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Government and financial institutions are attempting to address the low financial inclusion for developing sustainable microenterprises in rural Benin. Yet, their actions remain to be guided by evidence pertaining to the design of financing schemes intended to boost rural women-owned enterprises. This paper focuses on the relationship between the various financing schemes that exist and the economic performance of women-owned enterprises in rural Benin, using a sample of 3949 small businesses. Results show that social network-based financing improves the business performance of rural women entrepreneurs in small-scale commerce. This is also the case for microenterprises managed by adult women and women with primary-school education. Formal credit-based financing increases the profit margins of mature microenterprises owned by women. This paper also shows that self-financing is more profitable for young rural women entrepreneurs. The results partly inform the need to target women more in financing policies in Benin. Plain English Summary: Microenterprises' financing and performance require more gender considerations in rural Benin. Because of the demand rationing of formal credit, there is a coexistence of other sources of financing in use that induce differential impacts on the performance of women-owned microenterprises. This study finds that informal social network-based financing is more beneficial for rural women traders, adults, or educated owners. A substitute formal microcredit would enhance the growth of rural women-owned microenterprises operating with social networks-based financing. This has to be rural women having proven experience in small businesses. For inexperienced young women, a self-financing mechanism is more appropriate to start small businesses. Our findings call thus for policies targeting experienced female microenterprises for innovative microfinance programs and young female entrepreneurs for subsidy programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface cues such as displays of passion and physical attractiveness can affect crowdfunding outcomes. Yet the efficacy of these cues may be contingent on other attributes of the entrepreneur, such as their gender. We integrate insights from the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion with those of expectancy violation theory to develop and test a theoretical framework in which the benefit of these cues is contingent on the gender of the entrepreneur and expectancies associated with it. Furthermore, we introduce a novel measurement technique to assess individuals' implicit gender-based biases related to passion and attractiveness. Plain English Summary: Among biased investors, crowdfunding pitches work best for passionate male and attractive female entrepreneurs. Crowdfunding is a way for entrepreneurs to raise funds from a large, anonymous pool of amateur investors. To raise funds on these platforms, entrepreneurs create pitch videos to present to potential investors. When crowdfunding first emerged, there was widespread hope that it would open up new sources of funding to groups of entrepreneurs who are often shut out from traditional sources of funding, such as venture capital. But has that really happened? Or do biases that are common among professional investors also work to the disadvantage of these entrepreneurs in crowdfunding? In this paper, we answer these questions by studying the pitches of both male and female entrepreneurs and their impact on funding success. Our findings offer both a cause for optimism and for concern. On the positive side, we do find that crowdfunding can be a viable source of funding for female entrepreneurs. However, this benefit primarily goes to more attractive females. Furthermore, although being passionate in a pitch is generally a good thing, we find this benefit primarily goes to men instead of women. Without being too pessimistic, we find that these results only hold among those investors who hold certain gender-based biases pertaining to passion and attractiveness. Overall, the principal implication of this study is that biases that limit accessibility to traditional sources of funding also operate within crowdfunding. However, traditionally underfunded groups of entrepreneurs may be able to use these to their advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon cyberfeminist theory with a socially constructed view of gender, this paper aims to objectively reveal the extent of digitalization in female entrepreneurs' empowerment by examining the impacts of their online gender identities on crowdfunding performance. Leveraging a female-led sample of 3125 Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns, we develop a measure of gender identity online using natural language processing analytic techniques to mine linguistic narratives, and empirically investigate our questions. The results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between the online displays of masculinity and crowdfunding performance for female entrepreneurs and no significant effect of femininity on crowdfunding performance. Regarding hybrid masculinity and femininity, we find those female entrepreneurs who display a masculine identity (i.e., high on masculinity and low on femininity) online perform better in crowdfunding. The results clearly demonstrate that the potential of crowdfunding for female entrepreneurs' empowerment is overestimated in that embracing masculinity is reproduced online in addressing women's financial constraints, thus providing objective and reliable evidence for informing the debate on the extent of digitalization in female entrepreneurs' empowerment. Plain English Summary: Does digitalization sufficiently empower female entrepreneurs? Evidence from examining the impacts of their online gender identities on crowdfunding performance. Drawing upon cyberfeminist theory with a socially constructed view of gender, this paper relies on a dataset of female entrepreneurs online in a crowdfunding domain to reexamine the extent of digitalization in their empowerment. Through an empirical investigation of how female entrepreneurs "doing" gender identity online affects crowdfunding performance, this study shows that the online displays of masculinity have an inverted U-shaped association with crowdfunding performance; femininity has no significant effect; and their hybrids—a masculine identity (i.e., high on masculinity and low on femininity)—are more advantageous than are feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated identities. Our findings based on cyberfeminist theoretical analyses reveal that embracing masculinity is reproduced online in addressing women's financial constraints, strongly demonstrating that the true potential of crowdfunding for female entrepreneurs' empowerment is overestimated. This paper provides objective evidence for informing the debates on the digitalization potential for female entrepreneurs' empowerment and sheds light on how to apply cyberfeminism in subsequent research. Female entrepreneurs can also use our findings to improve crowdfunding performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to their male peers, female entrepreneurs tend to face greater obstacles in raising venture funding from business angels, venture capitalists, and financial institutions. In this paper, we investigate whether this gender gap also exists in equity crowdfunding. Based on data from the German equity crowdfunding market, we find that