No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Gender differences in firm performance: Evidence from new ventures in the United States
... Women-founded businesses have yet to achieve the same societal and financial impact as those founded by men (Robb and Watson, 2012). Jayawarna et al. (2013) further elucidated this issue in their research, which explored the motives behind entrepreneurship based on career progression, family life stages, and work cycles. ...
... According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2020 survey, approximately 274 million women participate in start-ups worldwide, with 139 million women leading existing enterprises and 144 million informal investors (GEM, 2021). However, women-founded businesses' social and financial effect has not yet gained the same level as men-founded businesses (Robb and Watson, 2012). ...
... Despite the development of women-owned firms, there is widespread agreement that they are less successful, have lower revenues, and are smaller than men (Wang and Morrell, 2015;Robb and Watson, 2012). According to Chreim et al. (2018), women business entrepreneurs frequently face internal and external barriers due to the lack of economic, social, and financial support. ...
... Women-founded businesses have yet to achieve the same societal and financial impact as those founded by men (Robb and Watson, 2012). Jayawarna et al. (2013) further elucidated this issue in their research, which explored the motives behind entrepreneurship based on career progression, family life stages, and work cycles. ...
... According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2020 survey, approximately 274 million women participate in start-ups worldwide, with 139 million women leading existing enterprises and 144 million informal investors (GEM, 2021). However, women-founded businesses' social and financial effect has not yet gained the same level as men-founded businesses (Robb and Watson, 2012). ...
... Despite the development of women-owned firms, there is widespread agreement that they are less successful, have lower revenues, and are smaller than men (Wang and Morrell, 2015;Robb and Watson, 2012). According to Chreim et al. (2018), women business entrepreneurs frequently face internal and external barriers due to the lack of economic, social, and financial support. ...
... Thus, entrepreneurs who are mainly responsible for leading organizations try to improve its performance through new strategies, plans and procedures throughout the life cycle of the organization (Hoque and Awang, 2019). Male entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurs differ in their management style due to different attitude, behavior, biological and cultural upbringing, and psychological differences (Robb and Watson, 2012). At the same time, there is a visible trend of increasing representation of women in top management of organizations around the world, supported by the fact that corporations with female CEOs make better decisions for shareholders, with gender playing a vital role in organizational performance (Huang and Kisgen, 2013). ...
... An analysis from an ethical point of view, shows that, if the occurrence of women increases, the organization's goal of balancing itself is autonomously achieved (Martínez and Rambaud, 2019), and from an economic point of view, it is argued that, women should be promoted according to their education and professional knowledge, so that the organization is not in a position to experience a decrease in its profitability (Robb and Watson, 2012). Research has found that, personal values, business strategy and performance of a company are influenced by the demographics of the owners/managers and not necessarily their gender (Rosemond et al., 2008). ...
In discussions about organizational performance, an essential topic is gender differences in top management, as the individuals responsible for the governance of the organization can contribute to its financial sustainability and risk-taking. This has also led to the purpose of our study, to explore the influences that these differences exert on organizational performance. Specifically, the study uses a literature review to identify relevant theoretical perspectives and empirical findings, highlighting the connections between gender diversity and organizational outcomes, with a particular focus on analysing gender diversity in top management. Also, by means of a bibliometric analysis, the main research directions and concerns related to gender diversity in organizational contexts are identified. Keywords: organizational performance; male leaders; female leaders; top management; gender diversity.
... Although prior experience is considered to be of great importance, empirical research on its association with venture performance provides inconclusive evidence, ranging from positive, non-significant to negative associations (e.g., Garcés-Galdeano, Larraza-Kintana, Cruz, & Contín-Pilart, 2017;Zhao, Song, & Storm, 2013;Spanjer & von Witteloostuijn, 2017;Robb & Watson, 2012;Oe & Mitsuhashi, 2013;Naldi & Davidsson, 2014). Although the literature explaining this discrepancy is sparse, it suggests that these differences may result from inconsistencies in the way experience and performance are conceptualized and measured, differences in the age of firms, or differences in the size and composition of firm management (Reuber & Fischer, 1994;Cooper, Gimeno-Gascon, & Woo, 1994;Delmar & Shane, 2006). ...
... Indeed, the results of more than three decades of research in this area have not provided convincing support for the "learning by doing" hypothesis. Although a considerable portion of the research has shown that entrepreneur's prior experience positively relates with venture performance (e.g., Evans & Leighton, 1989;Dyke, Fischer, & Reuber, 1992;Gimeno, Folta, Cooper, & Woo, 1997;Lerner, Brush, & Hisrich, 1997;Reuber & Fisher, 1997;Lerner & Almor, 2002;Chandler & Lyon, 2009;Gimmon & Levie, 2010;Zhao et al., 2013;Spanjer & von Witteloostuijn, 2017), there are a number of studies that have found a non-significant (e.g., Sandberg & Hofer, 1987;Bates, 1990;Robb & Watson, 2012;Oe & Mitsuhashi, 2013) or even a negative relationship between the two (e.g., Van de Ven, Hudson, & Schroeder, 1984;Jo & Lee, 1996;Naldi & Davidsson, 2014). ...
PURPOSE: In both theory and practice, the entrepreneur’s prior experience is considered to be one of the most important human capital factors affecting venture performance. Nonetheless, the research on the effect of experience on venture performance has produced inconclusive findings. The literature explaining this inconclusiveness is sparse, but several determinants have been identified, such as the variability in the conceptualization and measurement of experience and performance, age of the investigated ventures, types of industry, or size and composition of venture management. The inconsistency of these features across primary studies makes it difficult to compare the results and to integrate findings. METHODOLOGY: This meta-analysis reviews and summarizes 80 primary studies in order to investigate the relationship between entrepreneur’s experience and venture performance. We investigated the effect of five determinants of this relationship, namely the type of experience, type of performance, venture age, size of managerial team, and composition of managerial team. A random effect model was applied and the correlation coefficient was used as an indicator of effect size. FINDINGS: The study found that experience positively affected venture performance, although the magnitude of the effect was rather small. Venture performance showed to have the strongest significant relationship with start-up experience, followed by industrial, working, and managerial experience. International, functional, and entrepreneurial experience had a non-significant effect on venture performance. Moreover, the effect of experience on venture performance was not significant for older ventures. Experience significantly affected two types of venture performance, namely the size of venture and profitability, while the effect on growth was non-significant. Finally, of all the types of venture management, the experience of owner-inclusive entrepreneurial teams had the greatest effect on venture performance. IMPLICATIONS: Investor practitioners may find it helpful to assess entrepreneurs’ experience within a broader context, taking account of the types of experience the entrepreneur possesses. Entrepreneurs’ international, functional, and entrepreneurial experience should be considered very carefully, as they had a non-significant effect on venture performance. In contrast, having experience of founding a venture or of a particular industry seems to provide more value than experience of doing business internationally, or being in business for many years. Another important aspect that investors and venture capitalists should take into account is the size and composition of the entrepreneurial team and the extent to which the venture proposal reflects the different types of experience the team members possess. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: The study contributes to the human capital literature by firstly attempting to examine systematically the overall magnitude of the relationship between entrepreneur’s experience and venture performance. It also contributes by investigating the determinants of the relationship between experience and venture performance. It summarizes and combines previous inconclusive findings about the impact of different types of experience on different venture performance outcomes.
... Despite that, studies by Robb and Watson [35], Marinova, et al. [36], and Gregory-Smith, et al. [37] found no conclusive evidence that a company's performance is affected by women's representation on the company's board. ...
... A possible explanation for this is that foreign directors' influence on strategic changes weakens as corporate performance improves and that the status quo and industry standards continue to prevail [52]. Finally, similar to Robb and Watson [35], Marinova, et al. [36], and Gregory-Smith, et al. [37], the effect of female directors on firm performance is found to be insignificant, possibly because on average there are only 10% of women represented on the boards of the E&E PLCs. ...
This study examines the effect of effective tax rate (ETR) and board diversity on the performance of Malaysian public-listed companies (PLCs) in the electric and electronic (E&E) industry. The sample of this study comprised 51 E&E public companies listed in the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia during the financial periods 2018 and 2022. This study documents a significant positive relationship between firm performance and ETR, consistent with the political cost theory, suggesting that high-performing industries such as E&E are more at risk of political scrutiny and, hence, tend to pay higher amounts of tax despite the tax incentives provided by the government. Interestingly, foreign directors are negatively related to a firm’s performance. The possible explanation for this is that the E&E industry is highly regulated by the Malaysian government; hence, foreign directors’ contribution and authority to make independent strategic changes to drive the firm’s performance are limited. Finally, the effect of female directors on firm performance is found to be insignificant, possibly because, on average, only 10% of women are represented on the board of the E&E PLCs. The study findings are of significant interest and beneficial to policymakers, the government, and tax authorities in trying to understand the implications, assess the effectiveness, and tightly monitor the tax incentives and board diversity policy of the E&E companies.
... Hierarchization values what is considered male as the norm, while segregation separates male and female roles based on these gender distinctions (Tillmar et al 2022). The underperformance hypothesis has been strongly refuted in numerous studies (e.g., Durietz and Henrekson, 2000;Watson, 2002;Robb and Watson, 2012). Researchers argue that women's entrepreneurial performance is often constrained by gendered norms both within and across industries (Tillmar et al., 2022). ...
Previous research has demonstrated that female students exhibit lower entrepreneurial intentions compared to their male counterparts, with these intentions also developing less significantly over the course of their studies (Joensuu et al, 2013). However, the precise reasons for this disparity remain unclear. This study examines the issue from two perspectives: entrepreneurship competence and support from one's immediate social circle. The aim of the research is to investigate gender differences in entrepreneurial intentions, entrepreneurship competence, and the perception of social support. Additionally, the study explores the influence of gender, entrepreneurship competence, and social support (subjective norm) on entrepreneurial intentions. The data for this study were collected in Finland over four different years (2019, 2020, 2021, and 2023) from first-year higher education students. The dataset includes a total of 2,795 respondents, with 1,430 men and 1,339 women. The results indicate that women consistently have lower entrepreneurial intentions, entrepreneurship competence, and subjective norm scores than men in every year of data collection. Moreover, linear regression analysis reveals that gender, entrepreneurial competence, and subjective norm explain 51% of the variance in entrepreneurial intentions, with subjective norm being the most significant factor in explaining these intentions. Furthermore, the regression analysis shows that gender moderates the effect of entrepreneurship competence—this effect is stronger for men than for women. For women, subjective norm is particularly significant. The experience of support for entrepreneurship is lower among women, which negatively impacts their entrepreneurial intentions. The findings suggest that societal support for entrepreneurship still favours men, which in turn influences entrepreneurial outcomes. It is possible that families continue to raise children differently based on gender, with entrepreneurship being perceived as more masculine and therefore more suitable for men than for women.
... Corvellec (1994) noted that "effectiveness" and "efficiency" are often used interchangeably with performance. Performance is commonly associated with factors such as profitability, expansion, and global presence (Folan et al., 2007;Robb & Watson, 2012;Musah et al., 2018). The French Ministry of Industry, as cited by Neely (2007), also considered value creation, employment generation, growth, competitiveness, survival continuity, cost reduction, and lean production as aspects of performance. ...
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) frequently face financial limitations and challenges in financial management. The introduction of equity crowdfunding (ECF) has added a new dimension to alternative financing in Malaysia. Since its inception in 2015, ECF has seen widespread adoption, showcasing the pivotal role of ECF platforms in connecting fundraisers with investors, thereby aiding SMEs in securing funding and investors in attaining returns. This study investigated two aspects of financial management, namely financial analysis and reporting and Financial Planning and Control (FPC). Performance was assessed using financial metrics (Model 1) and Customer Performance (CP) as a non-financial metric (Model 2). Surveys were digitally distributed to 231 respondents, representing issuers who had successfully raised ECF funds from 2016 to 2019. This “authority of the sender” tactic was employed to ensure that the survey reached the appropriate respondents. Ultimately, 92 respondents met the study’s criteria. The research drew on the theory of financial bricolage, utilising statistical tools like SPSS 20.0 and Smart-PLS 3.0. The findings indicated that Models 1 and 2 were compatible only with FPC. However, FPC had a negative impact on the CP metric, possibly due to FPC overlooking other factors that improve customer performance.
