Gender-Specific Beliefs About Entrepreneurship: Specifications and Implications.

Demographic and societal changes alter labour markets as well as individual life and career paths (e.g., Baruch 2004; Lupart et al. 2004). According to Settersten (2007), new individual and environmental resources are necessary, including for instance adaptive, multiplied self-concepts. With this in mind, gendered occupational choices become even more important for individual life paths as well as for economic development. The present study investigates the subjective background of one specific occupational choice, i.e., entrepreneurship, where multifaceted gender differences were observed (e.g., Allen et al. 2007; Baughn et al. 2006). Thus, we will concentrate on the subjective beliefs German students connect with entrepreneurship, and we will execute a gender-specific analysis to deduce some assumptions that may lead to further research. This approach is based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen 1991), which fits very well into the current process perspective on entrepreneurship (e.g., Baron 2007; Davidsson 2007). A qualitative elicitation study using a sample of 41 students resulted in a category-system of behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, and control beliefs. The quality of the categories was tested by four independent raters. Supplemented with answers from 17 additional students, the answers of all 58 students were analysed in terms of category-specific frequencies. This was executed for each gender; thus, gender-specific lists of category-frequencies were produced. This must be discussed if the resulting frequency-orders mirror significant differences between men and women. The discussion of the results will compare the present categories with the categories of previous investigations (cf. Kolvereid 1996a; Tegtmeier 2006). The breadth of the resulting categories indicates a differentiated offer of training and education opportunities as well as supportive structures for students. Although this investigation is limited due to the qualitative data and some sample-based restrictions, it indicates some detailed suggestions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]