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.     

How Task Structure and Outcome Comparisons Influence Women's and Men's Risk‐Taking Self‐Efficacies: A Multi‐Study Exploration

To explore inconsistent findings in the perceived self‐efficacy and entrepreneurship literatures as they relate to the type of complex, risky decisions (i.e., those that commit financial resources to generate new revenue) made by marketing managers, entrepreneurs, and corporate intrapreneurs, this paper uses a series of four theoretically driven, empirical studies to investigate gender differences in risk‐taking self‐efficacies (i.e., one's perceived abilities to make financially risky, business development decisions). The results indicate the following: (1) no gender differences in risk‐taking self‐efficacies absent a task; (2) after performing a complex, risk‐laden task, the risk‐taking self‐efficacies of subjects receiving negatively valenced outcome information and women were less than those of subjects receiving positively valenced outcome information and men; (3) this effect remains for women when experience in the task domain is high and when diagnostic information about prior outcomes is provided; (4) the reason for the effect appears to be that men and women use information about their prior decision's outcomes differently when assessing their risk‐taking self‐efficacies; and (5) the effect disappears when social cues intended to facilitate accurate performance comparisons are introduced into the task environment. These findings support existing theories, identify areas needing development, and show how these effects can limit participation in both complex, risk‐laden tasks and careers that are thought to involve performing such tasks.     

Gender Role Portrayals in Japanese Advertising: A Magazine Content Analysis

Abstract

The authors report a content analysis that assessed gender role portrayals in advertisements from highest circulation Japanese magazines. They found that, although some indigenous gender stereotyping was evident, several traits previously associated with Japanese women (devoted, obliging, rattle-brained, superstitious, thorough) were associated with men. Also, men were not linked with certain stereotypical male traits (autocratic, blustery, forgiving, generous, severe). Other findings included women being shown in a positive way as often as men. In terms of common international stereotypes, women were not associated with low priced products or portrayed as being more deferential than men. However, women still were portrayed as more concerned with appearance and as younger than men, were not depicted as product authorities, and were shown more often in sexist than in nonsexist depictions.     

Gender,entrepreneurial characteristics,and success: Evidence from Ethiopia

Africa‐based research on gender and entrepreneurship is very limited. This study compares the characteristics and relative successes of men and women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia with a view of isolating the unique hurdles encountered by female entrepreneurs. While both genders in this sample were pulled, rather than pushed, toward entrepreneurship, women were more influenced by family factors. With regard to personality traits, men entrepreneurs in this study were generally more confident in their ability to succeed, whereas women exhibited higher fear of failure and external locus of control. Women entrepreneurs also reported lower business and entrepreneurial skills and relied more on government funding. Furthermore, male entrepreneurs outperformed females in terms of sales, employment growth, and profitability. The study identifies areas in which the skills and competencies of Ethiopian women entrepreneurs can be developed through targeted training programs to enable them to more clearly recognize entrepreneurial opportunities and achieve business growth. The findings of this study and the concrete suggestions it offers to strengthen the success of Ethiopian women entrepreneurs may be relevant to other African countries as well.     

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.     

A theoretical overview and extension of research on sex,gender, and entrepreneurship