... This, coupled with the smaller size and service industry focus of many women-owned businesses (GEM, 2023), can make it harder for them to secure funding. However, equal access to resources could unlock the full economic potential of female entrepreneurs, allowing them to compete effectively with, and potentially exceed, the performance of male entrepreneurs (Robb & Watson, 2012). More importantly, the difference that emerges as most striking concerns management style: women entrepreneurs may prioritize manageable growth because of the demands of family life (Poggesi et al., 2016). ...
This paper investigates the interplay between gender, entrepreneurial ecosystem domains, and network-building behaviors of startuppers. Leveraging data from the PSED (Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics), we focus on how women navigate the entrepreneurial landscape. Our research design employs a novel approach to analyze both ecosystem domains and the micro-networks of entrepreneurs using Social Network Analysis (SNA). The results reveal key distinctions between male and female network-building behaviors. Women tend to build networks with a higher concentration of relatives, particularly spouses. This network structure, while smaller, fosters greater gender diversity within the network, potentially leading to new business opportunities. Furthermore, we find that gender significantly influences access to specific ecosystem resources. Female entrepreneurs exhibit lower access to informal financial capital and support from professionals. However, a more gender diversity appears to mitigate this disadvantage by facilitating access to informal financial capital and support from owners. Our experiment on ecosystem measurement identifies prevailing bi-directional relationships between most domain variables, highlighting the interconnected nature of the ecosystem. Within the micro-networks, the strength of ties among owners emerges as the most influential factor impacting various ecosystem domains. Additionally, the openness of an entrepreneur’s network plays a critical role in enhancing expected market innovation and fostering a focus on broader market targets beyond the local marketplace. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on how gender shapes network-building behaviors, highlighting the importance of gender diversity within networks and suggesting potential strategies to bridge the gender gap in entrepreneurship.
... This postulate is consistent with that of Kaplan-Meier, where the failure curve relative to men is above that relative to women. In the same vein, Robb and Watson [67] dispelled in their study the myth that companies owned by women are less efficient and less sustainable than those owned by men. ...
This article aims to understand and analyze the determinants of the failure of community pharmacies in Morocco. This study adopts a quantitative method based on a questionnaire. Referring to previous academic research, it is hypothesized that failure is explained by three factors: the pharmacist's profile, the organizational characteristics of the company, and the company's environment. The authors of this study examine this hypothesis on a sample of 120 Moroccan pharmacies. The results obtained show that the human and social capital available to a community pharmacist contributes to improving the probability of failure of their business (gender, entrepreneurial environment, motivation). The environment in which the pharmacy is established also contributes to the failure of Moroccan pharmacies through entrepreneurial training and pharmacist support. As for organizational characteristics, it should be noted that there is a positive correlation between the size of the start-up capital and failure. Unfortunately, state support in this area is ineffective, particularly regarding investment subsidies and state coverage of part of salaries, except for exemptions from social security contributions. Anticipating factors that lead to the failure of pharmacies in Morocco.
... Other studies found that gender-specific differences in performance disappear when models control variables including industry, the number of hours entrepreneurs worked, and previous entrepreneurial experience (e.g., Chell & Baines, 2000;Farhat & Mijid, 2018). Robb and Watson (2012) discovered that firms started by women did not perform significantly differently from other firms on three performance measures: survival, return on assets, and the risk-adjusted Sharpe ratio. Coleman and Kariv (2013) found no gender differences in financial strategies between female-owned and maleowned businesses. ...
It is well established that founder gender affects starting and managing new ventures, but its impact on firm exits is less understood. Following an in-depth exploration of the gendered experience of entrepreneurship through the lenses of liberal feminist and social feminist theories, this study argues that female entrepreneurs are less likely to achieve positive exits through mergers and acquisitions (M&As) or initial public offerings (IPOs). We analyzed data from 18,495 US ventures and found that firm size fully mediates the negative impact of female founders on IPOs and partially on M&As. Venture capital (VC) financing was also found to be a significant path through which founder gender influences firm size. These findings are robust across different methods and time periods. This research enhances our understanding of how gender influences successful business exits and suggests important theory and policy implications for female entrepreneurship.
... Women are often characterized as nurturing, supportive, kind, and emotionally expressive (Gupta et al. 2009). Previous studies suggest that male entrepreneurs may outperform their female counterparts (Robb and Watson 2012). This may be attributed to the influence of entrepreneurial performance by entrepreneurial personality traits, values and resources (Sriram and Mersha 2017). ...
This study not only illuminates the complex interplay of factors affecting the entrepreneurial performance of 558 Chinese female entrepreneurs but also significantly contributes to the burgeoning literature on gender dynamics in entrepreneurship. By employing a gender-aware framework and mixed methods, including Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), it breaks new ground in understanding the unique challenges and opportunities faced by female entrepreneurs. The identification of digital ability, opportunity development, entrepreneurial team heterogeneity, work-family conflict, and gender stereotypes as pivotal elements offer valuable insights for crafting targeted support strategies and policies to enhance female entrepreneurial performance (FEP). Furthermore, the study’s revelation of two distinct pathways to enhance FEP not only provides practical guidance for aspiring female entrepreneurs but also lays the groundwork for future research to explore the nuanced interactions between these factors.
... As a result, female inventors are less likely to adopt an opportunitydriven strategy, resulting in a lower level of innovation within organizations than male inventors (Serviere-Munoz et al., 2013). A second explanation is related to incentives discrepancies between enterprises owned and led by females and those owned and led by males (Robb & Watson, 2012). In this vein, female owners and leaders tend to have limited access to financial resources, which presents obstacles to innovation and growth (Rosa and Sylla, 2018). ...
Certain decision-making principles shape the way organisations take innovative actions. Prior insights into effective entrepreneurial strategies have been associated with effectual/causal decision-making reasoning. However, little is known about how effectual and causal rationales drive innovative behaviours and decisions across genders and in the context of uncertain post-Soviet economies. This study analyses the gendered causal and effectual reasonings within innovative SMEs in emerging economies. By adopting the gendered and effectuation theoretical approaches, a proposed conceptual model was tested using a sample of 378 innovative small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in Belarus. Our results question whether female inventors are more likely to adopt hybrid decision-making reasoning than male inventors. Several implications for SMEs and policymakers emerged from this academic discussion.
... The remaining most investigated areas relate to women's study (4.8%), finance (4.3%), information science (4.3%), environment (3.7%) and ethics (3.7%). (Table 4) reveals that among the 1,060 keywords, the one that is most frequently repeated is "Performance" (9%), followed by "Gender" (8%), "Growth" (4%) and "Entrepreneurship" (4%), which is highly consistent with the nature of the topic under (Robb and Watson, 2012) is related to the topic of women entrepreneurs and their performances in launching successful new ventures published in the "Journal of Business Venturing." Similarly, the third most cited research (Strøm et al., 2014) is published in the "Journal of Banking & Finance" and deals with the impact of female leadership on governance and performance in the microfinance industry, which is particularly suited due to its mission orientation, its entrepreneurial nature and high representation of female leaders. ...
While most research on female entrepreneurship has been conducted using the traditional private-for-profit logic, with the growing rise of hybrid and public organizational forms, the value of female entrepreneurial initiatives tends to be shared with society at large. Overcoming the traditional distinction between private vs public sectors, this paper relies on the publicness theory and aims to appreciate the shared value of female entrepreneurship by reviewing evidence from the field of knowledge sharing.
The authors conduct a three-phase systematic literature review on female entrepreneurship and knowledge sharing based on a sample of 188 articles for the period 2010–2022 retrieved from the three most extensive databases for evaluating scientific research (i.e. WoS, Scopus and Google Scholar) using a combination of relevant keywords within business and management domain. After the performance analysis of selected publications, the authors conduct a content analysis aimed at identifying the most recurrent theoretical framing, the impact of female entrepreneurship on value creation and the use of knowledge sharing. Finally, the authors conduct a thematic analysis using the theoretical perspective of the publicness to frame how different knowledge-sharing practices have been used in female entrepreneurship to create and spread public value.
The findings reveal that female entrepreneurship research has generally adopted managerial organizational and sociological theoretical frameworks, reported positive implications on value creation and has seldom exploited knowledge-sharing practices, with particular reference to the settings of low level of publicness. In addition, based on the development of the conceptual model, the authors suggest that the practice of networking in organizational structures characterized by a high level of political and/or economic authority makes the pattern of public value-sharing with the entire ecosystem easier.
The authors adopt an original approach that frames female entrepreneurship research within the lens of publicness theory to highlight the knowledge-sharing practices that allow the value created by female entrepreneurial initiatives to become a shared value in organizations characterized by high levels of political and/or economic authority. The proposed framework contributes to the research on entrepreneurship and knowledge sharing by providing a structured reference point to carry forward research on gender entrepreneurship and knowledge-sharing practices through the theoretical lens of the publicness.
... An econometric study examines this conclusion. However, it goes against the findings of Robb and Watson (2012), who, in their research, rejected the belief that women-owned companies are more likely to fail than those owned by men. This would be explained by the risk aversion women take compared to men. ...
This article addresses a crucial and timely question: What are the critical factors in the entrepreneur’s profile that contribute to the failure of small Moroccan companies? To answer this question, this study seeks to meticulously analyze the failed entrepreneur's profile characteristics, drawing upon a myriad of previous academic studies. The present study study is based on data from a 2022 survey, which achieved a response rate of approximately 40%. The study utilizes a logistic regression model to test our hypothesis. Of significant importance are the findings of this study which reveal that an entrepreneur is more likely to witness company failure if he is a man under 35, driven by the need for income, and has established a SARL business.
... They often encounter barriers such as limited access to finance and societal discrimination (Ahl, 2006;Marlow & Patton, 2005). Diversification strategies, which enable businesses to mitigate risks and seize new opportunities, have received scant attention in the context of female entrepreneurship (Brush et al., 2020;Robb & Watson, 2012). ...
This study examines the strategic responses of Chinese female business owners to perceived operational barriers, integrating insights from the Resource-Based View, Signaling Theory, Institutional Theory, and Social Role Theory. Data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (conducted in China in 2012; the sample comprises 2,700 firms from diverse China’s industries) was analyzed with advanced path modeling techniques. All statistical analyses were conducted using R (version 4.0.2) and SPSS 29. The R packages lavaan and semTools were utilized for implementing Structural Equation Model (SEM) techniques. How female ownership influences diversification strategies was investigated with the mediation effect of business environment barriers and the moderation effect of international certifications. It is revealed that female entrepreneurs are more likely to pursue international diversification due to heightened perceptions of business environment barriers. Perceived regulatory barriers are positively related to product
... For instance, some studies argue that the underperformance results are driven by inappropriate performance measures and/or demographic differences (Robb and Watson, 2012). Based on the empirical literature, our hypothesis on the relationship between gender of the manager and firm performance is as follows: ...
This study explores the moderating role of the business environment in the relationship between top manager gender and firm performance, using firm‐level data from 29 African countries. Controlling for endogeneity and country fixed effects, we find that female‐managed firms generally underperform male‐managed firms, except among large firms where female managers excel. The performance gap is exacerbated by a weak business environment, highlighting the need for reforms to close the managerial gender gap in Africa. Strengthening the business environment is essential for improving female‐led firm performance and by extension promoting gender equality in African business leadership.