ventures with and without female managing directors are equally successful in raising capital when launching their first equity crowdfunding campaign. In contrast, the former are significantly less successful than their peers in seasoned equity crowdfunding campaigns, and this disparity cannot be fully explained by differences in other venture-related or entrepreneur-related characteristics. However, we also find that the gender gap in seasoned offerings narrows if female entrepreneurs set more ambitious funding thresholds. Overall, our results indicate that pitching their equity crowdfunding campaigns in a more promotion-oriented way is a sensible strategy for female entrepreneurs to improve funding success. Plain English Summary: Equity crowdfunding enables female entrepreneurs to narrow the "gender gap" in venture financing. In this paper, we investigate whether the entrepreneurs' gender affects how successful they are in attracting capital in the German equity crowdfunding market. Our results indicate that the gender of a firm's managing director does not affect the funding outcome in initial equity crowdfunding campaigns. In seasoned equity crowdfunding offerings, though, we identify a gender gap in the sense that ventures with female managing directors are significantly less successful in raising capital from crowd investors than ventures solely led by men. However, this gender gap in seasoned offerings narrows for bolder campaign pitches. Hence, setting a higher funding threshold seems to be a simple and straightforward strategy for female entrepreneurs to increase the odds of reaching their funding targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on women's entrepreneurship policy as a core component of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We use a systematic literature review (SLR) approach to critically explore the policy implications of women's entrepreneurship research according to gender perspective: feminist empiricism, feminist standpoint theory, and post-structuralist feminist theory. Our research question asks whether there is a link between the nature of policy implications and the different theoretical perspectives adopted, and whether scholars' policy implications have changed as the field of women's entrepreneurship research has developed. We concentrate on empirical studies published in the "Big Five" primary entrepreneurship research journals (SBE, ETP, JBV, JSBM, and ERD) over a period of more than 30 years (1983–2015). We find that policy implications from women's entrepreneurship research are mostly vague, conservative, and center on identifying skills gaps in women entrepreneurs that need to be "fixed," thus isolating and individualizing any perceived problem. Despite an increase in the number of articles offering policy implications, we find little variance in the types of policy implications being offered by scholars, regardless of the particular theoretical perspective adopted, and no notable change over our 30-year review period. Recommendations to improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem for women from a policy perspective are offered, and avenues for future research are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on female entrepreneurship is blooming and largely points to the challenges that women face in establishing and running a business, with a particular focus on access to information, finance and networks. Surprisingly, little is known on the role played by digital technologies in driving changes in female entrepreneurship. While academic research is starting to analyze the role that digital technologies play in entrepreneurial ecosystems, the gender perspective remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we outline contributions that intend to enlarge and thicken our understanding of whether and how women entrepreneurs leverage new digital technologies in the creation and conduct of new ventures in order to overcome the hurdles they face. We conclude with a promising new line of research to our understanding of whether and to what extent new digital technologies provide an opportunity space in the creation and conduct of new ventures for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses gender differences in micro-commerce performance in Togo. Once a haven primarily occupied by women, the micro-commerce industry is now flooded with men. Because women are already underrepresented in other sectors of the economy, the influx of men into micro-commerce may gradually exclude women from economic activities, particularly if men outperform women in this industry. Using a sample of 13,488 micro-commerce businesses from the latest General Census of Enterprises (RGE, 2017–2018), we find that female-led micro-commerce businesses underperform compared to male-led micro-commerce businesses in Togo, but women perform better as employees. This result is obtained from an instrumental variables (IV) estimation strategy and is robust to supplementary tests, including adding more controls, implementing falsification tests, and using impact evaluation estimation methods. A deeper examination of this relationship illustrates that the gender bias in micro-commerce performance in Togo is mainly observed among regions with low education rates, low employment rates for women, a prevalence of polygamous unions, and a high rate of violence against women. Cultural context, therefore, influences the gender gap in micro-commerce performance in Togo. Plain English Summary: Women had dominated the commerce industry in Togo, which has served as their main entrepreneurial haven. However, the situation has changed in recent decades. The increasing unemployment rate in the country is pushing men towards entrepreneurship in the micro-commerce industry as well. This industry attracts a lot of entrepreneurs because it requires a low level of start-up capital. We argue that men's success in micro-commerce may discourage women and even gradually exclude them from economic activities (as women entrepreneurs are underrepresented in the other sectors). Our paper explores the gender gap in micro-commerce performance and investigates whether cultural context influences this relationship. We consider 13,488 micro-commerce businesses from the country's latest General Census of Enterprises (RGE, 2017–2018). We find that women's status (i.e. manager or employee) in business matters, and above all, the cultural context. Public policies that are intended to encourage equality and promote women in entrepreneurship should consider the status of women in business (manager or employee), the cultural context when defining gender-specific support actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses firm-level data and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methods to investigate the effects of participation in formal networking activities and of female representation in leadership positions on firm's economic efficiency. Our findings show that firms belonging to a network have a higher level of technical efficiency (i.e., the position of network members is closer to the technical efficient frontier), while the presence of women in senior roles (CEO, president, or member of the board of directors) is associated to lower efficiency scores. However, the observed performance strongly increases when firms with women in top positions participate to networks, hinting at superior returns for female networking. This interaction effect is found to be stronger in female-intensive working environments