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The intersection of gender and entrepreneurship has received growing attention in recent years from academics, practitioners, and policy makers. The current paper reviews research on what influences women's demand for- and supply of entrepreneurial finance, while suggesting a conceptual approach untangling contradictory findings in earlier studies. This is achieved through a systematic literature review of 113 carefully selected papers, published between 1989 and 2019. Specifically, the review includes 77 studies dedicated to female access to finance, 32 studies on female investment behaviour, and 4 studies addressing both. We find that inconsistent findings can be traced to a combination of wide theoretical plurality in one-half of the studies and an absence of theoretical anchoring in the other half, calling for conceptual integration of existing theories with feminist critiques. Accordingly, we propose integrative conceptual frameworks highlighting the roles of explicit and symbolic factors impacting women's access to- and investment of- financial resources. This approach led us to suggest that refocusing research on symbolic and intangible factors may help uncover new associations, otherwise obscured in earlier research. Furthermore, the inclusion of interaction terms with gender-related variables may also help untangle existing inconsistencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The involvement of women in business in developing countries has become a subject of great interest for many researchers. In particular, female involvement in microfinance institutions has received special attention from governments and development institutions given its potential impact on poverty alleviation. This paper assesses the effect of gender on the credit risk and performance of microfinance institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. A sample of 43 microfinance institutions from 19 sub-Saharan African countries was selected and data was collected over the period 2010–2016. Seemingly unrelated regressions (SURs) were performed to examine how gender affects the credit risk and performance of microfinance institutions. The findings do not show any significant impact of female loan officers on credit risk, financial performance or social performance. Thus, all else being equal in the countries analyzed, female loan officers do not impact the credit risk and performance differently compared to male credit officers. The contribution of this paper is to shed light on the debate on the impact of gender on the performance of microfinance institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a special issue of Venture Capital which comprises a selection of the papers that were presented in the venture capital track at the 48th World Conference of the International Council For Small Business (ICSB) held in Belfast, Northern Ireland in June 2003. The intention of the mini-conference was to provide a forum for papers which explored new issues in venture capital. In our judgement the six papers that we have selected for publication in this special issue are particularly innovative in either their topic, methodology or treatment of the subject matter. This review covers the main themes in the track: (i) the new investment environment; (ii) approaches by venture capitalists to the evaluation of investment opportunities; (iii) the management of investments and investment performance; (iv) the global spread of venture capital; (v) business angels; (vi) the demand for venture capital; (vii) bootstrapping - making do without venture capital; (viii) women and (no) venture capital [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the experiences of LGBT* ethnic minority entrepreneurs, their changing locations and their entrepreneurial activities. Using a unique mixed-method approach which collected empirical data from Germany and the Netherlands, the paper combines an ethnographic fieldwork of intersectional entrepreneurs, community activists and policy-makers with an original survey with LGBT* customers. Our findings contribute to understanding of intersectionality by revealing the role played by the contextualized embeddedness of intersectional entrepreneurs at the different geographic scales of supranational, national, regional and inter and intra-urban. While such embeddedness frames the challenges they face, it also provides opportunities for intersectional entrepreneurs. Using a multi-scalar perspective, this paper delivers a spatially contextual perspective of entrepreneurial diversity and provides a framework to analyse the complex issues and contexts with which intersectional entrepreneurs are both confronted and embedded within. This paper contributes to refining the spatial context of entrepreneurship which has gained attention in recent studies of entrepreneurship and regional development. The paper responds to a call for gender entrepreneurship scholars to contribute to understanding of intersectional entrepreneurship. Finally, this study goes beyond the binary view of female migrant entrepreneurship by adopting a more gender diverse lens which considers the experiences of LGBT* entrepreneurs from ethnic minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With public concerns about fostering the inclusion of women, especially those with low socio-economic status, governments and private entities have started to develop collaborative strategies to improve women's development. One such strategy is collaborations with sharing economy entities, which are online platforms that provide entrepreneurship opportunities for individuals despite geographical and structural barriers. This paper draws on Ostrom's concept of the commons to explore how to foster the inclusion of women as entrepreneurs in the sharing economy through collaboration. Thematic analysis reveals the nature and outcomes of policies geared towards women's development. While previous studies on the sharing economy have noted that the top-down nature of its operations has resulted in individualised gains, this paper highlights the collaboration within these settings – leading to individual and mutual monetary and non-monetary benefits – stemming from a shared digital and traditional commons with context-based ideologies and stakeholder actions. This paper gives practitioners a clear understanding of how they can successfully support and create a context for women's entrepreneurship in the age of digitisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one on female engagement in entrepreneurship and another on the role of women entrepreneurs at regional, national and international levels.