... Descriptive research provided a foundation for researchers to build further evidence (then both descriptive and causal) and improve the understanding of the causes of these descriptive differences (Robb and Watson, 2012;Justo et al., 2015) and associated policy prescriptions and efficacy (Van der Zwan et al., 2012;Bates and Robb, 2013;Fairlie et al., 2015). Much of this research is receiving important new advancement in entrepreneurship research due to increasing interest in issues of intersectionality and transitional entrepreneurship (Pidduck and Clark, 2021;Bruton et al., 2021). ...
Purpose
Publicly available datasets in the USA present data suppression issues that limit the ability to investigate entrepreneurial subgroups like military veterans, which account for about one in ten entrepreneurs in the USA. Thus, despite public desire to support veteran entrepreneurs (“vetrepreneurs”), there is a limited descriptive understanding on the relationship between veteran business owner demographics, such as gender and race, and their business survival and growth. We address this limited understanding in this article by providing descriptive evidence on veteran-owned business survival and growth, emphasizing variation across race and gender.
Design/methodology/approach
We use limited-access longitudinal microdata to provide descriptive evidence on the survival and growth of veteran-owned firms across race and gender.
Findings
Findings indicate statistically significant variation across demographic subgroups’ business survival and employment growth. For example, veteran-owned firms have high women ownership rates, greater employment, revenues and payrolls, but also lower employment and revenue growth. More generally we provide descriptive evidence that military experience or the military community help women overcome the gender gap in small business survival.
Originality/value
This type of descriptive research is common among entrepreneurial researchers, however, peer-reviewed research specific to US veterans is very limited. These descriptive results are useful for policymakers and for spurring future policy research related to veteran entrepreneurs.
... They attach immense importance to their social and family well-being (Marlow & Carter, 2004), as they have less time due to domestic obligations (Al-Ameen, 2016). They often seek a balance between their private and professional lives (Robb & Watson, 2012). This discrepancy suggests that women-owned firms face discrimination in accessing finance, and another study confirms that women perceive financial constraints more than men do (Kwong et al., 2012). ...
This article highlights the determinants of financial inclusion within the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), focusing on the moderating role of the male/female entrepreneurial rate. To this end, we collected quantitative data for the eight member countries from 2010 to 2020 and used a panel model to determine if total financial inclusion service points was influenced by the supply of service points of banks, MFIs, or e-money, after controlling for public governance and investment rate and whether the rate of female or male entrepreneurship moderates this relationship between the supply of banking, microfinance or e-money providers and total financial inclusion service points. We also check if the growth of the different service providers is impacted by competition from each other. Finally, we check whether there is reverse causality: whether female or male entrepreneurship is impacted by the provision or any specific financial service. Our analysis finds that e-money service providers have grown exponentially, banking service points modestly, while microfinance service points have reduced in the region. Our regression results confirm that e-money services positively impact total financial inclusion, unlike banks and MFIs, which have no significant impact. Using interactive variables, we find that male entrepreneurs tend to enhance the relationship of banking and e-money services to total financial inclusion. On the other hand, women's entrepreneurship reduces the relationship between microfinance and e-money services providers to total financial inclusion. Our check for reverse causality shows that the male and female entrepreneurship rates are affected negatively by microfinance service provision.
... Reasons may be due to the wide spread of excessive education for women, awareness and motivation, support of government to the growth of women entrepreneurships, and lack of proper jobs in public or private sector for women . Prior research on female entrepreneurs found that companies run by women had lower sales, profit, and employment levels (Robb et al. 2012;Watson, 2003). Other research studies have shown that businesses owned by women underperform in terms of financial growth as compared to companies owned by men (Watson, 2003). ...
This paper aims to identify the key factors influencing sustainability of women entrepreneurship in Oman. The study adopted a mixed design approach. The data for the study was collected through a structured questionnaire including 107 women entrepreneurs, in addition to interviews with two women entrepreneurs in Muscat A stratified random sampling was employed to provide a better representation of the women entrepreneurs sectors. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and T-test and Chi-square test were used to determine the key factors influencing the sustainability of women entrepreneurship in Oman and validate the study hypotheses. The main findings of the study showed that entrepreneurial characteristics, entrepreneurial personalities, government support, external environment, and entrepreneurial human capital have a significant impact on sustainability of women entrepreneurship in Oman. Furthermore, 86.2% of women entrepreneurs in Oman were experiencing loses during the last four years. The main challenges facing women entrepreneurship in Oman include complexity of rules and regulations of doing business, unfair competitions with large enterprises, lack of access to finance, and lack of skilled workers. The implications of such challenges have been discussed and some recommendations to promote sustainability of women entrepreneurship in Oman have been suggested.
... It is still believed that women are logically less ambitious and so bring the accommodation to their socially imposed responsibilities as primary caregivers (Brush 2009). Regardless of the level of economic growth, stereotypes, idealizations, and preconceptions about male breadwinners and stay-at-home mothers still exist, according to Watson and Robb (2012). ...
Gender-related entrepreneurship research remains essential for analyzing various socioeconomic, cultural, and socio-family abstractions of human capital that are distinct to gender. This study provides a comprehensive review of the literature about the theoretical foundations, results, assessment, and research that considers specifically composition of human capital as a moderator in the structure of gender entrepreneurial behavior. In this review study course, the SSLR (Semi-Systematic Research Review) approach is utilized to develop future research outlines. The key findings state that studies on female entrepreneurs that concentrate specifically on education and perceived abilities have a number of shortcomings. This includes failing to grasp the importance of simultaneously addressing individual and country-level indicators, as well as structural, historical, and cultural variables. The findings thus reinforce the importance of viewing the structure of female entrepreneurs as part of a holistic interdependent system, highlighting how the interaction of factors at various levels shapes identities, career choices, and perceptions of entrepreneurial opportunities and constraints. Finally, findings indicated that there is a need for a new approach to gender and economic inclusion methods, such as life histories, longitudinal empirical analysis, narrative analysis, approaches with in-depth interviews, or discourse analyses. At the end an agenda for future research is developed based on the review, with implications for entrepreneurship educational attainment and perceived abilities being highlighted.
... Some researchers argued that the latter was directly correlated with business survival. Though several studies cited higher dissolution rates for businesses owned by women (Fairlie & Robb, 2009;Robb, 2002;Boden & Nucci, 2000) other sources said they were consistent with those owned by men (Coleman & Robb, 2012;Robb & Watson, 2012). Discussions surrounding work-life balance and the division of family and household responsibilities were predominant ones for women who worked, regardless of marital status or parenting. ...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the experience, attributes, and behavior of single mothers and the ways in which these inform their entrepreneurial actions. With this aim, and in absence of research on this population, a wide-ranging review of the literature on both single parents and female entrepreneurs was employed. Single mothers represent a growing population of entrepreneurs. Single mothers are also an historically underrepresented, oppressed, and stigmatized demographic viewed by society as a problem to be solved. In response, this research focused on their strengths. Narrative inquiry guided interviews with 43 participants who were single parents at the time they began entrepreneurship. Data were analyzed iteratively using constructivist grounded theory and revealed a process model for how single mothers translate abilities honed through their experience single parenting to their business ventures. Further, these created the conditions for participants to enter a state of thriving.
Keywords: single parent female entrepreneur, mumpreneur, mompreneur, single mothers, female entrepreneur, upward mobility, women owned businesses, success, learned resourcefulness, thriving
... As both migrant women (World Migration Report, 2022) and female entrepreneur (GEM, 2021) numbers have grown, female entrepreneurship research has increased exponentially (Deng et al., 2020). Extant research mainly focuses on individual entrepreneurial characteristics and motivations for starting a business Hughes, 2003;Rehman and Roomi, 2012); financing practices (Gu erin, 2006); business management and strategy (Welch et al., 2008); and their entrepreneurial performance (Robb and Watson, 2012;Bardasi et al., 2011;Marlow and McAdam, 2013). ...
Purpose
Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) research has focused on high-growth scale-up entrepreneurship, whereas the role of EEs in nurturing the ventures of marginalised groups like migrant women entrepreneurs (MWEs) has often been elided from extant discussions. This research explores how the EE's structure, policies and programmes advance diversity, equity and inclusion to foster MWEs, and MWEs' contribution to the dynamics and sustainability of the host country's EE based on EE actors' perspectives. We contribute to EEs' diversity, equity and inclusion, which are important but neglected social aspects of sustainable EEs.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative data was collected through thematic interviews with EE actors, including NGOs and entrepreneurial support-providing organizations based in Finland. The collected data was complemented by interviews with MWEs, archival data and published supplementary materials on ecosystem actors.
Findings
EE structure, policies, programmes and individual agency, coupled with MWEs' proactivity in lobbying the necessary actors in the required places for their interests, enhance their businesses' development. There were both impeding and fostering dynamics, which may have idiographic and contextual features. Evidently, by being occupied in various sectors, from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to socially beneficial niche service sectors, MWEs contribute to the host country's EE dynamics not only through their productive entrepreneurship but by enriching the ecosystem's resource endowments and institutional arrangements.
Originality/value
We argue that exploring the gender and inclusivity aspects of EEs as the accommodating context is particularly relevant, given that the United Nation's sustainable development goals 5, 8 and 10 aim to improve women's empowerment at all levels, promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and ensuring equal opportunities and reduced inequalities within the population. Inclusion and embeddedness in EEs positively affect diversity and sustainability in the host country. Theoretically, our contribution is twofold. First, by exploring female migrants' entrepreneurial experiences within the EE based on EE actors' perspectives, we broaden the research on inclusivity in EEs and gender aspects and enrich the research on their societal impact, which has received scant attention from scholars. More specifically, we contribute to EE research with (1) a novel understanding of MWEs and EE elements, their interconnections and dynamism, (2) identifying previously ignored elements shaping MWE and (3) providing EE actor insights into the co-creation of EE for MWE. Second, by analysing the impact of MWEs' businesses on the host country's EE, we contribute to calls for research on MWE contributions to its economic environment.
... In entrepreneurship, the preferred entrepreneurial profile mirrors masculine characteristics, creating a "masculinized discourse" that disadvantages women and privileges men (Marlow et al. 2008). While studies find no inherent entrepreneurial weakness attributable to gender, gendered ascriptions impede women's ability to accumulate entrepreneurial capital and legitimacy (Robb & Watson, 2012), resulting in fewer women starting businesses because of structural and tacit discrimination. Female entrepreneurs often exhibit higher risk aversion (Faccio, Marchica, & Mura, 2016), leading to lower demand for bank credit and a higher reluctance to take on debt (Cowling, Marlow, & Liu, 2020). ...
Drawing on the rich firm-level enterprise survey dataset of more than 58,000 small enterprises in 39 developing and emerging economies, this study investigates gender disparities in firms' financial fragility, credit demand, and credit provision during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the role of digital transformation in addressing these disparities. We used a probit model with selection and an instrumental variable approach to account for the selection effects and endogeneity of the female ownership and leadership measures. Furthermore, several robustness checks are used to account for endogeneity problems caused by omitted variables and self-selection bias. These econometric tests were conducted using STATA software. We find that female-led businesses are more vulnerable to the negative effects of the pandemic and have higher demand for credit. However, they are less likely to request loans (credit self-rationing) and more likely to be denied credit when applying for bank credit. This gender bias in credit provision is exacerbated by the pre-pandemic financial constraints on female-led enterprises. This study also tested the mediating role of a firm's technology adoption and digital transformation in credit access. The results of the mediation analysis show that female-led enterprises that adopted e-commerce and remote work technologies during the pandemic had better access to bank credit than other firms, suggesting that digital transformation significantly enhanced female-led businesses' access to bank credit and narrowed gender disparities in the credit market in times of extreme financial and economic distress. Gender, Digital Transformation and Access to Bank Credit 2
... For instance, ownership structure constrains on gender entrepreneurship and women start-ups (Bird & Brush, 2002;Boden & Nucci, 2000;Coleman 1988;De-Bruin, et al., 2007;Gupta, et al., 2009;Hughes, 2003;Jennings & Brush, 2013). Besides, literature indicates limited availability of financial support to women results in smaller organizational size, lower assets and profits, and weak business performance (Fairlie & Robb, 2009;Robb, 2002;Robb & Watson, 2012). ...