With the rising number of women-owned businesses has come a considerable amount of research, and even more speculation, on differences between male and female entrepreneurs and their businesses. To date, these findings and speculations have been largely atheoretical, and little progress has been made in understanding whether such differences are pervasive, let alone why they might exist. Thus public policy-makers have had little guidance on such difficult issues as whether or not unique training and support programs should be designed for women versus men. Moreover, lenders who finance new and growing firms have little to go on but their own “gut instinct” in assessing whether women's and men's businesses are likely to run in similar ways, or whether they might be run in different but equally effective ways.The lack of integrative frameworks for understanding the nature and implications of issues related to sex, gender, and entrepreneurship has been a major obstacle. Two perspectives that help to organize and interpret past research, and highlight avenues for future research, are liberal feminism and social feminism.Liberal feminist theory suggests that women are disadvantaged relative to men due to overt discrimination and/or to systemic factors that deprive them of vital resources like business education and experience. Previous studies that have investigated whether or not women are discriminated against by lenders and consultants, and whether or not women actually do have less relevant education and experience, are consistent with a liberal feminist perspective. Those empirical studies that have been conducted provide modest evidence that overt discrimination, or any systematic lack of access to resources that women may experience, impedes their ability to succeed in business.Social feminist theory suggests that, due to differences in early and ongoing socialization, women and men do differ inherently. However, it also suggests that this does not mean women are inferior to men, as women and men may develop different but equally effective traits. Previous entrepreneurship studies that have compared men and women on socialized traits and values are consistent with a social feminist perspective. These studies have documented few consistent gender differences, and have suggested that those differences that do exist may have little impact on business performance.While this interpretation of past findings is relevant to the question of if and how female and male entrepreneurs differ, there are still large gaps in our knowledge. In particular, only one study (Kalleberg and Leicht 1991) has systematically explored whether or not potential differences related to discrimination or socialization affect business performance; the study used limited measures of business performance, and assessed only a restricted range of male I female differences. This article reports on a study that explored other potential differences related to discrimination and to socialization (which are hypothesized based on liberal and social feminism) and looked at their relationship to a more comprehensive set of business performance measures.The study indicates that for a large, randomly selected sample of entrepreneurs in the manufacturing, retail, and service sectors, there were few differences in the education obtained by males and females, or in their business motivations. Women entrepreneurs were, however, found to have less experience in managing employees, in working in similar firms, or in helping to start-up new businesses. Women's firms also were found to be smaller than men's, to have lower growth in income over two years, and to have lower sales per employee. Regressions undertaken to examine predictors of a range of business performance indicators suggest that women's lesser experience in working in similar firms and in helping to start-up businesses may help to explain the smaller size, slower income growth, and lesser sales per employee of their firms.For policy-makers, this article suggests that systemic factors that afford women less access to experience must be addressed. Support for classroom training or related advisory activities may not be warranted; there is little evidence that women lack access to relevant classroom education. However, programs that help increase women's access to hands-on experience in starting firms or in working in the industry in which they hope to set up business does seem advisable. In-class education or counseling would not seem to compensate for lack of real-world experience, which suggests that any available funds should be directed more toward initiatives centered on apprenticeship programs than toward those centered on classroom teaching.Implications for lenders and investors are less clear cut, but suggest that whatever innate differences may exist between men and women are irrelevant to entrepreneurship. While women's businesses do not perform as well as men's on measures of size, they show fewer differences on other, arguably more critical business effectiveness measures-growth and productivity—and no differences on returns. Discrimination against women-owned businesses based on these findings would clearly be both unethical and unwarranted. The fact that women appear to obtain similar growth, productivity, and returns, in fact, suggests that they may be compensating for experience deficits in ways that current research does not illuminate. While more systematic inquiry is required to assist in understanding why men's and women's firms may differ in some predictable ways, this study would suggest that lenders and investors wishing to assist small businesses should focus on evaluating the amount and quality of the business and non-business experience of entrepreneurs, and consider sex an irrelevant variable.For entrepreneurs, this research reinforces the notion that acquiring relevant industry and entrepreneurial experience is of considerable importance if they seek to establish large firms and/or to achieve substantial firm productivity and returns. In particular, helping in the start-up of firms and spending extended periods of time in the industry of choice appear to yield subsequent rewards in the performance of any individual's firm. Future research is needed to investigate whether or not other types of business experience or non-business experience might bring additional benefits in terms of positive impact on future business performance, but the indication of the current work is that one's sex per se is neither a liability nor an asset.     