and networks, as well as in innovative and digital intensive sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on practice theory to argue that the practiced culture of a society and gender interact to create cultured capacities for social entrepreneurship among entrepreneurs. We combine data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) with the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) and World Bank (WB) to identify what cultural practices are most relevant for female entrepreneurs' practice of social entrepreneurship across 33 countries. Our findings suggest that female entrepreneurs are more likely to engage in social entrepreneurship when cultural practices of power distance, humane orientation, and in-group collectivism are low, and cultural practices of future orientation and uncertainty avoidance are high, when compared to male entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's entrepreneurship is increasingly important for creating new jobs and contributing to the social and economic growth of their societies, yet the interplay and nuances of women's entrepreneurship and culture are currently understudied. In this special issue, we present eight empirical papers that delve into different aspects of the dynamic interaction between gender and culture in shaping women's entrepreneurship. We provide framework for women's entrepreneurship and culture research to organize the empirical research herein into three interconnected themes: gender role expectations and identities, societal cultural dimensions, and the entrepreneurial environment. This collection is an important step in integrating research on women's entrepreneurship and culture and further exploring these dynamic and complex interactions, in different economic and societal systems and across geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurs start and grow their ventures in a widely varying set of institutional contexts. One differentiator is a country's regulatory efficiency which encompasses the freedom to start and to run a business without excessive government interventions around registering, hiring, and firing employees, and price controls on currency. The efficiency of regulations varies substantially among countries and imposes additional costs and risks on entrepreneurs' activities. We integrate insights from institutional theory and recent literature on gender and entrepreneurship to better understand how a country's regulatory efficiency affects male and female entrepreneurs' employment growth ambitions. We explore three aspects of regulatory efficiency: business freedom (e.g., to start, operate, and close a venture), labor freedom (e.g., laws around minimum wage, layoffs, severance), and monetary freedom (e.g., price stability) using data from over 47,000 entrepreneurs in 68 countries. We find that entrepreneurs' growth ambitions are higher in countries with more efficient regulations, particularly those countries characterized by fewer labor law restrictions and greater monetary freedoms. These findings are further exacerbated by gender by such that, relative to their female counterparts, male entrepreneurs have significantly greater venture growth ambitions. Our paper contributes to the discussion on how formal institutions influence women and men entrepreneurs in distinct ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the motives and factors that drive entrepreneurship in Syrian refugee women in Canada and the differential contexts that may support or hinder these activities. Using a qualitative research design, a total of 29 in-depth interviews were conducted with Syrian refugee women, who had been in Canada for a minimum of 1 year and with key informants, including employment counselors and program managers who work closely with refugees during their resettlement. A feminist grounded analysis led to the identification of systemic challenges to entrepreneurship. Particularly, findings illustrate how the women were primarily interested in starting a small business in feminized industries such as food/catering or tailoring. However, these activities were challenged by economic, regulatory, and gendered contexts that appeared to push the women to operate these businesses in unregulated bounds, which was not financially rewarding. Key informants, on the other hand, seemed to promote feminized entrepreneurship as a "social enterprise" irrespective of the women's background and experience. The paper presents new empirical evidence of entrepreneurship at the intersections of refugee and gender in Canada and adds to the growing body of work that examines migrant contexts that impact economic integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether gender, age, ethnicity, and geography affect the choice of equity crowdfunding offerings vs initial public offerings (IPO) on traditional stock markets and whether these characteristics increase the likelihood of a successful offering. Using 167 equity offerings in Crowdcube and 99 equity offerings on London's Alternative Investment Market raising between £300,000 and £5 m, we find that companies with younger top management team (TMT) members are both more likely to launch equity crowdfunding offerings than IPOs and have higher chances to successfully complete an equity crowdfunding offering. Remotely located companies are more likely to launch equity crowdfunding offerings than IPOs and have higher chances to successfully complete an equity crowdfunding offering. On the contrary, female entrepreneurs do not have higher chances to raise funds in equity crowdfunding. Minority entrepreneurs do not have higher chances of successfully raising capital but do attract a higher number of investors. Overall, our evidence provides empirical guidance for the first time to the oft-repeated policy claim that equity crowdfunding democratizes entrepreneurial finance by providing access to funding to underrepresented groups of potential entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the positioning of gender within women-focused capital funds (WFCFs) to consider the extent to which these digitally enabled sources of finance reflect the tenets of entrepreneurial feminism. Content analysis of 27 funds situated in Canada and the USA informs about fund mandates, rationales, types of capital, and anticipated outcomes. Our findings reveal that a minority of WFCFs examined sought to enhance equity and counter structural barriers associated with women entrepreneurs' access to financial capital. Alternatively, the majority of WFCFs were positioned as vehicles to facilitate individual wealth creation. Eligibility ranged from multiple gender identities of the business owner to "women-led" businesses—defined as at least one woman executive, board or steering committee member. The latter of these criteria has the effect of diverting attention away from firms that are launched by women entrepreneurs. Pinkwashing was more likely to occur when WFCFs were created as add-ons to mainstream programs and services, rather than as a central element of the organization's mission of supporting women and non-binary femmes. The findings support arguments that technology can both challenge or reinforce structural constraints that impede women entrepreneurs in the digital era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women are under-represented in successful entrepreneurial ecosystems and the creation of women-only entrepreneurial networks has been a widespread policy response. We examine the entrepreneurial ecosystem