Gender differences in entrepreneurial propensity: Evidence from matrilineal and patriarchal societies

We examine whether men and women in patriarchal and matrilineal societies differ in their propensity to engage in entrepreneurship. We conduct two studies. Study 1 involves face-to-face interviews to identify individuals who are in the process of starting a new business. We find that men in patriarchal societies are more likely than women to initiate action to start a new business. This result, however, is reversed in matrilineal societies, where women are more likely than men to do so. The results of causal mediation tests suggest that entrepreneurial self-efficacy and fear of business failure explain the gender gap in both societies. Study 2 involves a controlled experiment in the lab that captures individuals' willingness to invest in the creation of a new venture. The results of the experiments are consistent with the survey data: men in patriarchal societies and women in matrilineal societies invest more in new venture creation in a simulated environment. We therefore rule out the simplistic view that women are inherently less likely to enter into entrepreneurship due to innate differences across genders. Rather, gender differences in entrepreneurial propensity are outcome of socialization.     

Gender Characterizations in Entrepreneurship: A Multi‐Level Investigation of Sex‐Role Stereotypes about High‐Growth,Commercial, and Social Entrepreneurs

The purpose of this study is to cast new light on possible gender biases in implicit theories people hold about various forms of entrepreneurial activity. Using social role theory, we delve into sex‐role stereotypes associated with high‐ and low‐growth entrepreneurship and commercial and social entrepreneurship. Predictions were tested with an experimental design using both a between‐subject design to capture group‐level stereotypes and a within‐subject design to capture individual‐level stereotypes. Findings reveal that commercial and high‐growth entrepreneurs are perceived as more similar to men than to women and higher on agency than communality. Conversely, low‐growth entrepreneurs are perceived as more similar to women than men, and higher on communality than agency. Social entrepreneurs are uniquely perceived as similar to both men and women, though they are also considered higher on agency than communality. Interestingly, female, but not male respondents, perceive some overlap between the feminine gender role and high‐growth and commercial entrepreneurship. Notably, those higher on modern sexism perceive less overlap between entrepreneurship and femininity. Taken together, our results suggest that commercial high‐growth entrepreneurship is most strongly male‐typed, which is likely to be problematic for women (and non‐traditional men) wanting to start growth‐oriented ventures. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Gender differences in firm performance: Evidence from new ventures in the United States

Prior studies examining the performance of female- and male-owned firms have generally reported that female-owned firms underperform male-owned firms. However, it is conceivable that the performance measures used by previous studies and/or their inability to control for key demographic differences may have contributed to this finding. For example, few studies use size adjusted performance measures and yet we know that female-owned firms tend to be smaller than their male counterparts. Similarly, risk is typically not considered even though evidence suggests that women tend to be more risk averse than men. We use a longitudinal (five-year) database of more than 4000 new ventures that began operations in the U.S. in 2004 to determine whether potential differences in the performances of female- and male-owned firms disappear when appropriate performance measures are used and important demographic differences are controlled for in the models. The performance measures we examine include: 4-year closure rates; return on assets (ROA); and a risk-adjusted measure (Sharpe ratio). Univariate test results confirm our expectation (based on both liberal and social feminist theory) that there is no difference in the performance of female- and male-owned new ventures provided performance is appropriately measured. Further, these results are supported by our multivariate analyses, which control for demographic differences such as industry, experience and hours worked. Our findings should be of interest to researchers, financiers, advisors and policy makers. Perhaps more importantly, our findings should also ensure that women who are contemplating starting a new venture are not discouraged from doing so by a false belief that new ventures initiated by women are less likely to succeed than those initiated by men.     

To start or not to start: Outcome and ability expectations in the decision to start a new venture

This study seeks to better understand why some individuals decide to start new businesses and others do not, particularly in light of high base rates of failure. In addressing the question of “Why do some individuals choose to start new ventures?” a common perspective is that potential entrepreneurs with high levels of confidence in potential outcomes are likely to start new ventures. Alternatively, it also may be that firm creation decisions are based largely on individual expectations of one's ability. Hypotheses examining these perspectives are tested using a sample of 316 nascent entrepreneurs with the start-up decision tracked longitudinally. The results indicate that confidence in one's ability to perform tasks relevant to entrepreneurship is a robust predictor of start-up while outcome expectancies appear to play a marginal role. Theoretical and practical implications stemming from these results are discussed.     

Who Do Start‐Up Firms Imitate? A Study of New Market Entries in the CLEC Industry

Institutional theory contends firms imitate other firms with ideal traits, whereas the strategic groups literature on imitation suggests firms imitate similar firms. We address this debate by studying 1,067 market entries by founder‐managed start‐ups in the U.S. Competitive Local Exchange Carrier industry from 1996 to 2004. In support of the strategic groups literature, start‐ups imitate entry decisions of and gravitate toward markets that are densely populated by other start‐ups. Though start‐ups avoid markets already densely populated by corporate ventures, they imitate the market entries of corporate ventures. Our discussion of these and other findings provide insights for start‐ups navigating new industries.     