This article seeks to understand the value creation process of women entrepreneurship and property rights in Pakistani context. More specifically, the study assesses the overarching question as to what the sound property rights means to women entrepreneurs in Pakistani context, and how it can help women entrepreneurs to effectively contribute to the stakeholders’ wealth and societal well-being. The study capitalizes on the proposed framework of value creation. These value outcomes accrue at four levels i.e. individual, business, household, and community or society levels. This study collects information to explore layers of these value creations mainly focusing at individual level. The researcher
utilized the narrative case for gathering the qualitative data from the targeted respondents. The study records five narrative based cases from women entrepreneurs engaged both in physical products and knowledge-based service sectors in District Peshawar, Pakistan. The study concludes that secured property rights boost women entrepreneurial activities and add to their empowerment on a continuum of weak and strong property rights. Besides, knowledge-based service sector entrepreneurial initiatives in Pakistan offers much safer spaces and working environment than tangible or businesses based on physical property. Due to the inseparability of service based business from the owners, for instance, software
engineering, medical, and legal practice skills etc., make it much secure for women to exercises control on these resources. In nutshell, the study concludes that sound property rights are imperative for women entrepreneurship, enhance their socio-economic conditions, and their well- being. In other words, a sound property rights enable women entrepreneurs at individual level in their personal development, high self-esteem, adoption of leadership roles in a family, and an active social member of the society in the wealth creation activities.
... This avenue has received considerable attention from an empirical view point (Poggesi et al., 2020). Certain studies have supported these notions (Rietz & Henrekson, 2000), while other have contested the idea (Robb & Watson, 2012). It has also been argued that women have different performance conceptualization (Fuller-Love, 2020;Weber & Geneste, 2014), where men might focus on profitability and growth and women focus more on sustainability and contribution (Sheikh, 2020). ...
In recent years, focus on women entrepreneurship has increased and women are encouraged to perform an active economic role in the modern societies. However, it has been argued that women owned and operated entrepreneurial ventures exhibit poor performance, raising questions on the entrepreneurial potential of the women. Another line of argument highlight that women are different than men, leading them to have different entrepreneurial aspirations. Considering this theoretical premise, this study adopts a social role perspective to explain differences of entrepreneurial performance of women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. By employing a qualitative research design and collecting data from 19 male and female entrepreneurs in Pakistan, this study finds indications that social roles influence the performance orientation of male and female entrepreneurs. It was also found that male entrepreneurs have a more material and financial approach to relate to their entrepreneurial performance as they stressed more on profitability, cash flows, and material growth. On the other hand, female entrepreneurs exhibit a more peoples-oriented approach. They seemed to focus more on their stakeholders like customers, family, employees, and society at large. The study concludes that both male and female entrepreneurs have different performance orientations, and a unidimensional performance comparison of entrepreneurial performance of male and female is futile. Therefore, future practice and research on women entrepreneurship should consider a feminist perspective of entrepreneurial performance, where women entrepreneurs might be interested in self-fulfillment and empowerment and not in material growth or financial outcomes. The scope of this study is delimited to educated women entrepreneurs, living in metropolitan areas of Pakistan.
... These results may be affected by the small number of women holding the position of CEO within the companies included in the surveyed sample (Ahmad et al., 2022). At the same time, Robb and Watson (2012) appreciate that both women and men who hold the position of CEO have similar influences on the financial performance of companies. Palvia et al. (2015) demonstrated that female CEOs are more restrained in terms of risk exposure, preferring to select less risky strategies compared to the attitude of men holding CEO positions, a result supported by Khan and Vieito (2013) and Bunea and Dinu (2018), respectively. ...
The main objective of this research is to identify to what extent the characteristics of the CEO (chief executive officer) influence the financial performance of banks within the Romanian banking system. The sample under investigation includes all 21 Romanian banks, and the analyzed period included the financial years related to the last 5 financial years (2018–2022). Regarding these characteristics, aspects such as age, gender diversity, education, nationality, and duality were included in the research, the financial performance of the banking system being measured through the ROA (return on assets) and ROE (return on equity) indicators, which are often used in the literature, including control variables such as the size of the bank, assessed by the total value of bank assets, the share of debts in total assets and the share of capital in total assets. Regarding the duality of the CEO, this is the practice of the same person holding both the position of chairman of the board of directors and that of executive manager. The authors tried to find the answer to the question: Is there a correlation between CEO characteristics and the financial performance of the banks, and if the answer is yes, to what extent are these correlations significant? To carry out this research, the authors used the SPSS software, the research methodology being predominantly quantitative, including descriptive methods, correlation analyses and regression models. The results of the research indicate that the financial performance of the banks operating within the banking system in Romania (measured by the ROA and ROE indicators) is influenced by the nationality and education of the persons holding the position of CEO but also by the size of the banks, appreciated by the value of their total banking assets.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the combined effect of gender, trust, leadership style and team integration on entrepreneurial team performance. Through an integrated analysis of gender composition and team processes, we enhance the understanding of the drivers of new venture teams’ performance.
Design/methodology/approach
We use data collected from multi-player startup simulations involving 52 teams of masters-level students across two countries. We used the fsQCA methodology to perform a configurational analysis of different team composition and processes. This innovative application of the methodology allows us to identify new combinations of gender diversity and team processes that improve team performance.
Findings
Teams with higher proportions of women who shared leadership were more profitable in several configurations, demonstrating the importance of the relationship between gender and leadership models on performance. Shared leadership resulted in high levels of trust and sense of control, which increased team effectiveness and performance. We found that combining trust with shared leadership consistently resulted in successful positive outcomes, although not all successful teams included these attributes.
Originality/value
Our findings contribute to renewing the frame of research on new venture team performance that has long revolved around the leadership-cohesion-alignment (LCA) triangle. Although the LCA paradigm certainly improved our understanding of new venture success, it provided only a partial understanding of the organizational and relational context. It offered a restricted view of the sources of cohesion and alignment. We believe that our approach to data analysis based on the fsQCA method allowed us to extend our understanding of the determinants of entrepreneurial team performance.
This chapter examines two different aspects of the way that the energy system influences women’s capacity to earn an income: energy as an input into women’s enterprises and the energy sector as a source of employment either running energy enterprises or as employees. The evidence indicates that the energy sector could be more gender equitable and socially inclusive which is a universal commonality. Gender norms play a role in determining what is suitable work for women. Indeed, there is still a way to go in terms of meeting women’s aspirations to work in or their enterprises to benefit from the services energy enables.
This paper provides key insights into women’s representation in the fintech industry, and descriptively examines the association between female leadership and firm performance in this industry. Using novel data from fintech firms in over 80 countries, we find that women leaders in this industry remain scarce. Our analysis reveals that firms founded by women are associated with lower firm performance as measured by their estimated revenue and funding acquired, especially for small firms. On the other hand, there is a positive association between gender diversity in executive board and firm performance, especially for mid-to-large sized firms.
University-based business incubators are essential catalysts for innovation, bridging the gap between academic research and industry needs. This chapter examines the evolution, structure, and function of these incubators, emphasizing their role in fostering entrepreneurship and driving economic growth. Through collaborative partnerships between academia, industry, and startups, university-based incubators facilitate the commercialization of research findings and the development of innovative products and services. Success stories of startups emerging from these incubators highlight the tangible impact of mentorship, resources, and strategic partnerships. Despite challenges such as funding constraints and bureaucratic hurdles, university-based incubators continue to adapt and thrive, advancing the innovation ecosystem. By providing a supportive environment for entrepreneurial ventures and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, these incubators play a vital role in shaping the future of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Ensuring equal access to entrepreneurship and startup funding for both female and male entrepreneurs is crucial for societal perceptions of justice and long-term prosperity. Previous research presents contrasting findings, with some studies indicating a male advantage and others suggesting a female advantage. This research reconciles these inconsistencies by identifying decision frame as a moderator. Specifically, in crowdfunding contexts, a consumer decision frame leads to stronger reliance on communal evaluation norms, resulting in favoring female entrepreneurs who are perceived as more disadvantaged. Conversely, an investor decision frame leads to stronger reliance on exchange evaluation norms, resulting in favoring male entrepreneurs who are perceived as more determined/passionate. Based on this, the authors propose that the strategic use of an entrepreneur’s profile, activating a specific evaluation norm, or showing crowdfunding dependence, attenuates the differential support for female versus male entrepreneurs, resulting in equal support for both. Results from six studies using a multimethod design provide converging support for this framework. This research is the first to differentiate and directly compare consumer versus investor decision frames, advancing the related literature and offering valuable guidelines for entrepreneurs, funding platforms, and public policymakers.
Purpose
The impact of digitalisation on smaller firms remains sparsely studied across emerging economies. The paper aims to examine the relationship between digital adoption and multiple performance parameters of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in a prominent emerging economy.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) 2022, capturing 9,024 Indian MSME firms spread across the country. Performance indicators are derived from growth in sales, employment and labour productivity (LPROD). Multiple regression estimates are derived that also correct for sample selection bias using Heckman’s two-step process.
Findings
Digital proliferation is found to increase as firms mature up in terms of age, size and constitution. A significant difference could also be observed in business performance across digital and non-digital businesses, with sales growth (SG) and productivity higher for digital firms. Digital financial variables are found to have a significant impact on SG but not as much in the case of employment growth and LPROD. The results are robust to correction for sample selection bias in digital adoption using inverse mills ratio (IMR).
Practical implications
The study highlights digital adoption gaps across various strata of MSMEs, highlighting lower adoption when firms are younger, smaller and lacking formal constitutional setup. Digital variables indicating positive association with SG highlight the need for concerted efforts at the public policy level for building appropriate skills and infrastructure for micro and small enterprises to boost their digital adoption to promote growth.
Originality/value
There is a lack of micro-level empirical evidence measuring the impact of advanced digital technology usage on multiple aspects of enterprise performance amongst micro and small firms. The study deploys unique digital variables including TReDS and use of online credit applications to assess the impact on business performance. The findings provide insights for practice and public policy, besides making the case for a higher focus on launching digital initiatives for smaller enterprises.
How do failure events affect subsequent new venture creation? The existing literature seems to point in two opposing directions. While the information perspective suggests that failure events undermine collective beliefs about market viability, the competition view implies that failures may foster entrepreneurship via easing competition in both factor and product markets. To address this question, we adopt an inductive approach and analyse registry data in Norway. Based on the firm-level microdata, we construct an industry-region-level marketspace to analyse the number of firm failures and new ventures in different markets. Results show that failures of existing firms generally lead to more venture creation in the same market, albeit being contingent on industry features. And such effect is mainly ‘pulled’ by product market vacuum, rather than ‘pushed’ by factor abundance. However, we also observe that ventures that are created following failure events are less likely to survive.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges faced by rural women entrepreneurs in Lebanon and explore how stakeholder engagement strategies, guided by stakeholder theory, can mitigate these challenges. By analyzing the interactions between stakeholders and women entrepreneurs, the study aims to uncover effective solutions that contribute to the sustained success of women entrepreneurs in Lebanon's rural areas.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses participatory action research (PAR) and narrative inquiry. PAR involves women entrepreneurs as active collaborators, fostering participation and enabling marginalized voices to address business challenges. Narrative inquiry delves into their experiences deeply, accessing multiple perspectives and insights.