construct and suggest that it, and the role networks play in entrepreneurial ecosystems, can be analysed in terms of Bourdieu's socio-analysis as field, habitus and capital. Specifically, we develop the notion of gender capital as the skill set associated with femininity or from simply being recognized as feminine. We apply this to the development of women's entrepreneurial networks as a gender capital enhancing initiative. Using data from qualitative interviews with network coordinators and women entrepreneurs, we reflect on the extent to which formally established women-only networks generate gender capital for their members and improve their ability to participate in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The paper concludes by drawing out the implications of our analysis for theory, entrepreneurial practice and economic development policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from 2408 micro and small businesses in Ecuador to study business profit differentials by gender. The results point to unpaid work—time devoted to household chores, child care, and care for the elderly—as the largest single factor explaining 33% of the difference in profits observed between male- and female-run businesses. When comparing male and female business owners with similar business and personal characteristics, the difference in business profits disappears. The results point to initial endowments, rather than returns on those endowments, as the reason why female-run businesses are less profitable. Also, they indicate that male and female entrepreneurs are equally effective as managers provided they have access to the same resources, including time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has established that entrepreneurship is a masculine domain in which women are likely to experience identity conflict due to the diverging meanings and behavioral expectations of being an entrepreneur versus being a woman. In this study, we adopt a social identity perspective to investigate how women entrepreneurs perceive their gender in the face of this potential identity conflict. By analyzing the narratives from 20 in-depth interviews with women entrepreneurs, complemented by three focus groups with 44 further women, we contribute to entrepreneurship literature by offering a typology of women entrepreneurs. Based on their perceived gender-entrepreneurial fit and mindset, we characterize these entrepreneurs as experiencing imposter feelings, acceptance, or authenticity. Through this typology, our research illustrates that there is variation in women's perception of their gender in entrepreneurship, indicating that, while some women entrepreneurs experience imposter feelings from the identity conflict of being both a woman and an entrepreneur, others avoid or overcome such an identity conflict, finding ways to benefit from being different in the face of male dominated views of entrepreneurial success. Plain English Summary: We illustrate how women perceive their gender in the face of a possible identity conflict in entrepreneurship. Depending on their perceived gender-entrepreneurial fit and mindset, they experience imposter feelings, acceptance, or authenticity. Although more women are becoming entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurship field is still dominated by men. One of the reasons may be the fact that women often feel they do not "fit in" as entrepreneurs and consider themselves (and are seen) as being less legitimate and successful than their male counterparts. In our study, we propose a typology of women entrepreneurs, which we classify as experiencing imposter feelings, acceptance, or authenticity depending on their perceived gender-entrepreneurial fit and mindset. Thus, the principal implication of this study is to shed light on how women see themselves as entrepreneurs and offer evidence that can help us better understand and support women's entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses how women entrepreneurs of Turkish origin do context in constructing their entrepreneurial identities and experiencing their entrepreneurship in two national contexts, namely Türkiye and the Netherlands. In order to study context, we use the term opportunity structures and analyse how these entrepreneurs interpret and perceive opportunity structures, and construct their entrepreneurial identities in relation to their interpretations. Relying on the life story narratives of 21 women entrepreneurs, we analyse social, political and institutional opportunity structures and the relationship between these and the processes of entrepreneurial experiences and identity construction. We propose that Turkish women entrepreneurs make, unmake and remake context during these processes. In the Netherlands, these entrepreneurs challenge existing opportunity structures either by providing alternative images of a Turkish migrant woman or questioning culturalist perspectives behind these opportunity structures. In Türkiye, they are compelled to be more hesitant in challenging the opportunity structures. They either have to step down from their enterprises or downgrade their entrepreneurial affiliations to fulfil the requirements of opportunity structures. This study contributes to the field of entrepreneurship in its contextualisation by providing an extended understanding of the ways in which entrepreneurs do context. Plain English Summary: While there is criticism on the lack of contextual analysis of entrepreneurship, there are also concerns about over-contextualisation and disintegration in the field. As a response to the scholar's interest to categorise successful entrepreneurs in creating and enacting their contexts and to understand how and why they became successful compared to others, this study demonstrates the power relations between and across opportunity structures that lead to imbalances between entrepreneurial agency and context. It shows how some entrepreneurs make context, while some others can also unmake and remake context. In this way, it extends our understanding of entrepreneurial diversity, and questions whether categorising entrepreneurs as successful or not is doing justice to the entrepreneurs who face more powerful opportunity structures with possible sanctions imposed on them. Future studies can further this discussion on entrepreneurial diversity by analysing how and for which contexts power dynamics plays out differently in the nexus of entrepreneur and context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study presents new evidence on the well-being of women entrepreneurs using data from the World Values Survey for 80 countries. Results indicate that in low- and middle-income countries, female entrepreneurs have lower well-being than male entrepreneurs, while in high-income countries, they have higher well-being. Several macro and micro-level mechanisms– institutional context, gender roles, and individual characteristics–that potentially moderate this relationship are explored. The gender gap in well-being is larger in countries with higher gender inequality, lower level of financial development, and stricter adherence to sexist gender roles. Additionally, women entrepreneurs with lower education, more children, and risk-averse preferences are more likely to report lower well-being. The results suggest several policy mechanisms that can be used to enhance the well-being of women entrepreneurs. Plain English Summary: Women entrepreneurs are less happy than men in low-income countries, while the opposite