Letting Go to Grow—Empirical Findings on a Hearsay

Research to date has largely neglected the role of management style in new entrepreneurial ventures. We address this gap by investigating the impact of management style on company performance and how the impact is different contingent on the life cycle stage of new entrepreneurial ventures. By employing the concept of microinvolvement, our study demonstrates that management style significantly impacts company performance and that the merits of a highly involved management style are less in later‐stage new entrepreneurial ventures. This finding provides support for the saying “letting go to grow” and raises important implications for management.     

How On‐the‐Job Embeddedness Influences New Venture Creation and Growth

This study aims to answer why some employees choose to start their own ventures, whereas others choose to seek jobs in other organizations after leaving their current employment. Drawing insights from knowledge‐based view and social capital theory, we examine the impact of on‐the‐job embeddedness on the decision of employee entrepreneurship, industry choice, and new venture growth. We argue that on‐the‐job embeddedness provides key resources for employees to start new ventures and grow them. We test our hypotheses with Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) data. Our results show that on‐the‐job embeddedness increases the probability of employees becoming entrepreneurs. Once they decide to become entrepreneurs, those employees with high on‐the‐job embeddedness are more likely to start new ventures in the industry in which they worked before. Moreover, employees' on‐the‐job embeddedness has a positive impact on new venture growth.     

Culture and National Conditions Facilitating Entrepreneurial Start-ups

Culture shapes institutional practices and policies facilitating or constraining the formation of new start-ups. This study assesses the extent to which cultural parameters and economic conditions support the development of new business start-ups in 44 nations. Cultural and economic variables provided unique contributions in predicting a profile of environmental conditions (ease of obtaining financing for new ventures, administrative burdens, legal infrastructure, and labor flexibility) favoring entrepreneurship in different nations.     

The garage team—entrepreneurship lessons from DHL international

When you start a venture, you start with yourself: your own personal operating system, or POS. Then, you identify and define your compelling product or service, something you should already know a lot about. You also need to use your sales skills to convince key stakeholders to support you, and to design your venture by putting together a pattern that works. The next step is to put together a team to help you implement the pattern you have designed, the men and women who will make up your garage team. The garage team is made up of the core people in a start‐up, people who help graduate the entrepreneur to the role of leader, because a leader with no followers is a leader of none. This article explores the essential attributes of such a team and how they contribute to the success of entrepreneurial ventures. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Gender gap in latent and nascent entrepreneurship: driven by competitiveness

This study highlights the relevance of gender differences in competitiveness for the gender gap in latent and nascent entrepreneurship. Using data obtained from a recent large-scale survey conducted in 36 countries, we find that individuals who like situations in which they compete with others are more likely to have a preference for being self-employed (latent entrepreneurs) and are also more likely to take steps to start new businesses (nascent entrepreneurs). Moreover, our results suggest that women are less competitively inclined than men in almost all countries in our sample and are also less willing to take risks. The results of a decomposition analysis suggest that gender differences in competitiveness and risk taking contribute significantly to the gender gap in latent and nascent entrepreneurship. Gender differences in competitiveness seem to be relevant, especially for the gender gap in nascent entrepreneurship.     

What a Difference a Y makes-Female and Male Nascent Entrepreneurs in Germany

In western industrialized countries men are on average more than twice as active in entrepreneurship as women. Based on data from a recent representative survey of the adult population in Germany this paper uses an empirical model for the decision to become self-employed to test for differences between women and men in the ceteris paribus impact of several characteristics and attitudes, taking the rare events nature of becoming an entrepreneur into account. Furthermore, a non-parametric approach using Mahalanobis- distance matching of man and woman which are as similar as possible in all characteristics and attitudes but the “small difference” is used to investigate the difference in the propensity to become self-employed by sex. A core finding is that the difference between men and women in both the extent and the effect of considering fear of failure to be a reason not to start one’s own business is important for the explanation of the gap in entrepreneurship by sex.     

Allocation and productivity of time in new ventures of female and male entrepreneurs

This paper investigates time allocation decisions in new ventures of female and male entrepreneurs using a model that distinguishes between effects of preferences and productivity on the number of working hours. Using data of 1,158 entrepreneurs we find that the preference for work time in new ventures relates to start-up motivation, propensity to take risk and availability of other income. Productivity of work time relates to human, financial and social capital endowments and the prevalence of outsourcing activities. This study also evaluates actual profit effects 1 year after start-up. We find that on average women invest less time in the business than men. This can be attributed to both a lower preference for work time (driven by risk aversion and availability of other income) and a lower productivity per hour worked (due to lower endowments of human, social and financial capital).     