Findings
This study uncovers challenges in resource accessibility, societal norms and market limitations for rural women entrepreneurs in Lebanon. Stakeholder influence, especially community support and tailored training programs, proves crucial. However, governmental involvement remains limited, relying more on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and expert mentorship. Targeted interventions and policies are essential for inclusive growth and gender equality in entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
This paper offers a unique perspective by focusing on rural women entrepreneurs in Lebanon, exploring their specific challenges within the country's socioeconomic landscape. Its interdisciplinary approach and actionable recommendations for practical strategies, along with a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, provide novel insights into women's entrepreneurship in rural settings.
It appears to be a collective acceptance that women must reason like men, act like women, look like girls, and work like horses. Talking about women vs. men in leadership, a person must first differentiate between the female aspect of leadership—delegating, pull leadership participative, encouraging, motivating, inspiring—and the male element of leadership—enforcing regulations, pushing people, setting rules, creating obligations, corporate behavior, putting limitations. The chapter contains the existing literature concerning women; entrepreneurship and family business in Turkey is studied, followed by the revision of the entrepreneurship of women due to Turkey's cultural context. Profiles of Turkish entrepreneurial women are deliberated upon. Then problems of entrepreneurial women are discussed in the latter segment. The chapter concludes with the applications and policy recommendations to aid entrepreneurship of women in Turkey.
The current study uses SUMAD meta-analytic methods (Oh, 2020) to examine gender differences in social responsibility and family-to-work conflict. Synthesizing evidence from across social science literature, the results of this study provide an evidence-based foundation to support more theorizing and practical discourse regarding gender effects in entrepreneurship. As explained by theories of socialization and social roles, gender differences in (a) socially responsible attitudes and behaviors and (b) the balance between family and work responsibilities, are likely two of the more pervasive gender effects that influence entrepreneurial careers. The goal of this study is to motivate more research and practical discussion on these and related gender effects to improve our understanding of entrepreneurship phenomena. Using firm performance as an example, the results of the SUMAD meta-analysis suggest that gender effects related to social responsibility and family-to-work conflict have significant consequences for entrepreneurship outcomes. Based on the evidence and theory rooted in socialization and social roles, the current study calls for more theorizing and primary-level studies on these and related gender effects in entrepreneurship research.
Self‐employed individuals faced numerous challenges amid the global health and economic crisis that was the COVID‐19 pandemic. Similarly, rural and urban workers faced different challenges during the pandemic. This rural–urban disparity further complicates the impacts of self‐employment and exacerbates inequalities resulting from gender, race, ethnicity, or immigration status. This study examines the economic consequences of the COVID‐19 pandemic across these categories in the United States using Current Population Survey data from May 2020 to May 2022. Comparing the wage and self‐employment sectors across rural and urban areas, I examine the effects of individual, business, and geographic characteristics on the probability of work stoppages due to the health crisis. The analysis reveals that recovery from the pandemic was delayed among the self‐employed, while additional education and full‐time employment status can reduce work interruptions for these workers, as does working in select industries. Findings suggest that rural and urban minorities are more likely to face pandemic‐related work disruptions, with key differences between formal and informal self‐employment sectors. Specifically, self‐employed Asians/Pacific Islanders and Native Americans were more adversely affected in rural areas. The study concludes with several policy and program recommendations to assist vulnerable workers, especially in the rural self‐employment sector.
After over two decades, the debate on the female underperformance hypothesis remains not concluded. This study sheds some new light on the hypothesis by (i) showing that surrounding institutional forces play an important role in determining how female businesses perform and (ii) arguing that to understand gender differences (or lack of those) in performance, we need to look at productivity alongside profitability, revenues, and growth. Specifically, we posit that, in certain developing countries, female entrepreneurs devise specific strategies to cope with challenging institutional contexts. In such contexts, female entrepreneurs have less opportunity to realize economic rents compared to males, but they respond to these constraints by becoming more efficient in resource use through relying on female employment. Investigating a large set of longitudinal data from Vietnam, we find that female businesses are more productive than male businesses, and that this effect is stronger when female owner-managers employ more female employees, or even female employees only. However, we also find that these positive effects are weakened with increased corruption. This provides important implications for female entrepreneurs and policymakers in developing countries.
Purpose
This paper investigates how gender, ethnicity, and network membership interact to influence how small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owner-managers become aware of finance support programmes developed by government policy and/or support schemes advanced by the banking industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on expectation states theory (EST), we develop eight sets of hypotheses and employ the UK SME Finance Monitor data to test them using bivariate probit regression analysis.
Findings
In general, network membership increases awareness, but more so for government programmes. We also find no differences between female and male owner-managers when in networks. However, we identify in-network and out-network differences by ethnicity, with minority females seemingly better off than minority males.
Practical implications
Business networks are better for disseminating government programmes than industry-led programmes. For native White women, network membership can enhance policy awareness advantage further, whilst for minorities, networks significantly offset the big policy awareness deficits minorities inherently face. However, policy and practice need to address intersectional inequalities that remain in access to networks themselves, information access within networks, and the significant out-network deficits in awareness of support programmes afflicting minorities.
Originality/value
This study provides one of the first large-scale empirical examinations of intersectional mechanisms in awareness of government and industry-led enterprise programmes. Our novel and nuanced findings advance our understanding of the ways in which gender and ethnicity interact with network dynamics in entrepreneurship.
Purpose
This article aims to explore the potential of feminist phenomenology as a conceptual framework for advancing women’s entrepreneurship research and the suitability of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to the proposed framework.
Design/methodology/approach
The article critically examines the current state of women’s entrepreneurship research regarding the institutional context and highlights the benefits of a shift towards feminist phenomenology.
Findings
The prevailing disembodied and gender-neutral portrayal of entrepreneurship has resulted in an equivocal understanding of women’s entrepreneurship and perpetuated a male-biased discourse within research and practice. By adopting a feminist phenomenological approach, this article argues for the importance of considering the ontological dimensions of lived experiences of situatedness, intersubjectivity, intentionality and temporality in analysing women entrepreneurs’ agency within gendered institutional contexts. It also demonstrates that feminist phenomenology could broaden the current scope of IPA regarding the embodied dimension of language.
Research limitations/implications
The adoption of feminist phenomenology and IPA presents new avenues for research that go beyond the traditional cognitive approach in entrepreneurship, contributing to theory and practice. The proposed conceptual framework also has some limitations that provide opportunities for future research, such as a phenomenological intersectional approach and arts-based methods.
Originality/value
The article contributes to a new research agenda in women’s entrepreneurship research by offering a feminist phenomenological framework that focuses on the embodied dimension of entrepreneurship through the integration of IPA and conceptual metaphor theory (CMT).
This paper examines how rural female entrepreneurs in Lebanon navigate challenges and opportunities amidst economic crises. It aims to understand how they leverage resources to overcome barriers and enhance their entrepreneurial potential, offering insights for fostering sustainable entrepreneurship in crisis-affected regions. This study employs Integrative Qualitative Methods, combining participatory action research (PAR) and narrative inquiry, to explore the motivations, experiences and aspirations of rural female entrepreneurs in Lebanon. Amidst severe economic crises, 28 female entrepreneurs participated in a three-year program supporting their businesses. The findings indicate that rural female entrepreneurs in Lebanon are primarily motivated by family sustainability, social effect and personal fulfillment. They demonstrate significant adaptability to market changes and are able to leverage support networks to manage resources effectively. Strategic resource allocation, communication and collaboration are key to their success. Overall, these findings highlight the resilience and strategic acumen of rural female entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of ongoing support for economic growth and community development.
The main objective of this research is to identify to what extent the CEO characteristics have affected the financial performance of banks within the Romanian banking system during the COVID 19 pandemic. Regarding these characteristics, aspects such as age, gender diversity, education were included in the research, the financial performance of the banking system being measured through the ROA (return on assets) and ROE (return on assets) indicators respectively. In order to carry out this research, the authors used the SPSS software, the research methodology being predominantly quantitative, including descriptive methods, correlation analyses and regression models. The results of the research indicate that the financial performance of banks operating within the banking system in Romania, measured by the ROA and ROE indicators, is influenced by the education of the persons holding the position of CEO, the other variables not exercising a significant influence on the financial performance of banks at the level of the Romanian banking system
This study explores entrepreneurial success among female entrepreneurs, a topic that is poorly investigated in the global South. After a literature review on the concept of women’s entrepreneurial success and on the institutional, economic socio-cultural and familial context of Moroccan female entrepreneurs, results of a qualitative study involving female entrepreneurs based in urban areas, working across diverse industries, are described. Findings indicate that entrepreneurial success is defined by Moroccan female entrepreneurs through four different viewpoints: (1) entrepreneurial success through a company’s financial standing, (2) self-assessed entrepreneurial achievements, (3) societal recognition of entrepreneurial success and (4) the evaluation of entrepreneurial success based on the benefits provided to others. The definition of entrepreneurial success is explored in line with the evolution of women’s priorities and the evolution of Moroccan society. The findings and implications provide policy makers, practitioners and academics with a better understanding of female entrepreneurship and on how to enhance and support these entrepreneurs to increase economic growth.
This study examines the reasons 129 women executives and professionals left large organizations to become entrepreneurs and how they measure success. Findings indicate that the women's most important entrepreneurial motivations were the desire for challenge and self-determination and the desire to balance family and work responsibilities. Also important were blocks to career advancement in large organizations, including discrimination, and organizational dynamics. These entrepreneurs measure success in terms of self-fulfillment and goal achievement. Profits and business growth, while important, were less substantial measures of their success. Motivation to become entrepreneurs was related to the criteria the women used to measure their success.
This article contains a theoretical discussion and an empirical test of Stinchcombe's "liability of newness" hypothesis, which assumes higher risks of failure for young organizations compared with old ones. It is shown that this hypothesis is not a good representation of the mortality hazard of West German business organizations. Therefore, we introduce the concept of a "liability of adolescence," which proposes an inverted U-shaped risk pattern. It is shown that mortality, depending on the initial resource endowments of a firm, peaks between one and fifteen years after founding. From this perspective, extended interpretations of the liabilities of smallness and legal form are given. These arguments are well supported by a log-logistic rate model estimated with our data.
This study had two primary objectives. First, to determine whether there are any systematic networking diffesrences between male and female SME owners. Second, to determine if there is an association between networking and firm performance, for both male- and female-controlled SMEs. The results of examining 2,919 male- and 181 female-controlled SMEs (with at least one employee) over a three-year period suggest little difference in the networks accessed by male and female SME owners after controlling for education, experience, industry, age and size. The results also indicate that several formal and informal networks are positively associated with firm survival but only formal networks appear to be associated with growth. In particular, accessing an external accountant is associated with survival and growth for both male- and female-controlled SMEs.
JOHN WATSON IS A SENIOR LECTURER IN accounting and finance and Dr. Jim Everett is associate professor of management science, both in the School of Commerce, University of Western Australia, Australia. In examining small business mortality researchers have used, or suggested, a variety of definitions (or proxies) for failure. It has been argued that a lack of a reliable measure of failure is a major obstacle to understanding and alleviating the causes of small business mortality. The objective of this study is to examine various definitions (or proxies) for failure identified in the literature and to assess these definitions against a set of criteria that have been developed for this purpose. The history of 333 small businesses that began in the period 1973-1988 in six managed shopping centres in Western Australia are analysed to illustrate the variation in reported failure rates that result from using the various definitions. The results show that the reported average annual failure rate ranged from less than 1 per cent through to 14 per cent, depending on which definition of failure is adopted. The results also indicate the possibility for using modelling to estimate potentially more relevant failure rates using readily available data such as bankruptcy statistics.
Purpose
While some previous research supports the existence of a finance gap within the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, particularly for female owned SMEs, the evidence is hardly unequivocal. Further, much of the prior research has focused on supply‐ rather than demand‐side issues. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate both supply‐ and demand‐side issues for female and male SME owners.