holds in high-income countries. This negative effect is stronger for less educated women, for women with children, and in countries with greater gender discrimination, low access to financial resources, and more traditional gender roles. This study documents a wellbeing gap between female and male entrepreneurs in countries with different levels of economic development. In low income countries, women entrepreneurs report lower subjective well-being relative to men, while in high-income countries, women entrepreneurs are happier than men. In low-income countries, women face more obstacles and constraints to being an entrepreneur, such as lower education, lack of childcare options, lack of access to finance, unfair legal treatment, and more sexist gender roles and traditions. The results are consistent with the proposition that in low-income countries women prefer wage employment. When their labor market outcomes are limited, they are more likely to be "pushed" into entrepreneurship and derive lower satisfaction from their entrepreneurial activities. The primary policy implications should aim at equalizing the playing field for men and women entrepreneurs, improving labor market conditions, and increasingwage-earning opportunities for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-efficacy reflects the self-belief that one can persistently perform difficult and novel tasks while coping with adversity. As such beliefs reflect how individuals behave, think, and act, they are key for successful entrepreneurial activities. While existing literature mainly analyzes the influence of the task-related construct of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, we take a different perspective and investigate, based on a representative sample of 1,405 German business founders, how the personality characteristic of generalized self-efficacy influences start-up performance as measured by a broad set of business outcomes up to 19 months after business creation. Outcomes include start-up survival and entrepreneurial income, as well as growth-oriented outcomes such as job creation and innovation. We find statistically significant and economically important positive effects of high scores of self-efficacy on start-up survival and entrepreneurial income, which become even stronger when focusing on the growth-oriented outcome of innovation. Furthermore, we observe that generalized self-efficacy is similarly distributed between female and male business founders, with effects being partly stronger for female entrepreneurs. Our findings are important for policy instruments that are meant to support firm growth by facilitating the design of more target-oriented offers for training, coaching, and entrepreneurial incubators. Plain English Summary: The self-belief in own abilities to cope with adversity and succeed at an endeavor is called self-efficacy. This belief can outweigh other doubts or self-beliefs such that we can be resilient on our path to reaching goals. Can this belief influence the performance of entrepreneurs with nascent start-ups? Is this influence different for female and male entrepreneurs? Accounting for other factors that might influence business outcomes, we find that self-efficacy alone influences the chances of business survival, having employees, applying for patents or trademark protection, as well as the start-up generated income. On the other hand, we find similar levels of self-efficacy between female and male entrepreneurs, observing that self-efficacy affects the probability of growth-related outcomes for both females and males. This contributes to the understanding of what drives start-up growth and success, which is crucial for the development of target-oriented policies, including training measures, coaching offers, and business incubators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the impact of institutions on men and women's decisions to establish new business start-ups between 2001 and 2006. We use data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey (GEM) which cover at least 2,000 individuals per year in each of up to 55 countries and have merged it with country-level data, from the World Bank, Economist Intelligence Unit, Polity IV and the Heritage Foundation. We find that women are less likely to undertake entrepreneurial activity in countries where the state sector is larger, but the rule of law is not generally found to have gender-specific effects. However, more detailed institutional components of discrimination against women, in particular, restrictions on freedom of movement away from home, make it less likely for women to have high entrepreneurial aspirations in terms of employment growth, even if their entry into entrepreneurial activities, including self-employment, is not affected by this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of entrepreneurial mentorship are well documented, but there is limited research on how entrepreneurs connect with mentors, especially in digital settings. We partnered with an online platform that connects entrepreneurs to potential mentors to conduct a field experiment in online mentoring. Drawing on literature on entrepreneurial mentorship and Social Cognitive Theory, we compared the effects of three interventions on the likelihood of reaching out and making a connection with a mentor in a digital setting. We find that showing entrepreneurs a video of a successful mentor–mentee relationship increases the chances that they will reach out to a potential mentor but does not improve their chances of making a connection. These findings are more pronounced for female entrepreneurs. While not all entrepreneurs adopt the offered interventions, those that make the effort to learn to navigate the online platform and craft a suitable introductory message are successful in establishing a mentoring connection. We discuss these implications for both theory and practice. Plain English Summary: Showing entrepreneurs an example of a successful mentor–mentee relationship makes them more likely to reach out to a potential mentor, and even more so for women entrepreneurs. Additionally, entrepreneurs that make the effort to learn to navigate an online mentoring platform and craft a suitable introductory message are successful in establishing a mentoring connection. We partnered with a global online platform to test three interventions to encourage entrepreneurs to reach out to mentors. However, since many entrepreneurs did not take up the offered interventions, the real-world implications of these approaches are less positive, and overall result in few connections with mentors. We suggest that requiring entrepreneurs to undertake some basic training before engaging on online platforms may increase the barrier to entry but can ultimately lead to more meaningful connections with mentors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses unique hand-collected data from a televised entrepreneurial pitch competition to examine gender differences in obtaining angel financing. Results indicate that while the yield rates between male and female teams do not differ, a gender disparity in the amount of angel funding does in fact exist. Female teams receive less capital and provide more equity relative to their male counterparts, even when controlling for typical determinants of investment, such as industry and prior company success. Further, we find that female teams receive investments with lower valuations than their male counterparts largely because they initially offer higher equity stakes