About Gender Differences and the Social Environment in the Development of Entrepreneurial Intentions

This study analyzes the interplay between gender differences and the social environment in the formation of entrepreneurial intentions. Data were obtained from two different European regions. The results show that the formation of entrepreneurial intentions is similar for men and women. At the same time, men consistently exhibit more favorable intentions than women do. Nevertheless, the perception of the social legitimation of entrepreneurship only serves to reinforce male entrepreneurial intentions, and not those of women. This holds for both regions and probably is a consequence of women feeling entrepreneurship to not be an acceptable career option for them. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Being in Someone Else’s Shoes: the Role of Gender in Nascent Entrepreneurship

Several studies have shown the existence of significant differences in the rate of new business creation between men and women. Specifically, it has been shown that women are much less likely to be involved in entrepreneurship than men worldwide. It is not yet understood, however, if such differences are the result of personal characteristics of the individual and of her economic environment or are, instead, the result of universal and, perhaps, evolutionary phenomena. Our empirical analysis is conducted using representative samples of population for 37 countries and a special form of bootstrapping that allows us to equalize individuals’ conditions and, as a result, analyze the choices of men and women put in identical economic environments and socio-economic circumstances.      

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.     

Antecedents of Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship in New Zealand: An Intergroup Comparison

This paper traces the antecedents of entrepreneurship across ethnic minority groups as reflected in their different rates of business formation in New Zealand, an ethnically diverse nation. The study contrasts the experiences of the Dutch, Chinese, Indian, and Pacific Peoples, groups who have historically exhibited different levels of entrepreneurship. A grounded theory approach led to a model with four linked embedding constructs—migration, settlement, identity, and business—sufficient to interpret longstanding intergroup differences in business formation rates. The findings give new insight into the nature of ethnic minority embedding and an original substantive theory of the antecedents of ethnic minority entrepreneurship.     

Asymmetric Perceptions of Ethical Frameworks of Men and Women in Business and Nonbusiness Settings

This paper examines the relationship between individuals' gender and their ethical decision models. The study seeks to identify asymmetries in men's and women's approaches to ethical decision making and differences in their perceptions of how same-sex and other-sex managers would likely act in business and nonbusiness situations that present an ethical dilemma. Results indicate that the models employed by men and women differ in both business and nonbusiness settings, that both sexes report changing models when leaving business settings, and that women were better predictors of both sex's likely ethical models.     

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.     

The Influence of Funding Approaches,Growth Expectations,and Industry Gender Distribution on High‐Growth Women Entrepreneurs

This study examines three key aspects of entrepreneurship associated with women business owners and their ability to achieve high growth: debt versus equity financing, growth expectations, and industry gender distribution. We present a number of theoretical lenses spanning disciplines such as gender studies, entrepreneurship, social psychology, and finance. Using longitudinal data from U.S. startups over an eight‐year period, our research reveals a number of interesting findings. We find that, proportionally, high‐growth women entrepreneurs are more likely to finance their growth with personal and business equity funding. Additionally, women‐owned firms in “feminine industries” are more likely to achieve high growth than women‐owned firms in “non‐feminine industries.”     

A comparison of new firm financing by gender: evidence from the Kauffman Firm Survey data

This study uses data from the new Kauffman Firm Survey to explore gender differences in the use of start-up capital and subsequent financial injections by new firms. We find that, consistent with previous studies, women start their businesses with significantly lower levels of financial capital than men. A new finding from this research is that women go on to raise significantly lower amounts of incremental debt and equity in years two and three. These results hold even controlling for a variety of firm and owner characteristics, including the level of initial start-up capital and firm sales. Our findings also reveal that women rely heavily on personal rather than external sources of debt and equity for both start-up capital as well as follow-on investments. Our findings have implications for further research into gender differences in financing sources and strategies and business outcomes.     