Design/methodology/approach
From the results of three focus groups and a review of the literature eight hypotheses were formulated for testing with a mail survey sent to 534 SME owners.
Findings
Based on 123 responses, the findings provide no evidence to suggest that a supply‐side finance gap exists within the Australian SME sector. There is also no evidence that Australian SME owners (particularly female owners) are being discouraged from applying for loans from a financial institution because they believe their application will be rejected. The results suggest that other demand‐side issues (particularly risk‐taking propensity and desire to maintain control) play a more important role in the capital structure decision making of SME owners.
Research limitations/implications
This study's major limitations are its reliance on a sample of solely Western Australian businesses that were not representative of the population of Western Australian SMEs and its relatively small sample size.
Practical implications
Financial advisers need to be sensitive to various demand‐side issues when advising SME owners about the merits of applying for external funding.
Originality/value
This study adds to the limited available evidence concerning the importance of various demand‐side issues to SME owners considering accessing external funding.
Previous research suggests a lack of external funding opportunities might inhibit the growth of many small and medium enterprises (SMEs), particularly female-controlled SMEs. However, the existing empirical research on this issue is extremely limited. The aim of this study, therefore, is to gain a better understanding of the relationship between SME growth and external funding and, in particular, to determine if there are any significant differences between female- and male-controlled SMEs. The study is based on a large (2 367 SMEs) highly representative longitudinal (four-year) database provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The results indicate that female-controlled SMEs have relatively lower levels of external funding than their male counterparts, with the difference being greater in older compared to younger firms. Further, the analysis suggests that pecking order theory, rather than bank discrimination, might be the primary cause of this difference. However, the results also indicate that the relatively lower levels of external funding in female-controlled SMEs does not appear to be inhibiting their growth (relative to male-controlled SMEs). The results suggest that profitability is the most significant determinant of firm growth.
Research articles on women's entrepreneurship reveal, in spite of intentions to the contrary and in spite of inconclusive research results, a tendency to recreate the idea of women as being secondary to men and of women's businesses being of less significance or, at best, as being a complement. Based on a discourse analysis, this article discusses what research practices cause these results. It suggests new research directions that do not reproduce women's subordination but capture more and richer aspects of women's entrepreneurship.
This study documents how owners of small businesses arrive at growth objectives for their firms. The decision to pursue (or not) a growth objective involves trade‐offs among both financial and non‐financial factors. Owners' growth decisions appear to be shaped by attitudes towards owners' perceived outcomes of growth and the opinions (about growth) of important others in the owners' lives. Male and female owners exhibit strong similarities in how they arrive at growth decisions. However, female business owners appear to accord relatively more weight to their needs for a supportive managerial and spousal setting and to be discouraged to a relatively greater degree by the growth‐related stress associated with personal demands made on their time and family.
Résumé
Cette étude documente la façon dont les propriétaires de petites entreprises formulent des objectifs d'expansion pour leur firme. La décision de suivre (ou de ne pas suivre) un plan donné comprend des facteurs financiers et non‐financiers. Les décisions d'expansion que prennent les propriétaires semblent dictées par les attitudes et la perception qu'ils ont au sujet de la croissance de leur propre entreprise. Elles sont aussi dictées par les opinions des personnes que les propriétaires ont en estime. Il existe de grandes similarités entre la façon dont les hommes propriétaires d'entreprise et les femmes propriétaires d'entreprise arrivent aux décisions concernant la croissance de leur entreprise. Mais, les propriétaires femmes semblent avoir relativement plus besoin d'une situation directoriale et familiale stimulante et sont découragées à un niveau relativement plus élevé par le stress lié à la croissance et les exigences faites sur leur temps et leur famille.
Purpose
– To investigate the relationship between biological sex (male or female) and stereotypical sex‐roles (masculinity and femininity) and to determine which might be more appropriate to use when examining small to medium‐size (SME) owner characteristics such as: locus of control (internal, powerful others and chance); need for achievement; risk‐taking propensity; and preference for innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
– Data for this study came from 673 usable responses (517 males, 156 females) to a survey of the attitudes and expectations of a random sample of SME owner‐operators in Western Australia.
Findings
– It was found that femininity was significantly higher for women compared with men, but that there was no significant difference for masculinity. Results also indicate that, unlike femininity, masculinity is highly correlated with all of the “traditional” psychological traits. As a result, only one significant difference between men and women (based on their biological sex) was found; men had a higher risk‐taking propensity.
Originality/value
– The results presented in this study confirm the belief that biological sex may not be an appropriate discriminator when examining differences in the psychological attributes of SME owners. Results suggest that the use of masculine and feminine traits might prove more useful in future research on this issue. Further, given the masculinity bias inherent in most of the psychological attributes typically found in the SME literature, it is suggested that Norman's Big Five (being more gender‐neutral) might be more appropriate in examining differences in SME owner characteristics.
Although entrepreneurial activity is an important part of a capitalist economy, data about U.S. businesses in their early years of operation have been extremely limited. As part of an effort to gather more data on new businesses in the United States, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (the Foundation) sponsored the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS), a panel study of new businesses founded in 2004 and tracked over their early years of operation. The KFS dataset provides researchers with a unique opportunity to study a panel of new businesses from startup to sustainability, with longitudinal data centering on topics such as how businesses are financed; the products, services, and innovations these businesses possess and develop in their early years of existence; and the characteristics of those who own and operate them.The current data provide an understanding of how businesses are organized and operate in their first five years of existence (2004 through 2008) and provide some indicators of survival and growth. Other measures describe the characteristics of the panel, such as the extent to which these businesses are involved in innovative activities. A series of tables gives a broad overview of the business and owner characteristics and firm survival over the period, and provide some new information available in the Third Follow-up Survey.
Using confidential microdata from the U.S. Census Bureau, we investigate the performance of female-owned businesses making comparisons to male-owned businesses. Using regression estimates and a decomposition technique, we explore the role that human capital, especially through prior work experience, and financial capital play in contributing to why female-owned businesses have lower survival rates, profits, employment and sales. We find that female-owned businesses are less successful than male-owned businesses because they have less startup capital, and business human capital acquired through prior work experience in a similar business and prior work experience in family business. We also find some evidence that femaleowned businesses work fewer hours and may have different preferences for the goals of their business.
This research examines the performance of 215 informal microenterprises in Jamaica, studying the influence of human capital, social capital, and financial capital of the owners on their business profitability. Understanding the importance of particular relationships that result in successful micro-businesses is important for a number of reasons. First, among many developing countries, the growth of microenterprise provides the most visibly vibrant and growing economic activity. Although considerable effort and resources are being directed toward microenterprise promotion schemes, empirical research on the subject is quite limited. Second, economies in developing countries mirror many of the social and institutional problems existent in urban economically disadvantaged areas of the United States and other developed countries. For these areas, microenterprise may be an essential component of urban renewal and community development. This study helps in identifying important characteristics of social and individual attributes that may be relevant to those attempting to strengthen this subsector. Finally, this study seeks to provide insight into a dimension of microbusiness research for which there are limited data, specifically, the role that social capital plays among practicing entrepreneurs and owners.
The study meta-analytically integrates results from three decades of human capital research in entrepreneurship. Based on 70 independent samples (N = 24,733), we found a significant but small relationship between human capital and success (rc = .098). We examined theoretically derived moderators of this relationship referring to conceptualizations of human capital, to context, and to measurement of success. The relationship was higher for outcomes of human capital investments (knowledge/skills) than for human capital investments (education/experience), for human capital with high task-relatedness compared to low task-relatedness, for young businesses compared to old businesses, and for the dependent variable size compared to growth or profitability. Findings are relevant for practitioners (lenders, policy makers, educators) and for future research. Our findings show that future research should pursue moderator approaches to study the effects of human capital on success. Further, human capital is most important if it is task-related and if it consists of outcomes of human capital investments rather than human capital investments; this suggests that research should overcome a static view of human capital and should rather investigate the processes of learning, knowledge acquisition, and the transfer of knowledge to entrepreneurial tasks.
'John Watson is my type of researcher. His scholarly career has been devoted to finding out what actually happens to small businesses, based on looking in detail at their performance and the factors influencing their performance. This frequently means that sacred cows have been sent to abattoir. The most notable of these is that most small business closures are "failures". They are not, and Watson makes this point with clarity. This book further develops this insight. It then moves on to derive a better understanding of important policy issues such as the extent and relevance of financial constraints in small firms, and the role that governments might play in relaxing such constraints. Policy makers take note.'
Previous research has found that female-owned businesses generally underperform male-owned businesses on a variety of measures such as sales and profit. Further, this underperformance appears to persist even after controlling for demographic differences. However, previous studies have tended to limit their assessment of performance to output measures (sales or profit, for example) without relating these output measures to appropriate inputs (such as total assets or owner's equity). This would appear to be a significant oversight.
After controlling for industry, age of business, and the number of days a business operated, this study finds no significant differences between male- and female-controlled businesses with respect to total income to total assets (TITTA), the return on assets (ROA), or the return on equity (ROE). Interestingly, if the control variables are removed, there is evidence to suggest that female-controlled businesses outperform male-controlled businesses.
The entrepreneurship literature has been criticized for providing inadequate accounts of business owners' actual experiences and challenges. Work-family interface (WFI) considerations in particular are noticeably absent from much theorizing and research-despite the importance of such considerations to entrepreneurs themselves. We demonstrate how constructs from the WFI literature can help address an important entrepreneurship question that has not been answered satisfactorily to date: Why is there a persistent performance differential between male-headed and female-headed firms?
This study examines and compares the performance of male-owned and female-owned accounting practices. Utilizing regression methodology, this study investigates whether a gender-based differential exists between male-owned and female-owned small accounting practices. A questionnaire was developed and sent to a national random sample of 1,000 female and 1,000 male owners of accounting practices from the membership list of the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants. A response rate of over 30 percent was obtained. Information collected included business, personal, and attitudinal characteristics of male and female owners of the accounting practices. An analysis of the data indicated that a difference in profitability exists between male-owned and female-owned businesses which appears to be explained by gender. While business ownership might be providing women in the accounting profession a viable avenue for achieving career success, gender seems to negatively impact on the earnings of accounting practices owned by women.
In this study, we examine the relationship between owner and business characteristics and business survival. Our findings are based upon analyses of the Census Bureau's 1982 and 1987 Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO) survey data on a sample of white male and female sole proprietors. Two aspects of this study distinguish it from any related studies to date. First, we separately examine issues affecting the survival prospects of female-owned businesses, whereas previous studies have focussed solely on businesses owned by men. Second, we use data on cohorts of businesses started or acquired in two different time periods, namely 1980-1982 and 1985-1987. Overall, the mean survival rates of male-owned businesses in these two cohorts are 4- to 6% higher, respectively, that those of businesses owned by women. We hypothesize that wage employment provides opportunities for men and women to acquire the financial and human capital necessary for success in business ownership. In fact, most male and female business owners had some prior spell of employment in the wage sector. But there are gender differences in the status of wage workers that, we further hypothesize, could differentially impact the survival prospects of men's and women's new business ventures. First, women's lower average wage earnings may imply more binding financial constraints on the initial scale of women's businesses relative to men's. Second, we find that female owners in both cohorts are less likely than their male counterparts to have had any prior managerial experience or to have 10 or more years of general, prior paid employment experience, which may imply that female entrepreneurs are more constrained in the amount and quality of human capital that they acquire during wage employment. Female entrepreneurs' access to debt and equity capital has not been overlooked by policy makers. What has been largely overlooked are possible gender differences in the amount and quality of human capital of new entrepreneurs. Women's fewer years of general work experience and lesser exposure to managerial occupations may indicate a role for remedial education or mentoring of would-be female entrepreneurs. Women in both cohorts tended to use less financial capital to start or acquire their businesses than men did, and for the 1982 cohort, business survival is found to be positively related to the amount of start-up capital, other factors held constant. The survival prospects of both male- and female-owned businesses are greater for owners with 10 or more years of prior work experience and/or 4 or more years of college. So at least in terms of education and quantity of work experience, female entrepreneurs are at something of a disadvantage relative to their male counterparts. We find that prior managerial experience has no systematic positive or negative effects on the survival prospects of either men's or women's new business ventures, however. Finally, our research indicates that issues concerning business formation and survival must be considered within the context of prevailing macroeconomic conditions. For example, we find that the survival rates of both male- and female-owned businesses started in the 1985-1987 time period were considerably higher than those of businesses started in 1980-1982. Moreover, we uncover systematic differences in owner and business characteristics between our 1982 and 1987 cohorts, as well as differences in how these characteristics influence business survival. Specifically, both male and female owners in our 1982 cohort were better educated, were more likely to have had prior, paid managerial experience, and had more years of prior, paid employment experience, in general. Researchers interested in assessing the survival prospects of businesses over a given time period must consider changes in both product and labor markets over that period. Strength of demand in product markets will have an obvious, direct effect on business viability. The tightening and loosening of labor markets imply changes in potential wage earnings (an opportunity cost of being self-employed) and in this way can affect business dissolution.
