 1756-1396 DO - 10.1108/17561391111166993 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/17561391111166993 AU - Zhao Xiuzhai ED - Zongling Xu ED - Danming Lin ED - Jun Li PY - 2011 Y1 - 2011/01/01 TI - The causes and countermeasures of Chinese graduate entrepreneurship dilemma: Based on the analysis of entrepreneurship cases and entrepreneurial climate T2 - Journal of Chinese Entrepreneurship PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 215 EP - 227 Y2 - 2024/04/23 ER -