The affinity for tech-driven solutions of 'smart cities' has been critiqued at length, as has the gender disparity in technology firms. This paper draws these literatures together along with our own data on Australia's innovation economy – one that includes its spaces (incubators, accelerators and co-working hubs), events ('hackathons'), and places (innovation districts). These three components are ubiquitous among smart city strategies across all levels of government. In this paper we examine the gendered landscape of the innovation economy and the strategic urban agenda to which it is tied. The paper draws on data collected through interviews conducted with women entrepreneurs around their experiences in Australia's innovation economy. Drawing from policy documents and further interviews, our discussion mirrors their vignettes with an examination of the three innovation economy components using case studies from Australian smart city planning. In doing so, we illuminate how the gendered experiences of women in the innovation economy are entwined with the smart urbanism imperatives of high-growth, technology-focus, and the attraction of 'talent'. Existing attempts to grapple with discrimination in the innovation economy are shown to reinforce gendered hierarchies, resulting in 'smart cities' designed for men. We argue that the gendered nature of the tech industries that underpin the innovation economy has implications for who the smart city is for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While most Japanese legal dramas feature a male protagonist as the hero, a significant amount of screen time is allocated to the courtroom heroine as well. This is in spite of statistics that show that women are still underrepresented in the Japanese legal profession. Surveying post-2000 Japanese legal television dramas reveals that televisual female legal professionals conform to two stock character types and corresponding narrative arcs: the rookie lawyer, and the elite but "fallen" lawyer. While most shows only feature one such heroine, Onna wa sore wo yurusanai (2014) features two, representing both types. This paper closely examines how the two stock characters are portrayed in this drama and the relevance of each to the larger narrative which reveals the difficulties female legal professionals face while navigating Japan's male-dominated legal domain. The paper concludes that the increasing presence of the heroine in legal dramas and her overall positive portrayal, reflects the Japanese government's goal of raising the number of legal professionals and women's participation in all public sectors by 2020, and also indicates changing attitudes on the part of Japanese society toward the need to give greater recognition and social acceptance to female legal professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how Black women entrepreneurs in Cali, Colombia confront racism and sexism, as they engage in the expanding neoliberal beauty market. We argue that anti-racist entrepreneurial experiences in Cali are shaped by four interconnected processes: First, changes in gender and development policies, aligned with inclusive neoliberal development projects. Second, the limitations of state neoliberal multicultural policies, which has made activists aware of the need to address racism and sexism. Third, activist's appropriation of the intersectional turn, allowing them to recognize articulations between racism, classism and sexism. Fourth, the adoption of anti-neoliberal discourses supporting distributive and solidarity practices. Our analysis suggests that while entrepreneurial anti-racist actions do not generate radical or permanent changes in the beauty industry, they do have material and symbolic effects in Black women's experiences of racial justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the history of Amélie de Dietrich in her role (1806 to 1855) as the head of one of the oldest family-owned businesses in Europe: the De Dietrich Company. Economic history has long given a very minor place to women entrepreneurs. Recent analyses nevertheless tend to show that women business leaders were not exceptions in the nineteenth century. This paper is a further attempt to bring women entrepreneurs – and their contribution to the industrial take-off – out of invisibility. Amélie de Dietrich took important strategic decisions to adapt the company to the new economic opportunities which arose in the first half of the nineteenth century. Her choices were decisive for the future of the company; what is more, she succeeded in restoring the familial ownership. Drawing on Amélie de Dietrich's own unpublished correspondence, this contribution examines the factors that explain her success in imposing herself as a Maître des Forges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by the work of Alistair Anderson on entrepreneurship as embedded in institutional contexts, this paper explores the experiences of 30 women micropreneurs in rural South-East Nigeria. These women are amongst the poorest people in the world and live in an environment marginalized from formal institutions, where informal ones are prioritized, and where culture and tradition reflect patriarchal limitations on their activities and experiences. We find that while microfinance is often cited as one of the key mitigators of institutional voids and an important support for entrepreneuring in deprived contexts, in fact there are critical barriers to uptake and socio-cultural conditions are found to limit the extent to which women trust and engage with microfinance. To that end, new methodologies that might mitigate perceived risks, including deepening poverty, are called for. Implications for those who would support enterprise in poverty circumstances in developing nations include that to be effective they must engage with the socio-cultural institutions and lived realities amongst the people they seek to serve. Alongside this, further application and development of the approaches to studying entrepreneurship in marginalized environments that Alistair was such as central contributor to are