for less capital. Thus, this suggests that limitations to angel financing of female entrepreneurial ventures may be partly self-imposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investors use heuristics and biases which may disproportionately impact entrepreneurial teams with women when hearing pitches and evaluating early-stage ventures. However, merely entertaining a pitch is not enough—the tone of the conversation also matters. To investigate, we explore non-rationality in the funding process by applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) to Shark Tank: a high-impact television program fosr entrepreneurial pitching. Using sentiment analysis, we show that male judges react more positively to pitches from entrepreneurial teams with women. Importantly, these positive reactions are not indicative of increased deal flow. The opposite is true for female judges who, while no more likely to react positively to teams with female entrepreneurs, are significantly more likely to ink a deal when they do. By showing how non-rational thinking and biases impact both the pitch narrative and the likelihood of securing funding, our findings have important implications regarding heuristic formation and gender bias in early-stage investment. Plain English Summary: Despite the positive reaction from male judges in pitch competitions, teams with female entrepreneurs are less likely to ink a deal. However, female judges are more likely to fund teams with female entrepreneurs, regardless of reaction sentiment. To evaluate, we explore non-rationality in the funding process by applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) to Shark Tank: a high impact television program for entrepreneurial pitching. Using sentiment analysis, we show that male judges react more positively to pitches from entrepreneurial teams with women. Importantly, these positive reactions are not indicative of increased deal flow. Interestingly, the opposite is true for female judges who are no more likely to react positively to female entrepreneurs, but when they do, are significantly more likely to ink a deal. Our findings have important implication regarding the heuristic formation and gender bias in early-stage investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study connects two important findings in Sub-Saharan Africa. First, digital technologies such as mobile money have become widespread and have increased investment by businesses, especially in East Africa. Second, women-owned businesses in the region significantly lag behind their male counterparts in capital investments. Using data for 16 Sub-Saharan African economies, the study finds a positive relationship between mobile money use and investment by women-owned firms; the relationship is statistically insignificant for men-owned firms. This relationship is stronger for women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises. Potential channels are explored. Women-owned firms that use mobile money to transact with suppliers are more likely to invest. Mobile money use is also associated with a greater provision of customer credit and generally greater demand for more credit by women-owned firms. Such patterns are not observed for men-owned firms. Plain English Summary: Women-owned businesses lag behind their male counterparts in many ways in Sub-Saharan Africa. Digital technologies such as mobile money can provide opportunities for women-owned businesses to bridge this gap. Our study finds that mobile money adoption increases the investment of women-owned business but not necessarily for men-owned businesses. This is especially the case for small and medium-sized enterprises. Part of the reason may be because mobile money allows women-owned businesses to build supplier and customer relationships and thus better access to liquidity. It also increases their demand for credit. Thus, the principal implication of this study is that policymakers should encourage the diffusion of digital technologies, especially to women entrepreneurs, to narrow the gender gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the economic slowdown caused by the financial crisis in 2008, grants for entrepreneurs were made available to support economic development. Whether such a policy instrument is effective for business development is a highly relevant question in the aftermath of the COVID-19. We evaluate the causal effects of small business development matching grants using a quasi-experimental approach. The grants were exclusively targeted to women entrepreneurs and provided during the recession after the financial crisis. Our findings demonstrate an increase in bank loans and a positive impact on turnover, value-added, capital, employment, and overall factor productivity for more experienced women entrepreneurs. As the grants are too small to have direct economic effects or indirect effects via the certification effect, they alleviate time and information constraints of women entrepreneurs. The cost-benefit analysis shows an increase in value-added that outweighs the scheme-related costs. Plain English Summary This study evaluates the effect of small public grants for women entrepreneurs. Grants were used for childcare and business consultancy costs to alleviate time and information constraints of women entrepreneurs. Benefiting from these grants resulted in higher bank loans. The women entrepreneurs on average invested more money in capital and had better performance measures like turnover and value-added. The effect was particularly evident among more experienced women entrepreneurs. The cost-benefit analysis shows grant-induced increase in value-added outweighs the scheme-related costs. The study implies small public grants for women entrepreneurs increase small firms' growth, and these grants are in addition a cost-effective policy tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research analyzes the way in which gender-role orientation (GRO) and perceived entrepreneurial culture affect the advancement of women through the different stages in the entrepreneurial process. To do so, a sample of 1195 Spanish women is studied using Bem's Sex Role Inventory to identify their GRO and a perceived regional culture (PRC) scale. The results confirm that women with a masculine or androgynous orientation are more likely to develop entrepreneurial careers. Besides, for masculine GRO women, the perception of a supportive entrepreneurial culture in their region fosters their advancement in entrepreneurship. In contrast, the effect of perceived culture is negative for women with an androgynous GRO. These results contribute to advance knowledge on the entrepreneurial process for women. Based on our results, the debate about women entrepreneurship should be expanded to fully acknowledge the relevance of GRO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the gendered impact of risk aversion and country-level culture on nascent student entrepreneurs' progress in the venturing process. Combining country-level cultural normative variables from the 2004 Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) survey with data from the 2013/2014 Global University Entrepreneurial Student Spirit Study (GUESSS), our sample consists of 1552 nascent student entrepreneurs from 11 countries. We start with the assumption that perceptions of risk-taking behaviors are not gendered. We then split our sample, finding that, for women, perceptions of risk-taking behaviors are associated with less progress in the venturing process; however, starting