(NOTE: Each chapter concludes with a Summary, Suggestions for Further Reading, Problems and Questions, and Appendices.) I. ANALYSIS OF INDIVIDUAL SECURITIES. 1. Fixed Income Security Prices and Yields. 2. Option-Free Bonds: Measuring and Managing Interest Rate Risk. 3. The Term Structure of Interest Rates. 4. Equities: The Discounted Cash Flow Approach. 5. Principles of Option Pricing. 6. Fixed Income Securities with Call and Prepayment Options. 7. Other Options Embedded in Bonds and Equity. 8. Forward and Futures Contracts. II. ANALYSIS OF PORTFOLIOS OF SECURITIES. 9. Investor Preferences and Attitudes Toward Risk. 10. Fundamentals of Portfolio Analysis: The Generic Portfolio Problems. 11. Capital Market Equilibrium and the Pricing of Securities. 12. Active Portfolio Strategies. 13. Performance Evaluation and the Organization of Portfolio Management. Index.
Even among a successful group of small business owners, women generate lower sales volumes and derive less income than their
male counterparts. Alternative explanations of women's relative disadvantage are evaluated systematically. The characteristics
of the owner and the small business that differ between genders explain the discrepancy in financial success, with the smaller
size of women's businesses emerging as the major explanatory factor. Women's lack of experience and their concentration in
the least profitable industries contribute strongly to the gender discrepancy as well. The processes through which the female
small business owner generates sales and derives income are quite similar to those of her male counterpart, but even successful
women are not as well positioned to exploit business opportunities as their male counterparts because of their structural
disadvantages both within and outside of the business arena.
Using a study of the relationship between bureaucratic work environments and individual rates of entrepreneurship, I revisit a fundamental premise of sociological approaches to entrepreneurship, namely, that the social context shapes the likelihood of entrepreneurial activity, above and beyond any effects of individual characteristics. Establishing such contextual effects empirically is complicated by the possibility that unobserved individual traits influence both the contexts in which people are observed and their likelihood of becoming entrepreneurs. This paper presents the first systematic study of the effects of bureaucracy on entrepreneurship that accounts for such unobserved sorting processes. Analyses of data on labor market attachments and transitions to entrepreneurship in Denmark between 1990 and 1997 show that people who work for large and old firms are less likely to become entrepreneurs, net of a host of observable individual characteristics. Moreover, there is strong evidence to suggest that this negative effect of bureaucracy does not spuriously reflect self-selection by nascent entrepreneurs into different types of firms. An important implication of this finding is that the structure of organizational populations affects the supply of nascent entrepreneurs, as well as the availability of entrepreneurial opportunities.
Professor C. C. Gallagher and H. Stewart are with the Department of Industrial Management at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England.
Although the number of firms forced out of business in the UK by financial problems has increased dramatically in the current recession, less firms have ceased to trade. In parallel, surprisingly, firm creation rates have risen almost continuously over the same period. The different statistics used to examine trends in the number of firms ceasing to trade give conflicting results. Liquidations and bankruptcies show a sharp increase over the period 1979-83, while figures for 'business deaths', based on VAT data, show a slight decline from the peak figures of 1976-78.
An explanation is that in more prosperous times many options exist for profitable business, and many entrepreneurs will choose to switch to what they perceive as more profitable opportunities. However, in the recessionary years of 1981-83, contrary to popular perception, less firms ceased to trade. While insolvencies increased there was less voluntary switching to other activities. There was actually less 'churning' in the economy due to 'deaths'. Thus the recession, while having a major effect on increasing flexibility in the labour process, may have actually reduced the flexibility of capital and had the effect of freezing some inefficiencies present in the market.
The analysis of censored failure times is considered. It is assumed that on each individual are available values of one or more explanatory variables. The hazard function (age-specific failure rate) is taken to be a function of the explanatory variables and unknown regression coefficients multiplied by an arbitrary and unknown function of time. A conditional likelihood is obtained, leading to inferences about the unknown regression coefficients. Some generalizations are outlined. LIFEtables are one of the oldest statistical techniques and are extensively used by medical statisticians and by actuaries. Yet relatively little has been written about their more formal statistical theory. Kaplan and Meier (1958) gave a comprehensive review of earlier work and many new results. Chiang in a series of papers has, in particular, explored the connection with birth-death processes; see, for example, Chiang (1968). The present paper is largely concerned with the extension of the results of Kaplan and Meier to the comparison of life tables and more generally to the incorporation of regression-like arguments into life-table analysis. The arguments are asymptotic but are relevant to situations where the sampling fluctuations are large enough to be of practical importance. In other words, the applications are more likely to be in industrial reliability studies and in medical statistics than in actuarial science. The procedures proposed are, especially for the two-sample problem, closely related to procedures for combining contingency tables; see Mantel and Haenzel (1959), Mantel (1963) and, especially for the application to life tables, Mantel (1966). There is also a strong connection with a paper read recently to the Society by R. and J. Peto (1972). We consider a population of individuals; for each individual we observe either the time to "failure" or the time to ccloss" or censoring. That is, for the censored individuals we know only that the time to failure is greater than the censoring time. Denote by T a random variable representing failure time; it may be discrete or continuous. Let F(t) be the survivor function, %(t) = pr (T2 t)
The authors summarize the extant literature on the relationship between gender and entrepreneurship. They note significant quantitative gender differences in business entry, male-owned firms heavily prevailing over firms owned by women in many parts of the world. They find that enterprises owned by men on the one hand and women on the other are generally concentrated in different sectors, women entrepreneurs being better represented in labor intensive sectors such as trade and services rather than capital intensive manufacturing industries. They also observe certain gender differentials in business survival and growth patterns. Yet an analysis of a large body of literature does not suggest that, in general, the so called "gender gap" in entrepreneurship can be explained by discrimination in laws or regulations. Rather, differences in quantitative and qualitative indicators of business entry and performance can in part be explained by a number of business environment factors that disproportionately affect a woman's decision to operate a business in the formal sector. For example the concentration of women in low capital intensive industries—which require less funding and at the same time have a lower potential for growth and development—might also be driven by barriers against women regarding access to finance. Furthermore, women may have relatively less physical and "reputationar" collateral than men, which limits their access to finance. Overall the literature suggests that improvements in the business environment can help promote high growth female entrepreneurship.
The analysis of censored failure times is considered. It is assumed that on each individual are available values of one or more explanatory variables. The hazard function (age‐specific failure rate) is taken to be a function of the explanatory variables and unknown regression coefficients multiplied by an arbitrary and unknown function of time. A conditional likelihood is obtained, leading to inferences about the unknown regression coefficients. Some generalizations are outlined.
The contribution of both new and small firms towards economic recovery is now universally accepted as significant. What is still unclear, however, is the extent of that contribution, particularly with regard to the new firm. Despite this, governments at all levels, federal, state and county, have designed strategies for fostering entrepreneurial activity. With little specific knowledge of the target population, these strategies have been either general in nature or based on economic theory, and, as a consequence, little is known about whether they have been effective in affecting the natural process, and in what geographic locations.
This research studied the whole population of new firms started in St. Joseph County, Indiana, between 1977 and 1982. It was concerned with both birth and death patterns, and the net jobs generated. The results confirmed the general findings of others that new firms play a significant role in job generation. Over the period, the number of jobs created by a new firm was a consistent 2.9 per cent of the total number of jobs in the industrial sectors studied. Moreover, this exceeded the 1.75 per cent of jobs lost through firms withdrawing from the labour market. Within this, activity in both firms and jobs was found to be centred in only a few SIC categories, and the results of this research suggest that simple tests of volatility and gain will help to focus strategic plans for aid on those sectors where the natural process is already generating the most new jobs.
ABSTRACT Using cross-sectional data from the Contingent Work Survey of the February 1995 Current Population Survey, we present direct evidence that there are substantial gender differences in the reasons why individuals become self-employed. In particular, women–especially women with young children–are more likely than men to cite flexibility of schedule and family-related reasons for becoming self-employed. Men's reasons for becoming self-employed show little association with their parental status. Our findings suggest that employers should be encouraged to offer working conditions that are more friendly to workers whose family obligations conflict with traditional, forty-hour-per-week jobs.
This research explores the effect of gender on organizational performance. Data used in the analysis was collected from small businesses in South Central Indiana from 1985-1987. The businesses were from the food and drink, computer sales and software, and health industries. Of the businesses surveyed, 312 were headed by men while 99 where headed by women. On average, these individuals were 44-45 years of age. Organizational performance is examined through two different concepts, survival and success. The results indicate that women were not more likely to go out of business than men, and only prior self-employment had different effects for men and women. Further, there was not a difference in this area among the differing industries. The results also indicate that both genders were equally confident and believed they had the ability to influence business outcomes. As for the success of these businesses, there again was no difference between the males and females with respect to earnings growth. These results are contrary to the traditional thinking that men have an advantage over women with respect to entrepreneurship and organizational performance. Since the dataset used in this analysis was limited in scope, further research is necessary to determine if these results will hold true across other industries. (SRD)
The Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS) dataset provides researchers with a unique opportunity to study a panel of new businesses from startup to sustainability, with longitudinal data centering on topics such as how businesses are financed; the products, services, and innovations these businesses possess and develop in their early years of existence; and the characteristics of those who own and operate them. The current data provide an understanding of how businesses are organized and operate in their first four years of existence (2004 through 2007) and provide some indicators of survival and growth. Other measures describe the characteristics of the panel, such as the extent to which these businesses are involved in innovative activities. A series of eleven tables give a broad overview of the business and owner characteristics and firm survival over the period, as well as some new information available in the third follow-up survey. Highlights include: External debt markets remain critically important for most new firms; Only about 12 percent of firms submitted new external credit applications for debt financing in 2007; Less than 10 percent of firms owned by African Americans applied for new credit in 2007, compared with nearly 13 percent of firms owned by non-Hispanic whites; About 90 percent of firms that began operations in 2004 survived through 2005, while about 80 percent survived through 2006 and 73.4 percent through 2007. Most of the remaining firms closed either permanently or temporarily over the period, while a small number, 3.5 percent, either merged with or were sold to another business; Surviving firms with employees, which are now three years old, increased average employment from 4.6 employees in 2004 to 6.7 employees in 2007; By 2007, about 40 percent of firms had revenues greater than $100,000, compared with just 17 percent in 2004; About 60 percent of surviving firms posted profits in 2007, compared with about 40 percent posting losses; Young firms are serving local and international markets; More than a quarter of firms sold at least some of their goods or services on the Internet. Nearly a quarter of those firms had Internet sales that were more than half of their total sales, while about a third of them said Internet sales were less than 5 percent of their total sales; About 60 percent of firms felt that they had a comparative advantage in the products or services that they offered.