advocated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Asian Journal of Women's Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper uses a comparative ethnographic approach to explore the ways in which social media enables new economic strategies that capitalize on women's traditional forms of reliance within their local communities. We use ethnographic examples from northern Chile, southeast Italy, and south India to show how women are successful in establishing small but prestigious entrepreneurial activities by using social media to respond to local social and cultural needs. Women use social media to transform both conventional work practices and individuals' notions of work in ways that overcome important structural constraints they face in their respective communities. These findings contrast with optimistic analyses that suggest online platforms decrease global inequalities through bringing disadvantaged people into global economic flows. This article demonstrates the effective ways in which individuals use social media to gradually change local norms related to gender and work while making small but important gains towards economic stability. This process is related to important shifts in sociality that have resulted from social media use within local communities. By focusing on entrepreneurship and gendered aspects of online economic exchange, we develop an understanding of what happens when longstanding expectations for gendered work meet commerce made possible through new media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper presents an international overview of Indigenous women entrepreneurship and consequentially develops the indigenous-gendered integrated perspective applied to the analysis of this emerging and promising research theme. Within the analytical tools of intersectionality and positionality, the complexity of IWE is outlined as well as the intersections discussed. The paper explores how the intersection of Indigenous entrepreneurship and Women entrepreneurship can contribute to the understanding of IWE and what theoretical and practical implications this can have. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gender & Development is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite an increase in the share of female-owned existing and new start-up firms in Senegal, there is still wide belief that female entrepreneurs are discriminated against in the credit market. This paper empirically investigates such gender-based discrimination, and the extent to which it might be translated into lower performance. Using firm-level data and a methodological approach that consists of the data envelopment analysis, an endogenous switching regression and a propensity score matching, the paper suggests that there is no such thing as gender-based discrimination, and to the extent that they benefit from credit, female reap equal returns from the funds, efficiency-wise. These results do not however call for the abandonment of gender-biased public policies aiming at promoting access to credit and entrepreneurship, but suggest they be grounded on more robust footings such as managers' education, firms' ownership, sectorial activities, and geographical locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to assess the possible contribution of formalizing small-scale women entrepreneurs' food processing enterprises in northern Ethiopia to their empowerment or disempowerment. The rationale for evaluating this contribution to (dis)empowerment is to provide updated and policy-relevant knowledge on the issue, including assessing if the critiques of the formalization agenda are still valid or whether the situation may have changed. The main finding suggests that formalization offers limited opportunities for empowering small-scale, resource-poor women entrepreneurs in northern Ethiopia. The contribution of formalization to women's (dis)empowerment varies among the various categories of participants in different ways and forms. Some better-off women entrepreneurs benefitted from formalization in some dimensions; however, this is not the case for most of the women entrepreneurs included in the study. Instead, for the poorer women entrepreneurs, formalization rather led to disempowerment. In conclusion, if formalization in Ethiopia harms or disempowers poor women entrepreneurs rather than benefits them, this paper suggests a need for a major change in policies and practices related to the formalization and women empowerment agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we apply a feminist interpretation and an extension of Bourdieu's theory of practice to explore the gap in our understanding between gender gap issues – the institutionalized and structural inequalities that underpin the differential access to resources by women and men – and women business owners. Drawing on an interpretivist analysis of the lived experience of women entrepreneurs who were members of women-only or open-to-all formal entrepreneurship networks, we examine their enculturation and the strategies they employ to be deemed credible players in the field. We conclude that women-only formal entrepreneurship networks have had a limited impact on helping these women overcome the isolating and individualizing effects of a gendered entrepreneurial field. Despite the promise of familiarization with and sensitization to the field, women-only formal entrepreneurship networks only serve to perpetuate and reproduce the embedded masculinity of the entrepreneurship domain in the absence of appropriate activating mechanisms or 'margins of intervention'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women in patriarchal societies face cultural barriers hindering them in pursuing entrepreneurship. For example, women are hindered by gender roles, male dominated networks and expectations that they take of the family. Recently, scholars have argued that digital technologies may provide women with avenues to bypass these barriers. Yet, there is little knowledge about how female entrepreneurs engage with digital tools, and how this may help them bypass gendered, cultural barriers. Using 18 interviews with female entrepreneurs in Beijing and Shanghai, we identify four affordances (virtual networking, online learning, opportunity creation and scaling-up) that women use to overcome the cultural barriers to entrepreneurship. We find that through