a new venture in a socially supportive culture moderates that relationship. For men, neither risk-taking behavior nor country cultural variables are related to their progress in the venturing process. Our study highlights both the importance of country-level contextual variables in entrepreneurship and the need to employ a gendered perspective when studying nascent entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on gender role theories and related evidence of the influence of stereotypes on individual judgments and behaviors, this study examines how masculine stereotyping of entrepreneurs might affect business owners' expectations of their firms' growth. In particular, it explores several moderating effects: individual-level factors, such as the gender traits that business owners ascribe to other entrepreneurs and their own gender identity, as a psychological construct, as well as the industrial context in which the businesses operate. An empirical analysis of business owners in 10 countries reveals that women entrepreneurs who identify with feminine traits and ascribe strongly masculine characteristics to entrepreneurship expect their businesses to grow at a lower rate. The influence of stereotypes is relevant only in industries in which the representation of women entrepreneurs is low though, presumably because gender salience, as amplified by women's minority status condition in the industry, triggers stereotype threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into entrepreneurship has for many years been interested in the differences in rate of participation and performance by female entrepreneurs. The motivation for considering female entrepreneurship in both developing and developed countries arises from our increasing understanding of the significance of the role of women in creating, running and growing businesses as a fundamental driver for economic growth. This special issue examines the reasons for differences in gender participation across levels of development using empirical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the rising rate of migration across the globe, immigrant entrepreneurship is more than ever a topic of high theoretical and practical relevance. Immigrant entrepreneurship can offer host societies a win-win situation, generating incomes for immigrant entrepreneurs and contributing to knowledge transfer, innovativeness, and economic growth within the host economy. However, studies reveal that immigrant entrepreneurship is primarily male dominated and our understanding of the drivers and contextual factors that explain the gender gap is limited. Based on the mixed embeddedness approach, this multi-country study investigates the effects of immigrants' embeddedness in supportive economic, social, and institutional environmental conditions on the gender gap in immigrant entrepreneurship. Our key findings are threefold: First, the results confirm that a gender gap in immigrant entrepreneurship exists. Female immigrants, compared with their male counterparts, are less likely to start and run their own business. Second, the results reveal that female immigrant entrepreneurship is encouraged by a supportive entrepreneurial environment, showing that policy can enhance female immigrant entrepreneurship through supportive conditions. Third, we find the same pattern of results for forced immigrants and opposite results for natives, suggesting that entrepreneurship is a "Plan A" employment strategy for (forced) female immigrants, whereas it is only a "Plan B" employment strategy for female natives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using gender as a theoretical framework, we analyse the dynamics of bank lending to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. Using six waves of the SME Finance Monitor survey, we apply a formal Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition to test whether gender impacts upon the supply and demand for debt finance by women. Reflecting established evidence, we found women had a lower demand for bank loans; contradicting accepted wisdom however, we found that women who did apply were more likely to be successful. We argue that feminised risk aversion might inform more conservative applications during a period of financial uncertainty which may be beneficial for women in terms of gaining loans. However, we also uncover more subtle evidence suggesting that bank decisions may differ for women who may be unfairly treated in terms of collateral but regarded more positively when holding large cash balances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the USA is at the forefront of nations promoting women's business ownership and entrepreneurship, the role of U.S. federal policies in supporting these goals remains unexamined. This study examines six decades (1951–2011) of U.S. Federal Statutes to answer the research question—how do U.S. federal policies support women's business ownership and women's entrepreneurship? The study methodology includes quantitative and qualitative analysis of federal laws and resolutions. The quantitative analysis suggests that in 1988, with the passage of the Women's Business Ownership Act, the USA began to intensify policy interest in this area. What began as policy experimentation in 1988 gradually became institutionalized. The qualitative analysis suggests that in terms of broad policy intent and intended outcomes not much has changed since 1988. Given this sobering finding, we discuss important implications and future research questions to motivate stronger research on how government can better support women business owners and entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effects of venture typology, race, ethnicity, and past venture experience on the social capital distribution of women entrepreneurs in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Social network data from two municipal ecosystems in Florida, USA (Gainesville and Jacksonville), suggest that network connectivity and the distribution of social capital are significantly different for men and women entrepreneurs. This difference is contingent on the venture type. Male entrepreneurs show higher comparative scores of bridging social capital in aggressive- and managed-growth venture networks, while women entrepreneurs surpass their male counterparts' bridging capital scores in lifestyle and survival venture networks. Lastly, experienced women entrepreneurs that self-identified as white showed a higher degree of network connectivity and bridging social capital in the entrepreneurial ecosystem than less experienced non-white female entrepreneurs. Implications for entrepreneurship practice and new research paths are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the ownership structure of nascent businesses with a particular focus on the role of gender. Based on theories of gender and entrepreneurship, we examine how male and female entrepreneurs differentially mobilize their preexisting social and cultural capital to launch new businesses. With their limited social and cultural capital, we expect that female entrepreneurs are more likely to establish either a solo or a family-only enterprise rather than a non-family business in comparison to male counterparts. Moreover, we explore the possibility that female-led solo or family businesses tend to show lower performance compared to the male counterpart. Using a nationally representative data of nascent entrepreneurs in the USA, the results suggest that female entrepreneurs are more likely to