Abstract: Entrepreneurship is an important force for China to promote innovation-driven strategy and economic structural transformation. Why does individuals have differentiated entrepreneurial decisions under the same institutional environment? Therefore, the study reveals the micro mechanism by which the institutional environment effects individuals’ entrepreneurial decision-making. Through the empirical analysis of 1000 research data, the results show: (1)positive cognition of institutions will significantly promote the entrepreneurial decision-making; (2)the entrepreneurial institutional environment ultimately acts on entrepreneurial decision-making by influencing individuals' risk perception and opportunity assessment; (3)the specific ways that the three institutions effect decision are different. The cognitive institution influences entrepreneurial decision-making through the continuous mediators of risk perception and opportunity evaluation. The regulatory institution and the normative institution are partly mediated by these factors; (4)individual’s risk perception significantly negatively affects opportunity evaluation. The two cognitive factors have negative and positive effects on entrepreneurial decision-making respectively. These conclusions are helpful to improve the construction of institution and the quality of entrepreneurship in China.