engaging these affordances, the women feel empowered and able to challenge traditional structures. Our paper contributes to recent work in digital and women entrepreneurship as we unpack how women actively create affordances, such as female friendly communities, and how they skilfully use new digital technologies to try to disrupt traditional industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the availability of capacity-building programs for women entrepreneurs and investigate the main challenges that women entrepreneurs face. 258 women entrepreneurs were randomly selected from six randomly selected zones in the SNNPR using a two-stage selection technique. Paper Assisted Personal Interview (PAPI) method was used to acquire quantitative data from women entrepreneurs. In addition, key informant interviews and focus group discussions with government officials and women entrepreneurs were conducted. Quantitative data were interpreted using inferential statistics such as proportion tests, pairwise proportion tests, and chi-square test, while qualitative data was analyzed using the thematic method. We found that training, marketplace, and cooperative services are relatively easily provided and implemented, while credit and market information are challenges for women entrepreneurs. Financial constraint is a main problem. Findings show that government and other bodies are working to strengthen the capacity of women entrepreneurs but that implementation is the weak link. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the greatest challenges in business consulting is to help clients quickly grasp how the products and services you offer will improve their organizations. As businesswomen whose adult lives have been spent implementing behavioral solutions in large companies and complex organizations, we have amassed experience and advice for those who seek to help others achieve sustainable improvements through behaviorally based solutions. It starts with getting them to understand and believe in what you are proposing. This paper outlines advice and strategies gained over three decades of marketing and implementing behavioral solutions in large organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As with many other male-dominated sports, for over a century of its history, Australian Rules Football organizations resisted and undermined women's participation in the game. The first league for women footballers commenced in Victoria in 1981. Since then, the growth in women's participation has been substantial, and in 2017, a professional women's Australian Football League (AFLW) commenced. The next phase of the participation of women in football is approaching, and heralds an opportunity for women to (re)gain power within the sport. In October 2019, thirty percent of women players rejected the proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement from the Australian Football League (AFL), with the underlying sentiment of wanting a stronger voice in the vision for the future of their game. This paper examines how changing participation rates in community football can transform the narrative of women's football from one of subsidized welfare to women players being necessary for the survival of football. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viola Desmond is now considered a forerunner in the civil rights movement in Canada. Lesser known is her role as a groundbreaking and successful African Nova Scotian entrepreneur. In this paper, the author pursues two objectives: (1) elevate the entrepreneurial accomplishments and lessons of Viola Desmond, and (2) explore a unique feminist approach to critical historiography, which fuses prowoman polemical writing, with fictocritical strategies and autoethnography. The research question guiding this study is: How can the application of a novel feminist approach help reveal an overlooked historical female figure who has been marginalized by a web of interlocking discourses? The paper makes three related contributions: (1) achieving recognition for Viola Desmond as an overlooked contributor to our understanding of female leadership in black entrepreneur; (2) promoting an understanding of her lost lessons and accomplishments; and (3) providing a plausible explanation for why Viola Desmond was omitted from the conceptualization of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that through a process of embeddedness in context, a female entrepreneurship network is able to challenge gender structures. I investigate how a female entrepreneurship network is constructed and how they reinforce and possibly challenge existing gender structures. From an ethnographic study, three processes in the female entrepreneurship network were identified: making proper entrepreneurs, building relationships and engaging in change. In the different processes the women involved in the network reinforced gender structures through compliance with a masculine discourse of entrepreneurship, but also challenged gender structures through questioning this discourse. Through becoming embedded in their local community, the women entrepreneurs were able to take charge of the development of the network and challenge gender structures as a result of questioning the masculine discourse of entrepreneurship. This implies an interplay between embeddedness and gender as two separate but dependent processes. Linking together gender and embeddedness elicits a new take on the way female entrepreneurship networks are constructed and how they could advance gender equality within entrepreneurship. Consequently, this paper emphasises a need for further examination of embeddedness within gender and entrepreneurship research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of action learning looks at how people learn, which is using gained knowledge to create needful and beneficial change. As a result, real problems and concerns are the contexts for which programmed knowledge and questioning insights are set to allow for unlearning and learning. Using Reg Revans theory which assumes action learning as programmed knowledge and questioning insight (P + Q) and Jack Mezirow’s theory on transformative learning which engages critical thinking to create new perspectives, this paper reviews a radio show that discusses conceptual views and lived experiences of women entrepreneurs. It brings together practitioners and scholarly