found enterprises alone or with family members than their male counterparts especially when they lack social or cultural capital. In addition, our findings show that solo or family businesses run by female entrepreneurs tend to display lower initial performance compared to males. The results have important implications for broadening our understanding of the role of gender in the formation of entrepreneurial businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research uses an economic growth framework to analyze the impacts of male- and female-owned firms on economic performance. To address the potential endogeneity caused by social factors that may effect both the gender composition of business owners and economic growth, we apply an instrumental variable strategy. Intriguingly, in-depth analysis yielded no evidence of positive agglomeration effects on job growth specifically from gendered measures of firm density. However, the analyses do illuminate the value of considering both the previously unexplored employer/nonemployer firm distinction as well as a gendered perspective of firm ownership in the understanding of regional growth factors. The results show that male-owned firms, particularly male-owned employer firms, have a strong, though negative, relationship to employment growth consistent with national employment trends in male-owned firms during the period of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study challenges the basic reasoning behind Lazear's theory on entrepreneurship (). Based on the key motive of maximizing one's lifetime income, Lazear posits that individuals with a balanced set of skills should have a higher probability of being self-employed. His 'Jack-of-all-trades' hypothesis presumes that entrepreneurs need sufficient knowledge in a variety of areas to succeed, while paid employees benefit from being specialists in a certain area demanded by the labor market. Because most women-led businesses are neither based on the motive of making money nor are they growth oriented, we argue that maximizing their lifetime income is not the main motivation of many women to start a business. However, we argue that Lazear's theory can be extended to motivations that are mostly stated for women entrepreneurs as well. We apply it to a specific representative sample of 1384 women graduates in Germany and test our hypothesis with logit regression. A dichotomized measure indicating whether a women graduate was self-employed ( n = 706) or not ( n = 678) served as the dependent variable. Our results widely confirm Lazear's assumption for women graduates who run relatively small businesses in terms of sales and employment: professional training, balanced industry experience, and balanced entrepreneurship-based self-efficacy increase the probability of being self-employed. Solo self-employed tend to have balanced industry experience more often than those being in a team or having employees. Lazear's theory has male as the norm, and as such, does not readily apply to the case of women-but could and should be extended to women's specifics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey data, we analyze performance gaps between male- and female-owned companies in three regions-Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA), Latin America (LA), and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Among our findings are significant gender gaps between male- and female-owned companies in terms of firm size, but much smaller gaps in terms of firm efficiency and growth (except in LA). Part of the reason women run smaller firms is that they tend to concentrate in sectors in which firms are smaller and less efficient (in ECA and SSA). By contrast, we find no evidence of gender discrimination in access to formal finance in any of the three regions, although in ECA women are less likely than men to seek formal finance. Finally, while female entrepreneurs receive smaller loans than their male counterparts, the returns from each dollar they receive is no lower in terms of overall sales revenue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how gender may account for productivity gaps across enterprises. First, using data from six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the article demonstrates that the extent and significance of any productivity gap by gender depends critically on the criteria used to classify an enterprise. Using a definition of 'female participation in ownership,' there are few differences in average performance measures. However, a 12% productivity gap emerges when a tighter definition, based on decision-making control, is used. Second, the article examines which entrepreneurial characteristics (education, management skills, experience and the motivation for being an entrepreneur) are most associated with higher productivity. The findings reveal that there are some gender gaps in the prevalence of these characteristics, but that these do not account for the overall gender productivity gap. Rather, while women benefit as much as men from education and management skills, there are non-linear impacts by gender in the benefits of having a family background in entrepreneurship; sons rather than daughters benefit from having a father that was an entrepreneur or from joining a family enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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, less business human capital acquired through prior work experience in a similar business, and less prior work experience in a family business. We also find some evidence that female business owners work fewer hours and may have different preferences for the goals of their businesses, which may have implications for business outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the questions and issues that prompted the founding of the Diana Project, a multi-university research program aimed at identifying factors that support and enable high growth in women-led ventures. Despite the fact that women business owners comprise a significant portion of the economy, women face challenges in acquiring the resources needed to expand their businesses. This article details both the myths and realities associated with women’s entrepreneurship in their quest for growth. In particular, we examine the strategies that women entrepreneurs use to position their firms for growth, especially those strategies related to growth capital. Our results show that women seeking venture capital (VC) have degrees, graduate degrees, and experience that should not preclude them from obtaining financing. We also found that even though women-led businesses are frequently clustered in industries less attractive to financiers, women seeking equity funding are in the appropriate industries. Further, women spend a considerable amount of time using both formal and informal networks in their search for capital and in seeking capital. Because of the importance of the VC industry as a provider of growth capital and its reliance on its network for investment referrals, we also examined the participation and role of women as decision-makers in industry. Women’s participation in the VC industry has not kept pace with industry growth, and women have exited the industry at a faster rate than men, thus creating a significant barrier for women entrepreneurs in that it is less likely that their networks will overlap with the financial supplier networks, despite any effort they may expend networking and seeking capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]