The commercial success of many high-profile Chinese entrepreneurs appears to have done little to encourage young Chinese college graduates to become their own boss. According to a recent report, only 1.6% of Chinese college graduates started businesses last year, essentially flat with the year before.

Also, while young Americans often look to create the next Facebook, China's budding business owners start out with lower skills and more modest ambitions.

The '2012 Graduate Employment Report,' released last week by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and MyCOS Research Institute, a Beijing-based education consultancy, shows that vocational-college graduates were more keen on starting businesses than those graduating from four-year colleges--with a ratio of 2.2% compared with 1% respectively.

The report showed that a large share of young entrepreneurs are based in China's less developed central and western areas, painting a picture of the typical Chinese entrepreneur as a restaurant owner or a pig farmer.

The vast majority of graduates received their funding from their parents and relatives--80% of four-year graduates and 82% of vocational-college graduates--while most Western young entrepreneurs are funded by so-called angel investors and public sources, such as government or university-based funds.

According to the study, arts and design majors were prominent among Chinese start-up entrepreneurs with four-year degrees, while among vocational-college graduates logistics-management studies was a common major, with many graduates setting up e-commerce or transportation and storage businesses.

Even though business competitions in China sponsored by government and universities to boost young entrepreneurship draw a lot of entries, many participants are not actually competing for future business. According to a survey conducted by Xiamen University, 53% of participants in its university business competition claimed that they entered to gain more work experience and contacts to help them in their future job hunt.

A number of academic surveys indicate that while Western graduates benefit from business-focused college courses where critical thinking is encouraged, Chinese students often put little value on creativity and refrain from taking risks, a trait researchers attribute to a Chinese education system traditionally based on rote learning.

Lack of angel capital investors are also blamed for the comparatively small number of start-ups. 'It is difficult for young entrepreneurs to find investment,' said Li Kaifu, chief executive of Innovation Works, at a conference in April.

To be sure, plenty of high-skill, high-tech businesses are started in China every day, especially in the coastal provinces and major cities. And funding opportunities are growing. 'The potential of domestic angel investment is huge and will be vital for China's business ecosystem,' Mr. Li said in April.

Xue Manzi, a prominent Chinese angel capital investor, said in a business competition this February that China's entrepreneur environment is second only to that of the U.S. However, he said, innovation remains a problem.

'Capital is not the issue, but a good project. Some start-up programs by Chinese students are simply copycats,' he said.