Women are the majority owners in 30% of all privately held firms in the United States. These firms have $2.5 trillion in revenues and employ 19.1 million individuals. However, despite the large number of women business owners, little is known about the motivations that women have for starting their own firms.
This study uses an expectancy theory framework to examine the differences in motivations to start a firm between men and women. We propose that nascent entrepreneurs expend effort toward the creation of a new venture because they believe this will lead to a set of desired outcomes. We further argue that the desired outcomes of new venture creation differ by sex.
Hypotheses are tested using data from the phone surveys of the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (n = 441). Our findings indicate that there are significant differences in motivations for starting a new business, with men being motivated by financial gains, self‐realization, and autonomy, whereas for women status is an additional significant motivating factor. Our results confirm the explanatory power of expectancy theory in examining entrepreneurial start‐up motivations.
Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In recent years the number of women-owned firms with employees has expanded at three times the rate of all employer firms. Yet women remain underrepresented in their proportion of high-growth firms. A number of plausible explanations exist. To develop richer insights, a two-stage research project was undertaken. A mail survey was sent to a sample of female entrepreneurs to assess motives, obstacles, goals and aspirations, needs, and business identity. Based on the survey results, follow-up, in-depth interviews were conducted with entrepreneurs, selecting equally from modest-growth and high-growth ventures. In terms of quantitative findings, growth orientation was associated with whether a woman was “pushed” or “pulled” into entrepreneurship, was motivated by wealth or achievement factors, had a strong women's identity in the venture, had equity partners, and believed women faced unique selling obstacles. The qualitative research made clear that modest- and high-growth entrepreneurs differ in how they view themselves, their families, their ventures, and the larger environment. The results of both stages suggest that growth is a deliberate choice and that women have a clear sense of the costs and benefits of growth and make careful trade-off decisions.
There is good news and bad news about actual gender-related managerial differences. The good news is that some do exist. The bad news is that they are overused as the basis for sexual stereotyping.The increase in the number of female entrepreneurs in the United States has been paralleled by an increase in academic research related to their activities. Published research studies of the female entrepreneur have ranged from psychological and demographic studies to perceived start-up obstacles. These studies gave rise to the perception that although male and female entrepreneurs possessed similar socioeconomic backgrounds, motivations and techniques, the female business owners have been subjected to gender-related discrimination. More recently, research studies have addressed the question, “Is the object of discrimination the woman or is it the type of firm she tends to initiate?”Studies have shown that both females and males possess the characteristics required for effective performance as managers. Yet negative attitudes toward females still exist. Trait analyses studies have found more similarities than differences between the two groups. However, a gap still exists between the actual traits of women business owners and the perception of those traits by others. This gap is even more significant when the impact of the traits on occupational choices is considered.The use of psychological traits as a predisposition to initiate a business as an occupational choice has been well established. In this study, the psychological traits of growth oriented female and male entrepreneurs were measured and tested for significant differences.One hundred five female owners of businesses that rate in the top 10% with respect to sales and number of employees were compared with those of similar male business owners. No significant differences were found on five of the nine traits that were measured. The females did score significantly lower on traits related to energy level and risk taking. They also scored significantly higher on the traits related to autonomy and change. These scores indicate that female entrepreneurs are less willing than male entrepreneurs to become involved in situations with uncertain outcomes (risk taking) and have less of the endurance or energy level needed to maintain a growth-oriented business.The significantly higher scores by the female entrepreneurs on the traits associated with autonomy and change directly refute the perceptions of females found to exist in earlier studies. In addition, the lack of a significant difference on the traits related to social adroitness and to succorance between the two groups belies the “emotionality” label often attributed to females.This study shows that the psychological propensities of female and male entrepreneurs are more similar than they are different. While some differences did exist, they would not be expected to affect the person's ability to manage a growing company. Hence, as stated earlier, gender-related psychological traits related to managerial differences do exist. However, they do not provide a basis for sexual stereotyping.
New business firms are now considered a major source of new jobs, economic growth, technical innovation, and economic flexibility. They may provide a major strategic advantage for the United States in world competition. A more complete, precise understanding of the dynamics of new firm development, their societal contributions, and factors affecting their survival has considerable policy and managerial significance. A study of new firm contributions and survival was completed to determine whether the same factors would account for both. They do not.The research began with a substantial body of descriptive information on 551 new firms initiated in Minnesota between 1978 and 1984. The initial data were collected in the summer of 1984; a one-year follow-up was completed in 1985 to determine new firm survival. The sample was representative of all major industry sectors and all regions of the state; about 60% were located in the Minneapolis-St. Paul urban area.Attempts to predict current (1984) contributions indicated that age was not a significant factor; older new firms did not contribute more than younger new firms. The developmental pattern, primarily the average annual growth rate, was highly related to sales or jobs provided in 1984. Next most significant was the industry of the new firm; manufacturing, distributive services, and business (producer) service new firms provided more significant contributions.The one-year follow-up was able to determine the survival status of 548 of the 551 firms; slightly less than 10% (48) had not survived. Major factors related to survival appeared to be age (high death rates at 2–3 years) and attention to financial matters.
Small businesses continue to grow in importance to the national economy. According to the Small Business Administration, America's 22 million small businesses generate more than half of the nation's Gross Domestic Product and are the principal source of new jobs. The National Foundation for Women Business Owners reported that between 1987 and 1994, the number of women-owned businesses grew by 78% and women-owned firms accounted for 36% of all firms. Although the growth in the number of women-owned businesses is encouraging, the size of such businesses remains small in terms of both revenues and number of employees, especially in comparison to male-owned businesses. One explanation for this disparity is that female business ownership is concentrated primarily in the retail and service industries where businesses are relatively smaller in terms of employment and revenue as opposed to high technology, construction, and manufacturing.
This paper examines whether gender differences in risk propensity and strategy in financial decision-making can be viewed as general traits, or whether they arise because of context factors. It presents the results of two computerised laboratory experiments designed to examine whether differences in risk preference and decision strategies are explained by the framing of tasks and level of task familiarity to subjects. The results show that females are less risk seeking than males irrespective of familiarity and framing, costs or ambiguity. The results also indicate that males and females adopt different strategies in financial decision environments but that these strategies have no significant impact on ability to perform. Because strategies are more easily observed than either risk preference or outcomes in day to day decisions, strategy differences may reinforce stereotypical beliefs that females are less able financial managers.
This study of small businesses created between 1989 and 1992, and then closed down between 1993 and 1996, reveals that owners often described their firms as “successful” when the closure decision was made. Decisions to discontinue operations of young firms are shaped by intertwined factors including opportunity costs, switching costs, and noneconomic considerations. Empirical investigation is undertaken to explain the seeming paradox of successful small-business closure. Alternative opportunities are identified as a key reason for choosing to discontinue successful firms: If something more attractive comes along, the owner may close down.
To help explain the typically smaller size of businesses headed by women, this study examines a relatively unexplored dimension on which male and female entrepreneurs are expected to differ: their attitudes towards growth. An increasing number of scholars believe that the growth of a venture is at least partially determined by the entrepreneur’s motivations and intentions, yet very few have investigated whether gender differences exist. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected through personal interviews with 229 small business owners in the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada, provide novel insights into the factors affecting an entrepreneur’s growth decision and desired pace of expansion.
This research seeks to predict the performance of new ventures based on factors that can be observed at the time of start-up. Indicators of initial human and financial capital are considered to determine how they bear upon the probability of three possible performance outcomes: (1) failure, (2) marginal survival, or (3) high growth.Four categories of initial human and financial capital are examined. General human capital, represented here by the entrepreneur's education, gender, and race, may reflect the extent to which the entrepreneur has had the opportunity to develop relevant skills and contacts. Management know-how, embodied in the entrepreneur or available through advisors or partners, reflects management-specific skills and knowledge, without regard to the kind of business. Industry-specific know-how reflects specific experience in similar businesses. Financial capital is one of the most visible resources; it can create a buffer against random shocks and allow the pursuit of more capital-intensive strategies, which are better protected from imitation.The study utilizes a longitudinal study of 1053 new ventures, representative of all industry sectors and geographical regions. The research departs from most previous studies in considering different measures of performance (marginal survival and growth) and in considering explicitly whether the factors contributing to marginal survival differ from those contributing to high growth.It was found that measures of general human capital influenced both survival and growth (except for gender, with women-owned ventures being less likely to grow, but just as likely to survive). Management know-how variables had more limited impact. Having parents who had owned a business contributed to marginal survival, but not to growth. Number of partners contributed to growth but not to survival. Management level, prior employment in non-profit organizations or not having been in the labor force, and the use of professional advisors did not have significant effects. Industry-specific know-how contributed to both survival and growth. Amount of initial financial capital also contributed to both.The usefulness of the model is enhanced by the fact that the resource variables considered are relatively easy to assess and all can be considered at the time of start-up. Although some of the human capital variables cannot easily be changed, the benefits or risks associated with each can be assessed. In some cases, potential problems can be identified so that plans can be modified to improve prospects. Overall it appears that, using a model based upon the initial human and financial capital of the venture, it is possible to predict the performance of new ventures with some degree of confidence.
In lifetesting, medical follow-up, and other fields the observation of the time of occurrence of the event of interest (called a death) may be prevented for some of the items of the sample by the previous occurrence of some other event (called a loss). Losses may be either accidental or controlled, the latter resulting from a decision to terminate certain observations. In either case it is usually assumed in this paper that the lifetime (age at death) is independent of the potential loss time; in practice this assumption deserves careful scrutiny. Despite the resulting incompleteness of the data, it is desired to estimate the proportion P(t) of items in the population whose lifetimes would exceed t (in the absence of such losses), without making any assumption about the form of the function P(t). The observation for each item of a suitable initial event, marking the beginning of its lifetime, is presupposed.
For random samples of size N the product-limit (PL) estimate can be defined as follows: List and label the N observed lifetimes (whether to death or loss) in order of increasing magnitude, so that one has Then , where r assumes those values for which and for which measures the time to death. This estimate is the distribution, unrestricted as to form, which maximizes the likelihood of the observations.
Other estimates that are discussed are the actuarial estimates (which are also products, but with the number of factors usually reduced by grouping); and reduced-sample (RS) estimates, which require that losses not be accidental, so that the limits of observation (potential loss times) are known even for those items whose deaths are observed. When no losses occur at ages less than t the estimate of P(t) in all cases reduces to the usual binomial estimate, namely, the observed proportion of survivors.
Proposes a theory that explains why smaller firms have higher and more variable growth rates than larger firms. Relying on employer heterogeneity and market selection to generate patterns of employer growth and failure, the model states that efficient firms grow and survive while inefficient firms decline and fail, regardless of firm size. However, firms that fail are actually firms that, if given more time to succeed, would have grown more slowly. These slow growing firms are most often smaller firms. Also provided is a behavior characterization of entry and prices in equilibrium, which is defined as a pair of functions that characterize optimal output and exit behavior of firms. (SFL)
Small business longevity is investigated utilizing a nationwide random sample of males who entered self-employment between 1976 and 1982. Highly educated entrepreneurs are most likely to create firms that remained in operation through 1986. Owner educational background, further, is a major determinant of the financial capital structure of small business startups. Financial capital endogeneity notwithstanding, firms with the larger financial investments at startup are consistently overrepresented in the survivor column. Firm leverage, finally, is trivial for delineating active from discontinued businesses. Reliance upon debt capital to finance business startup is clearly not associated with heightened risk of failure. Copyright 1990 by MIT Press.