Gender, Entrepreneurship and Business Finance: Investigating the Relationship between Banks and Entrepreneurs in the UK (original) (raw)

Differences in perceptions of access to finance between potential male and female entrepreneurs: Evidence from the UK

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 2012

Purpose -The purpose of this study is to examine whether being female increases the probability that an individual feels difficulty in obtaining finance is a barrier to starting a business. The study aims to extend this to examine if a pure gender effect exists or whether it is the interaction of gender with demographic, economic and perceptual characteristics that plays the most important role in the perception of financial constraint. Design/methodology/approach -The data within this study are drawn from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) adult population survey between 2005 and 2007. The first stage of the study splits male and female respondents into separate sub-samples and runs individual regressions on each portion of the sample. The second stage of the study combines the male and female portions of the sample to directly examine the differences in perceived financial constraint between genders. Findings -The findings suggest that a greater proportion of women are solely constrained by financial barriers than their male counterparts. The gender of the respondent was also found to interact with a number of other personal characteristics in a significant manner. Practical implications -This finding suggests that policymakers should be encouraged to market the availability of start-up finance from various sources to encourage women to attempt to obtain the necessary finance rather than being discouraged at the first hurdle. Originality/value -Although actual financial barriers faced by female entrepreneurs have been extensively studied, this is one of the first studies to focus on the concept of perceived financial constraints faced by potential female entrepreneurs.

Financing of women-owned ventures: The impact of gender and other owner -and firm-related variables

Venture Capital, 2006

While women-owned ventures represent an increasing proportion of new businesses in most western countries, most of them have particular financing patterns and encounter barriers in their access to financing. Recent research on the question argues that barriers to financing are mainly dependent on factors other than gender, such as owner-and firm-related characteristics. This quantitative and qualitative study, through descriptive statistics and interview analysis, examines the relationship between financing patterns and barriers and gender from the woman entrepreneur's viewpoint. It explores the behaviours and representations of women entrepreneurs towards financing, and considers to what extent the women see their own approaches as being different from those of men. Our study suggests that a gender effect still exists, and tries to identify its location and the corresponding implications for further research and action.

A global review of female entrepreneurial finance

International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business, 2021

This study examines the external financing sources and decisions of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across 56 countries and shows how SMEs modify their funding channels in response to economic stage and owner's characteristics. We find that entrepreneurs' personal characteristics including owners' age, gender, and business skills are main determinants for the types of external investor funding available to SMEs. We show that access to external financing for female entrepreneurs is more difficult when they have new technology; moreover, the impact increases significantly in poorer economies. The paper displays at a global scale how SMEs modify their funding channels in response to owner's characteristics such as sex and age. Moreover, it contributes to the literature of female entrepreneurship the connections between gender, age, and economic conditions to the sources of external funding and the decisions female entrepreneurs take in accessing it.

Start-up capital: "does gender matter?

Small Business Economics, 2001

Female and male entrepreneurs differ in the way they finance their businesses. This difference can be attributed to the type of business and the type of management and experience of the entrepreneur (indirect effect). Female start-ups may also experience specific barriers when trying to acquire start-up capital. These may be based upon discriminatory effects (direct effect). Whether gender has an impact on size and composition of start-up capital and in what way, is the subject of the present paper. The indirect effect is represented by the way women differ from men in terms of type of business and management and experience. The direct effect cannot be attributed to these differences and is called the gender effect. We use of a panel of 2000 Dutch starting entrepreneurs, of whom approximately 500 are female to test for these direct and indirect effects. The panel refers to the year 1994. We find that female entrepreneurs have a smaller amount of start-up capital, but that they do not differ significantly with respect to the type of capital. On average the proportion of equity and debt capital (bank loans) in the businesses of female entrepreneurs is the same as in those of their male counterparts.