Women business owners in traditional and non-traditional industries

Small businesses continue to grow in importance to the national economy. According to the Small Business Administration, America's 22 million small businesses generate more than half of the nation's Gross Domestic Product and are the principal source of new jobs. The National Foundation for Women Business Owners reported that between 1987 and 1994, the number of women-owned businesses grew by 78% and women-owned firms accounted for 36% of all firms. Although the growth in the number of women-owned businesses is encouraging, the size of such businesses remains small in terms of both revenues and number of employees, especially in comparison to male-owned businesses. One explanation for this disparity is that female business ownership is concentrated primarily in the retail and service industries where businesses are relatively smaller in terms of employment and revenue as opposed to high technology, construction, and manufacturing.One of the most fruitful streams of research in women's occupational choice has been based on social learning theory. Specifically, self-efficacy has been found to relate to both type and number of occupations considered by college men and women, and with regard to traditional and non-traditional occupations. Entrepreneurship researchers have also used social learning theory to study entrepreneurial intentions. This study builds on that background of women's career development and entrepreneurial intentions to examine differences between traditional and non-traditional women business owners. We examine 170 women business owners in various traditional and non-traditional businesses in Utah and Illinois. Questionnaires were the primary method of collecting data, in addition to 11 in-depth interviews from a sample of the survey respondents. Using a careers perspective, based on social learning theory, we hypothesized that women in these two different categories of industries would differ on levels of self-efficacy toward entrepreneurship or venture efficacy, their career expectations and their perceived social support. A second analysis was also done that explored the relationship between the same independent variables and success or performance of the business. The results offer support for using this integrative model to understand differences between women in traditional and non-traditional industries. The first analysis revealed that significant differences exist between the two groups on several of the independent variables. Traditional business owners had higher venture efficacy for opportunity recognition, higher career expectations of life balance and security and they reported that the financial support received from others was more important to them than those in non-traditional businesses. On the other hand, the non-traditional owners had higher venture efficacy for planning and higher career expectations for money or wealth than the traditional group.The second analysis explored whether success, as measured by sales, was affected by differences in venture efficacies, career expectations, or perceived support received by women in traditional businesses as compared to those in non-traditional ones. This analysis revealed that traditional women business owners might have different factors that contribute to their success than non-traditional owners. Specifically, for the traditional owners, venture efficacies for opportunity recognition and economic management as well as the career expectation of autonomy and money (or wealth) were positively related to sales. For the same group efficacy toward planning and the need for security were negatively related to sales. For the non-traditional women, venture efficacy toward planning and the career expectation of autonomy were positively related to sales while the expectation of money or wealth was negatively related. Also for the same group, the perceived importance of the emotional and financial support was negatively related to sales.In the past, most of the entrepreneurial research has used predominantly male samples of entrepreneurs. Those that include women entrepreneurs generally are comparative, between men and women. This study's comparison of two groups of women entrepreneurs offers a unique contribution to the field.Future research is recommended to further understand how venture efficacy and career expectations affect the decision to start a new business in a particular industry. It would be particularly beneficial to study venture efficacy and career expectations of prospective women entrepreneurs prior to the start of the business. Similarly, greater attention should be given to understanding how venture efficacy develops in different individuals.     

How Do Risk Attitudes Differ within the Group of Entrepreneurs? The Role of Motivation and Procedural Utility

Starting a business involves risk and, thus, requires a risk‐taking attitude. The concept of risk and entrepreneurship has been widely discussed in the entrepreneurship literature; most studies compare entrepreneurs with nonentrepreneurs such as managers or bankers. So far, little research exists on the risk attitudes of the different types of entrepreneurs—those who pursue a new business because of opportunity and those who do so through necessity. This study aims to fill this gap. Our particular focus is on individuals' motivations to start their businesses and the nonmonetary returns from entrepreneurship. The results show that opportunity entrepreneurs are more willing to take risks than necessity entrepreneurs. In addition, those who are motivated by creativity are more risk tolerant than other entrepreneurs. The study contributes to the literature about both risk attitudes of entrepreneurs and necessity and opportunity entrepreneurship.     