concepts in an engaging manner to encourage critical thinking and enable new perspectives for research, teaching and practice. Using an innovative technique to evaluate learning, we examine the social and relational dynamics of a radio programme, which examines the complexities of doing entrepreneurship of two female entrepreneurs who operate in Africa (Nigeria and South Africa) and three who operate in the UK. The paper uses a reflective writing approach and narrative analysis to interpret the findings that evidence action learning in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, the tourism industry has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated changes in international travel. This paper draws on interviews with 51 women working in the tourism sector in Tanzania and examines gendered impacts of the pandemic on their welfare, which instigated or accelerated entrepreneurial activities as an attempt to protect women's incomes and security. Women in the study adopted one of three entrepreneurial strategies: they (re)committed to the tourism industry, working on developing their own skills and business ideas; they diversified their business interests to have a 'Plan B' in addition to tourism to safeguard against future crises; or they moved away from tourism altogether, focusing instead on other less volatile sectors. The crisis caused by the pandemic exposed tourism as a risky business and a gamble for many women, who are considering leaving the sector. This represents a significant obstacle for the tourism industry's recovery and sustainability and illustrates some of the limitations of tourism entrepreneurship for supporting and empowering women in the Global South. Priority policy areas for supporting women to remain within tourism are identified to help support women entrepreneurs and ensure their skills and enthusiasm contribute to rebuilding and reshaping the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the determinants of financial performance as perceived by Togolese female managers operating in the informal sector. The analysis is conducted using the partial least squares methodology based on data collected from 208 female-managed enterprises throughout Togo. The results indicate that business environment constraints, stereotypes toward females' managerial abilities, female entrepreneur's risk appetite, and being part of a network are associated positively and significantly with perceived financial performance, while difficult access to finance and cultural factors influence it negatively and significantly. Furthermore, the age of the enterprise is a significant determinant of the perceived financial performance. The positive effect of the business environment constraints is contrary to our expectations. This may be explained by the number of enterprises operating informally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women in ethnic businesses have often been heralded as a critical labour resource but at the same time exploited and unacknowledged for their significant contribution. This paper considers the role of women in Asian businesses by adopting a very different perspective. The cases reviewed consider family businesses (defined as having two or more generations involved in the ownership and management of the business) and the role of the mother as a mediator between both generations. Previous research on working dynamics in the family business field has focused almost exclusively on the power struggles between the founder (typically the father) and the heir (usually the son). The central thrust of this paper is to explore these working dynamics by focusing on the involvement and subsequent impact of the mother of the successor (also the wife of the founder). The research identifies the mother's role as a critical buffer between the generations, which is generally not recognised, let alone acknowledged by the family members experiencing transition. This paper adopts an unusual approach in its methodology by interviewing the founder and successor only, rather than the mother as well. By following this somewhat unorthodox approach I argue that the involvement of the mother is critical to the business. However, how it is perceived by key family members in the business is even more important as this will determine whether she has a platform to assert herself as an equal party or needs to adopt a dexterous approach in order to balance relations. The paper draws on data collected from Asian family firms based in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Women's tourism entrepreneurship has been identified as fundamental to meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals of both 'gender equality' and 'decent growth and economic growth' but neither entrepreneurship nor sustainability are gender neutral in the tourism industry. Therefore, further research is required into how gender influences sustainable entrepreneurship, providing insights for tourism entrepreneurship policy. In response to a prevalent essentialism in much of the literature, this paper adopts a post-structuralist framework, alongside a mixed-methods approach, to understand the complex role of gender and sustainability at different stages of entrepreneurship. The initial focus is on a survey of 539 tourism students (women and men) which analyses the latent and nascent entrepreneurship stages, while 19 interviews with established tourism entrepreneurs provide further insights into these issues. The analysis focusses especially on the individual characteristics of risk, personal attitudes to entrepreneurship and behavioural control. While broad gender differences are observed, notably in societal perceptions of risk aversion, there is also considerable blurring of the approaches of established entrepreneurs in particular to sustainability and entrepreneurship. If entrepreneurship is to enhance sustainability, policy needs to account for the non-essentialised gendered dimensions that inhibit and enable sustainable tourism entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender (in)equality in entrepreneurship has been getting more attention in recent decades. The number of female entrepreneurs repeatedly reported less than males due to cultural issues, education, and lack of support. Moreover, launching start-up apiaries is more challenging for Asian women in tourism, and the likelihood of unsuccessful experiences is higher among them. Accordingly, the lack of empirical material on female entrepreneurs in tourism and gender equality issues, especially in middle east countries, are the two main gaps. Therefore, this paper tries to reveal the Iranian female entrepreneurship experience to fulfil these gaps. This research applied a qualitative research design leading with social constructivism and critical theory. 