Women entrepreneurship in China: A bibliometric literature review and future research agenda

•This bibliometric review focuses on the domain of Chinese women entrepreneurship.•A comprehensive intellectual landscape of this domain is depicted.•Co-citation analysis outlined the domain’s intellectual traditions.•Bibliographic coupling analysis identified five trending priorities.•Seven key directions were proposed to guide future research in this area. Women entrepreneurship in China plays a pivotal role in social and economic advancement. Over recent decades, Chinese female entrepreneurs have significantly impacted national and global economies. However, despite increasing research efforts, our understanding of this domain remains fragmented. To offer a comprehensive overview, we conducted a bibliometric review of 85 primary articles and 5,010 secondary documents, unveiling the intellectual landscape of research in Chinese women entrepreneurship. Employing document co-citation and bibliographic coupling analyses, we delve into intellectual traditions/foundations and emerging research areas. By synthesizing these findings, the article outlines a research agenda aimed at advancing our scholarly knowledge of women entrepreneurship in China. We highlight that future women entrepreneurship research can delve deeper into theoretical roots in the Chinese context, effects of cultural values, intranational disparities, multi-level entrepreneurial barriers, digital entrepreneurship, gender differences in entrepreneurial self-efficacy and intention, and the roles of generative artificial intelligence (AI).