Role of entrepreneur gender and management style in influencing perceptions and behaviors of new recruits: Evidence from the Islamic Republic of Iran

Entrepreneurs face considerable challenges in attracting prospective recruits and managing them in the absence of established norms and traditions. This research examines how gender and management styles of entrepreneurs impact new recruits’ attitudes including their cognitions, affect, and behaviors in new ventures. Results of two experimental studies conducted in the Islamic Republic of Iran demonstrate that women entrepreneurs are reacted to less negatively and considered more effective when they use directive management style. In addition, women entrepreneurs who employ directive style elicit superior performance from new recruits compared to those who rely on participative style. Management style does not appear to matter for attitudes towards men entrepreneurs. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Am I an entrepreneur? How imposter fears hinder women entrepreneurs’ business growth

Although participation of women in entrepreneurship continues to grow, a gender-performance gap persists. While the differential inputs and values perspectives have investigated both external and internal forces that help explain this gap, neither perspective has considered an important cognitive mechanism that captures gender differences: identity. The purpose of this article is to examine the role of imposter fears in shaping entrepreneurial identity and the desire for business growth. Entrepreneurship has long been associated with masculine notions of success, which may lead women to discount themselves as ‘real’ entrepreneurs or successful in the context of these masculine norms. Our goal is to draw attention to women entrepreneurs’ imposter fears in order to understand how women think about and construct their identity as entrepreneurs and subsequently contemplate the success and growth of their ventures. We also propose mitigating factors that can disrupt gendered norms and facilitate self-efficacy for women entrepreneurs in the pursuit of business growth.     

Creating sustainable international social ventures

International social ventures are now an increasingly common feature of the international business and social landscape in many countries worldwide. However, despite the increase in the number of social ventures and widespread interest that has resulted, theoretical development that deals specifically with international social ventures, or social ventures that operate across borders, has lagged behind, and there is little to guide potential social entrepreneurs thinking of setting up an international social venture. The aim of this article is to show how combining concepts from social exchange theory with international new venture theory can provide a useful conceptual framework that helps answer the central questions: What are the conditions for sustainable international social ventures? What difficulties are likely to arise in establishing such ventures? © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The evaluative legitimacy of social entrepreneurship in capitalist welfare systems

Social entrepreneurs start ventures to tackle social problems, and these ventures have the potential to outperform other social service providers in welfare states. We leverage theories of legitimacy and Varieties of Capitalism to examine national experts’ (N = 361) assessments of the efficiency of social enterprises relative to state and civil society. Our multilevel analysis across 11 welfare states shows that social enterprises are perceived as a more efficient solution to social problems when a liberal or socialist logic dominates a given state’s market coordination and social welfare provision. However, when institutional logics are in conflict, the assigned legitimacy of social entrepreneurship is diminished.     

Enriching strategic variety in new ventures through external knowledge

To build profitable market positions, new ventures have to address multiple challenges on several fronts. These ventures can compete by being simple (focused) or applying varied ways to compete. The likelihood of these ventures remaining competitive depends on their ability to build novelty into their products and operations, an activity that requires infusing knowledge into their operations. Most ventures, however, have limited knowledge bases and the reach (scope) of their external connections is limited, a factor that prompts them to tap into different external sources in their local areas. This article reports an empirical study of 140 new ventures located in seven regional clusters in Spain. The results show that new ventures can enrich the variety of their strategic repertoire by accessing diverse sources of external knowledge and being exposed to external novel knowledge, while absorptive capacity moderates this relationship. The degree of social development of these clusters also has a positive impact on the strategic variety of new ventures, exhibiting an inverted U-shape curve.     

Founding scale and survival: double-edged effects of corporate sponsorship

This study examines the effects of founding scale on survival rates across independent and corporate-sponsored Taiwan securities firms. Empirical results confirm the positive effects of founding scale and corporate sponsorship on new venture survival. Results also indicate that when founding scale is large, corporate-sponsored new ventures have higher survival rates than independent ventures. However, when founding scale is smaller, the reverse is true: corporate-sponsored new ventures have lower survival rates than independent ventures. Therefore, corporate sponsorship comes off as a double-edged sword; new ventures may benefit from the parent's existent resources and social linkages, but also suffer from a loss of autonomy and control over major decisions.     

The Impact of Relational Capital on the Success of New Business Start‐Ups

This study seeks to highlight the key role played by relational capital in new business start‐ups. Following a review of previous research examining the success factors of new ventures and the role played by intellectual capital, our study sets out to achieve this objective by analyzing the impact of a set of intangible relational assets on the initial success of new business start‐ups. Based on a study of 130 firms, we analyzed six hypotheses regarding the possible positive relationship between the relational capital of a start‐up company and its success in its first few years of business.     

Social ties and venture creation by returnee entrepreneurs

Recent years have witnessed the return of individuals of Indian or Chinese origin from developed markets to their home countries to start new ventures. Returnee Entrepreneurs (REs) facilitate both direct technology transfer and indirect technology spillovers to local firms, thus contributing to the technological development of emerging economies. Much previous work is based on the integration of ethnic entrepreneurs in their host countries or business activities of transnational entrepreneurs that traverse their host and home countries. This study explores the role of social ties in venture creation by REs. Based on twenty case studies in India, the findings show that (1) local ties are indispensable for venture creation, and (2) the heterogeneity in the way REs leverage social ties across the host and home countries is contingent on the location of their intention to start up and generation of idea for their venture. The implications of these findings are discussed.