12 Iranian female tourism entrepreneurs participated in semi-structured online interviews. The snowball sampling technique was applied to collect data that was analysed thematically. The findings of this study highlighted that family responsibility, legal disparities, credit constraints, and the social construction of gender roles and norms are among the hurdles restricting females from engaging in social and economic opportunities. Moreover, the participants mentioned that the lack of social, government, and sponsors' support and a platform for training and sharing peers' experiences impact their businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how institutional contexts and digital technologies influence women's digital entrepreneurship and emancipation potential in the conflict-laden, Arab country-specific context of Palestine. Drawing on insights from Institutional Theory and emancipation literature, we capitalize on in-depth, semi-structured online interviews with Palestinian women entrepreneurs. Accordingly, we present empirical evidence demonstrating that while digital technologies enabled Palestinian women to launch their enterprises, the unsupportive institutional contexts confined them to home-based, feminine enterprises and subjected them to a toll of additional challenges, health issues and hostility. Our findings challenge the claim that digital entrepreneurship emancipates women by showcasing the context-specific nature of emancipation. This paper advances entrepreneurship research by demonstrating how Arab women's digital entrepreneurship unfolds at the intersection between emancipatory enablers and unique, conflict-laden regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive institutional pillars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how gender shapes the everyday experiences of entrepreneurial labour in Greek collaborative workspaces (CWS), highlighting a relatively understudied segment of coworking research. Drawing upon a wider study of collaborative workspaces in Athens, it explores how these spaces, which are the site of an enactment of entrepreneurial subjectivity, present themselves as gender-neutral but rest on highly masculinized assumptions about an archetypical masculine user of the space. Firstly, the article reveals divergence in the ways women and men entrepreneurs experience entrepreneurial labour. Secondly, it identifies how women entrepreneurs struggle to fit into narrow understandings of start-up entrepreneurship and innovation during the early stages of venture capital seeking. It then focuses on the way associations between bravery, risk and entrepreneurship appear in conversations with founders of CWS and are reinforced through their practice. Lastly, it examines how gendered structural constraints are rarely discussed by women start-up entrepreneurs. The article concludes by arguing that gender is not simply undone, but rather rearranged in a coworking landscape which is embedded in a start-up entrepreneurial context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women entrepreneurs are a promising yet under-supported group that have notable impacts on the economy. Recent societal attempts to empower female entrepreneurs and their critical role in economic development have motivated research on determinants of women's participation in entrepreneurship and what can reduce gender disparities in this field. Drawing on insights from information economics, this paper emphasizes the recent transformations through digital technologies and examines the effect of digital readiness of an economy on women's ability to close the gap on entrepreneurial activities. Using a sample of international observations over the 2010-2016 period, we show that the capability of an economy to exploit digital opportunities increases female participation in opportunitydriven entrepreneurship. The results also indicate that the positive role of digital readiness in women's entrepreneurship strengthens in populations with higher perceived opportunity and, more interestingly, higher fear of failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revolves around women tourism entrepreneurs in the Pacific island nation of Samoa where an ancient way of living (fa'a Samoa) co-exists with colonial heritage and a growing tourism industry. By adopting a perspective sensitive to socio-cultural specificities, we examine the ways that the socio-cultural context both enables and impedes the empowerment of women managing tourism accommodations. In this venture, we draw on an ethnographic field study in the rural island of Savai'i, including semistructured interviews as well as informal conversations with locals, observations and the participation in everyday practices. We pinpoint and discuss the main sources of power and power-relations that women entrepreneurs need to command in order to run their businesses. Finally, we conclude that no (wo)man is an island, as we are all part of, and depend on, intrinsic social structures for our welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to calls for research that stresses the importance of embeddedness in entrepreneurship research, this paper examines the relationship between the spatial context and the social embeddedness in shaping and influencing women's entrepreneurial behaviour. A particular focus is placed on gender norms, through exploring how embeddedness is gendered and that the gender norms of the context in which women entrepreneurs are and were located can constrain and/or enable their entrepreneurial actions. Furthermore, knowledge about different spatial contexts means that women can orient themselves to different gender norms and entrepreneurial behaviours. This study draws on 27 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Saudi women entrepreneurs operating businesses within or beyond conservative, patriarchal contexts which feature different gender norms (enforced or relaxed). The findings show that when remaining within