Gender differences in entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship: an empirical analysis

This study examines the gender gap in start-up activities to determine whether it is family status or employment status that is responsible for the observed gender gap. We consider independent entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship as two different start-up modes: While intrapreneurship is conducted within an established organization, independent entrepreneurship is solely an independent activity. This study focuses on this fundamental distinction to identify the parameters of our empirical model. Using nationally representative US data, we find that the effects of being a part-time worker on the likelihood of becoming an independent entrepreneur differ across genders. The obtained results suggest similar findings for intrapreneurship, but in opposite directions. Furthermore, our decomposition results suggest that for both entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, the gender differences in the employment-related variables are more significant than those in the family-related variables in affecting the observed gender gap negatively (for entrepreneurship) or positively (for intrapreneurship).