Operational planning and competitive strategies of male and female retailers

Interest in the managerial practices of females in business has increased over the past decade due to women's increased representation in business. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that women approach decision making differently from men. The purpose of this study is to determine if gender differences regarding managerial strategies exist in the retail setting. Targeted managerial strategies focused on short-term planning processes (personnel, financial, inventory and market planning) and competitive strategies in operation (differentiation, cost leadership and focus). In a sample of 459 retailers from a twelve-state region, MANOVA was used to determine if significant differences in managerial strategies existed between genders. The data on retail competitive strategies suggest that men and women more likely than male business owners to recognize in the importance of differentiation and focus as retail competitive strategies in their business operations. Gender differences were also found in the operational planning areas of market and inventory planning.     

‘The Business of Ethics and Gender’

Unethical decision-making behavior within organizations has received increasing attention over the past ten years. As a result, a plethora of studies have examined the relationship between gender and business ethics. However, these studies report conflicting results as to whether or not men and women differ with regards to business ethics. In this article, we propose that gender identity theory [Spence: 1993, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 64, 624–635], provides both the theory and empirical measures to explore the influence of psychological gender traits and gender-role attitudes on ethical perceptions of workplace behaviors. Statistical analyses of the data reveal that based on sex alone, no differences occur between men and women in their ethical perceptions. Yet, when a multidimensional approach to gender is applied, results show that expressive traits and egalitarian gender-role attitudes contribute to both men’s and women’s propensity to perceive unethical workplace behaviors as unethical. The implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are presented.     

Counter‐stereotypical products: Barriers to their adoption and strategies to overcome them

Counter‐stereotypical products (CSPs) are targeted at groups that are opposite to the stereotypical users of these products (e.g., face‐cream for men, construction tools for women). Such products entail adoption barriers, as they are associated with a dissociative out‐group (e.g., men avoid products used by women). A theoretical framework is developed to investigate such barriers by outlining consumers’ cognitive and affective responses to CSPs; namely: stereotyping (CSP is considered appropriate only for the stereotypical user group), subtyping/subgrouping (CSP is useful for certain individuals or subgroups), and derogating (disparaging the CSP due to a perceived threat to self). Study 1 verifies these responses and demonstrates their effect on the evaluation of CSPs targeting men versus women. Overall, CSPs targeting men faced more barriers than those targeting women, and this was especially so for publicly consumed CSPs (e.g., purse for men) as compared to privately consumed ones (e.g., hair‐remover for men). Study 2 examined the effect of a common marketing tool—product design color (e.g., using blue for men and pink for women)—in reducing the above barriers. It was found that blue is effective in reducing stereotype‐based barriers for CSPs targeting men. For CSPs targeting women, using pink was only effective for women scoring high on femininity, and it backfired for those scoring low on femininity.     

Gender differences in proclivity for unethical behavior

This paper explores possible connections between gender and the willingness to engage in unethical business behavior. Two approaches to gender and ethics are presented: the structural approach and the socialization approach. Data from a sample of 213 business school students reveal that men are more than two times as likely as women to engage in actions regarded as unethical but it is also important to note that relatively few would engage in any of these actions with the exception of buying stock with inside information. Fifty percent of the males were willing to buy stock with insider information. Overall, the results support the gender socialization approach.Michael Betz is Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He has published articles on income inequality, accountability, gender and work, and job satisfaction. Currently he is working on the effect of gender on ethical decision making and accountability as a mechanism of social control.Lenahan O'Connell is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Carson-Newman College. His research focuses on gender differences in work experience. He is currently studying discrimination law enforcement in addition to continuing research with Michael Betz and Jon Shepard on ethics at work.Jon M. Shepard is currently Chairman of the Department of Management and Professor of Sociology at the University of Kentucky. His research interests include comparative management (particularly Japanese and American), ethics in business, the social responsibility of business, and the accountability of institutions in industrial society.