or moving between contexts, individuals have the potential to embed themselves to very different extents – through processes of over-embedding, reduce-embedding and re-mbedding – reflecting the options available for entrepreneurial action-taking and access to resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special collection examines the claim that microfinance promotes gender equality. The focus is on three areas of the debate: first, the question of how successful microfinance has been in empowering women; second, whether and how negative gender discrimination operates within the sector; third, how power relations within and beyond the household shape the context and outcomes of microfinance initiatives. The papers in this collection demonstrate the divergence of circumstances and emphasise the need to go beyond the past searches for a simple narrative regarding the impact of microfinance. Rather, as the sector evolves and is incorporated into the mainstream financial system, the challenge ahead for researchers is to marshal the evidence on gendered dynamics to ensure that the gains made are built on through deeper understanding of why impact outcomes and processes differ and use this to inform new initiatives to further gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including value co-creation activities for online fashion brands; role of the social commerce in health care management; discussions concerning the Women-entrepreneurship, and religiosity.

Do women exhibit a different pattern of entrepreneurial behavior as compared to men in post-Communist societies? This paper addresses this question using survey data from 25 Eastern Europe and Central Asian states. The sample consists of 11,617 private firms. As a result of 11,000 observations and multiple robustness checks, we find that female owners are more likely to introduce new marketing strategies than males. We demonstrate that firm innovation increases among top female managers with the increase in democratization. Democratization eliminates the gender disadvantages in firm innovation for most types of firm innovation. For most definitions, female leaders perform equally to males in firm innovation. Female owners have a slightly higher tendency to introduce new marketing strategies than males. Female top managers are less likely to invest in Research and Development as compared to male managers. Firm innovation increases among top female managers with the increase in democratization. Democratization eliminates the gender disadvantages in firm innovation for most types of innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Critical African Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper provides an overview of current research into the financing of women-owned/led ventures and identifies specific issues requiring further investigation, as well as possible future research directions. Topics covered by current research are divided, for discussion, into five broad categories, namely the characteristics and behaviours of women business owners; the characteristics of their ventures; financial strategies adopted and business decision-making; the relationships between those seeking finance and potential suppliers; and the impact of gender on women's ability to raise finance. In relation to future research, the authors highlight, among other things, the need for: research designs that capture the heterogeneity of women business owners and their ventures; in addition to comparative studies, investigations that give ‘voice’ to women's experiences (of seeking and supplying finance) in their own right; sound theoretical and conceptual foundations and contributions to theory building; more longitudinal studies; holism, inclusivity and heterogeneity in research into the financing of women-owned/led businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the effect of female ownership on access to finance on a broad panel of developing countries. We find that female owners generally face more credit constraints compared to their male counterparts, however, such constraints are lower for women-owned firms that have an experienced senior management. We further show that with better institutional and policy environment in a country, women-owned firms face fewer credit constraints. Our findings remain robust when tested across a sample of small and medium enterprises (hereinafter SMEs) and other sensitivity tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper relies on the 2008 and 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys and an instrumental variable estimation strategy to estimate the relationship between a Nigerian woman's age at entry into her first and current marriage and entrepreneurship. The result suggests a 5-percentage point higher likelihood of engaging in entrepreneurship for women with an additional year of at marriage entry. Further, there is about a 12-percentage point increase in the likelihood of continuous engagement in self-employed work over the prior year with an additional year of age at marriage entry. This result is consistent for women who reside in rural and urban locations. Premarital investments in education, lower fertility, and better intramarriage bargaining power are the likely operative channels that explain the estimated relationship. HIGHLIGHTS Early marriage entry has economic costs and hurts women's overall empowerment. Early marriage in Nigeria is mainly influenced by religious and cultural factors. Women who marry early are less likely to engage in entrepreneurship and to do so continuously. There are no geographic differences in the effects of early marriage entry on entrepreneurship. Later marriage is associated with better education, declining fertility, and improved bargaining power of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the large literature on gender differences in politics, there have been relatively few empirical studies testing the effects of gender in public administration. This paper examines how male and female public managers show attitudinal differences toward innovation in the public sector. We hypothesize that male and female managers differ in three aspects. Firstly, female managers are more result-oriented than rule-following, and more oriented toward societal interests. Secondly, female public managers are more open to new ideas and creativity, and more willing to challenge the