Gender, Entrepreneurship, and Bank Lending: The Criteria and Processes Used by Bank Loan Officers in Assessing Applications

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2007

Previous research provides unequivocal evidence that women-owned businesses start with both lower levels of overall capitalization and lower ratios of debt finance. Structural dissimilarities between male-owned and female-owned businesses explain most, but by no means all, of these contrasting funding profiles. Explanations of residual differences, viewed in terms of supply-side discrimination or demand-side debt and risk aversion, remain controversial. Using experimental and qualitative methodologies, this study explores the role of gender in bank lending decisions, focusing on the criteria and processes used by male and female loan officers. Results reveal similarities in the criteria used to assess male and female applicants but show modest differences in the emphasis given to certain criteria by male and female lending officers. The processes used by male and female lending officers to negotiate loan applications revealed the greatest differences.

Gender-Based Entrepreneurial Access to Bank Credit: Myth or Reality

The International Journal of Business & Management, 2021

Gender-Based Entrepreneurial Access to Bank Credit: Myth or Reality 1. Introduction Gender investigative research in entrepreneurship has gained increased interest as it helps educators and policymakers to improve the participation of females in the entrepreneurial process (Malmstrom, Johansson & Wincent, 2017). In a market economy, the availability of and accessibility to finance is a major factor in the creative development and survival of any firm (Andrés, Gimeno, & Cabo, 2019). The term entrepreneurship is directly linked to those people who generate or seize opportunities and, from this, develop an organized economic activity, creating value for themselves and society (Carreira et al., 2015). Literature generally indicates entrepreneurship is a male-denominated field (Muntean & Ozkazanc-Pan, 2015). Entrepreneurship is an important pathway for boosting women's economic participation. It offers opportunities for self-employment but can also help meet another global challenge requiring concerted solutions: job creation in the wider economy (World Bank, 2018). Women's entrepreneurship activity rates are greater than men's in only a small number of countries around the world, including Madagascar,

Start-Up Financing Sources: Does Gender Matter? Some Evidence for Eu and Romania

Although financial resources are very important in SMEs in general, and for start-ups in particular, many entrepreneurs face numerous restrictions in finding sources for start-up financing. The present article aims to investigate the similarities or differences in start-up financing sources due to gender issues, otherwise to investigate if female entrepreneurs use (or have access) different financial sources in the early stage of their business. As reported by the literature, access to finance is one of the most important issues for SMEs and nascent entrepreneurs. Moreover, among the main financial issues, the first one is the access to start-up finance (Schwartz, 1976; Carter and Cannon, 1992; Johnson and Storey, 1993; Koper, 1993; Van Auken et al, 1993; Carter and Rosa, 1998, FOBS survey 2005). In all sectors, women use for starting up businesses substantially less capital then men. Women encounter, more then men, credibility problems when dealing with bankers. This problem causes...

Differences in perceptions of access to finance between potential male and female entrepreneurs

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine whether being female increases the probability that an individual feels difficulty in obtaining finance is a barrier to starting a business. The study aims to extend this to examine if a pure gender effect exists or whether it is the interaction of gender with demographic, economic and perceptual characteristics that plays the most important role in the perception of financial constraint.Design/methodology/approachThe data within this study are drawn from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) adult population survey between 2005 and 2007. The first stage of the study splits male and female respondents into separate sub‐samples and runs individual regressions on each portion of the sample. The second stage of the study combines the male and female portions of the sample to directly examine the differences in perceived financial constraint between genders.FindingsThe findings suggest that a greater proportion of women are solely const...

Does Gender Matter? Women Business Angels and the Supply of Entrepreneurial Finance

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2007

There is a substantial literature on the relationship between gender and access to finance. However, most studies have been concerned with access to debt finance. More recently, the focus of this research has broadened to examine women and venture capital. This article extends the focus further by examining the role of women in the business angel market, which is more important than the formal venture capital market in terms of both the number of ventures supported and total capital flows. Based on a detailed analysis of business angels in the U.K., the study concludes that women investors who are active in the market differ from their male counterparts in only limited respects. Future research into women business angels, and the possible existence of gender differences, needs to be based on more fully elaborated standpoint epistemologies that focus on the experience of the woman angel investor per se, and center on the examination of the role of homophily, social capital, networking, and competition in investment behavior.