status quo. Yet, thirdly, female leaders are less eager to take risks when would-be innovations may put their organizations in peril. Thus, we argue that female managers are more prudent and entrepreneurial than their male counterparts. We test these hypotheses using a data set of 5,909 senior public managers from 20 European countries. The results of multilevel model analysis find statistically significant gender differences in attitudes toward innovation. Despite the small size of gender impacts, our findings challenge prevailing stereotypes on women's entrepreneurial attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The events industry is female-dominated numerically, yet men continue to occupy the majority of senior roles and positions of influence. A variety of factors contribute to this persistent glass ceiling, including shortage of female role models, lack of confidence, inflexible working hours and limited professional networks. Mentoring has been shown to begin to address some of these challenges women may face in progressing to senior positions. This paper reports on research conducted on a formal industry-wide mentoring programme for women that aims to pair female professionals with leading industry figures in a supportive, collaborative and focused programme of development activities. Drawing on data from 37 interviews with mentees on the programme, conducted over the course of one year, the article considers if and how mentoring can help empower women in the events industry to aim high and proactively advance their careers. Findings suggest that mentoring can have positive effects on women’s confidence, ability to plan professionally and build supportive and enabling networks. The study shows the value of a structured, formal programme for mentoring activities and suggests that, although mentoring alone will not redress gender inequality in the events industry, it provides a valuable and effective mechanism for individual career development and empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relation between gender differences in entrepreneurship and firm-level bribery, one of the most impactful business obstacles to private sector growth. Using data from a comprehensive survey covering 16,560 enterprises in 32 emerging economies, we find that female-led firms account for 19.2% of all enterprises, which is approximately 4 times lower than the share of male-led firms, and that female entrepreneurs experience a higher level of bribery than their peers. The impact of gender on bribery is more pronounced among firms located in countries that are more corruption-prone and becomes weaker among countries with a higher female graduation ratio at the tertiary level. In addition, female-run firms have a lower likelihood of obtaining a construction permit, securing a government contract, or holding an operating licence. Overall, the results suggest that a bribe-to-survive motive is a possible explanation for the higher level of bribery among female-led firms in emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines microfinance intervention in rural poverty reduction in Ghana by surveying 100 rural women farmer-entrepreneurs. The findings reveal that microfinance interventions that emphasize both credit provision and social intermediation improve access to credit, improve business performance, and contribute to a higher standard of living for female farmer-entrepreneurs and their families. The results show that the microfinance scheme has been successful due to a strong social network and group relationships among the farmers. An implication of the study is that poverty reduction programs in developing countries need to emphasize social and human development components in microfinancing policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the continuing growth in numbers of women entrepreneurs in China since the 1980s, research in this area has not kept pace with the development. In this paper, we critically review the current situation of women's entrepreneurship in China and the status quo of research in this field. We then analyse the political, social, cultural, organizational, and individual barriers women entrepreneurs may encounter, as well as the policy initiatives and institutional and social support to promote women entrepreneurship. We further outline the main theoretical perspectives that have been mobilized to inform research on women's entrepreneurship in China and indicate areas for future studies and how they may be framed. We argue for the need to adopt a more critical approach, such as feminist discourse analysis and a critical socio-technological perspective to inform future research, to shed light on a range of phenomena related to women's entrepreneurship that have yet to receive adequate research attention. Our review has implications for human resource development in China and other societal contexts with similar cultural norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1981 friends and female entrepreneurs Virginia Limansky and Ann Wilder launched a boutique spice business in Baltimore. The company's name was a fusion of their first names, Virginia and Ann, and the business initially developed out of their home kitchens. Vanns created popular spice blends of high quality and flourished despite being located in the shadow of nearby spice giant McCormick. It began by offering six spice blends; today the company boasts over 350 spices, herbs and seasoning blends. By focusing on Vanns' first years, this study first explores what prompted one of its female co-founders to create its foundational spice blends and then withdraw from the enterprise precisely as the business took flight. Next it looks to what circumstances contributed to the business' early success, and with only one exception, to ways these women entrepreneurs found to transform potential obstacles to Vanns' success into business opportunities. Finally, this story of Vanns, incorporating detail available through recent access to Val Limansky's private papers and personal interviews, reintroduces Val Limansky to the story of the business she co-founded, which continues to operate in Maryland today. It also adds particularity to existing accounts of Baltimore's social and food landscape in the 80s, and of the gourmetization of foodways in America during the 80s and 90s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]