Women Entrepreneurs: Success Triggers, Dilemmas and 'Readiness for the Future' (original) (raw)

Introduction: A New Look at Women’s Entrepreneurship Research

2018

Women entrepreneurs have been identified as the 'rising stars of the economies' (Vossenberg, 2013) and the 'way forward' (World Economic Forum, 2012). While women-owned businesses have increased in number, the underperformance of women-owned enterprises compared to the performance of their male-owned counterparts continues to be debated (Ahl, 2006; Eddleston and Powell, 2008; Marlow et al., 2008). The purpose of this book is to provide a fresh perspective on women's entrepreneurship and to co-create knowledge and expertise that can feed joint learning, innovative practices and evidence-based policy-making for the successful promotion of women's entrepreneurship and gender-just inclusive growth around the globe. Most previous research in entrepreneurship has evaluated the outcomes of an entrepreneurial activity in objective monetary terms, such as financial performance, wealth and job creation, and firm survival. This one-sided analysis limits the contribution of entrepreneurial activity that is initiated by disadvantaged and marginalized groups such as women, ethnic minorities, the disabled, and youth (Welter, 2011), even though these groups often create significant value beyond the purely financial. Such value takes multiple forms and occurs at various levels, so it must be documented if the full contribution that all entrepreneurs make to the economy and society is to be recognized (Sheikh et al., Chapter 2 this volume). The chapters in Part 1 of this book argue that, while women entrepreneurs are often labelled as underperformers in business for low growth and low success rates and are, therefore, under-recognized in the sphere of social value creation, these are criteria that society expects women to meet, and are not necessarily those that women expect or want to meet. Not all entrepreneurs are cut out for or aspire to the standards of high growth and performance as identified by the yardstick of male-owned and/or high-tech enterprises. Adopting a woman's perspective and using data collected from Ethiopia, Pakistan, the US, Spain and Morocco, the chapters in Part 1 argue that the performance and success of women-owned enterprises should be defined

Investing in Women’s Entrepreneurship: Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth

Accounting, Finance, Sustainability, Governance & Fraud: Theory and Application, 2019

An important part of capitalizing on human potential lies in fostering entrepreneurship, which is essential to economic growth and employment creation. A Global Entrepreneurship Monitor study of 18 economies from 2002 to 2010 suggests that women's entrepreneurial activity is lower than that of their male counterparts at different stages of development. Although, women's entrepreneurship is large, diverse, and of great economic significance to achieve sustainable development, women-owned businesses comprise between one-quarter and/or one-third of businesses worldwide. It is almost certainly understated because available data do not always distinguish by gender, and women are more likely to run businesses in the informal economy where data are hard or impossible to capture. Societal attitudes and norms inhibit some women from even considering starting a business, while systemic barriers mean that many women entrepreneurs stay confined to very small businesses often operating in the informal economy. Exclusion of land rights and other gender-specific patterns of the property make it difficult for women to acquire physical assets for chain activities. Further, gender differences in literacy and education reduce their ability to communicate with buyers and suppliers and thus limit their bargaining power. Women experience greater constraints on their economic actions relative to men. This means that women tend to different needs than men regarding entrepreneurship due to the different roles and responsibilities of women which are assigned by society. However, governmental policies and programs must address the various constraints acting on the abilities of women to succeed. International networks are very important concerning capacity and business development of women entrepreneurs through the development of gender-sensitive public policies, supply chain, and marketing practices besides the promotion of women's entrepreneurship. Through networks, the information should be attractive to women and should advertise programs matching the assistance they need. Otherwise, it could be harder to recruit women into entrepreneurship in cases when women do not believe they are able to take on the challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine women's en

Introduction: Women Entrepreneurs and Growth

Women Entrepreneurs and the Global Environment for Growth, 2010

Women-owned businesses are one of the fastest growing entrepreneurial populations in the world. They make signifi cant contributions to innovation, employment and wealth creation in all economies (Brush et al., 2006). Statistics from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) indicate that women entrepreneurs create and run businesses across all of the broad industrial sectors of extraction, transformation, business services and consumeroriented products. Women in developed economies are more likely to start businesses out of opportunity motivation while those in less developed economies are motivated by necessity. Latin America and Asia have higher rates of entrepreneurial activity for women than Europe and the US. However, women entrepreneurs make signifi cant contributions to economies in terms of jobs, innovations and gross national product (Allen et al., 2007). Despite the growing importance of women entrepreneurs, they are understudied and the paucity of research on the phenomenon of women's entrepreneurship is well documented (Baker et al., 1997; de Bruin et al., 2006, 2007). Recent literature reviews suggest that studies about women entrepreneurs comprise less than 10 per cent of all research in the fi eld. The result is that we know comparatively little about women entrepreneurs even though they contribute positively to gross national product (GNP), jobs, innovations and societal welfare globally. For the past 10 years, the Diana Project has worked to resolve this disparity. THE DIANA PROJECT Early research on women's entrepreneurship focused on factors infl uencing the start-up of ventures (Gatewood et al., 2003). Notably absent was an understanding of factors aff ecting growth. In 1999, Candida Brush,

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP : A PROFILE

Entrepreneurship plays an imperative role in the growth of any society. Development of entrepreneurship culture and qualitative business development services are the major requirements for industrial growth.

WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP: GOING BEYOND THE GENDER-NEUTRAL APPROACH

There is increasing recognition that female entrepreneurs are the new engines for inclusive and sustainable growth (GEM 2012). A variety of stakeholders have indicated that they are the ‘rising stars of the economies’, the ‘untapped source of economic growth and development’, ‘the way forward’, and the ‘new women’s movement’ (Vossenberg 2013). By 2020, it is estimated that 870 million women will enter the economic mainstream for the first time, which may affect GDP growth rates and productivity, increasing it by as much as 34% and 25% respectively in some countries (World Bank 2011). It is thus becoming ever more certain that women’s entrepreneurship is, and will continue to be, a formidable force of socio-economic development (Minniti and Naudé 2010).

Women, Entrepreneurship and the Opportunity to Promote Development and Business

Brookings Institution, 2013

This paper is part of the 2013 Brookings Blum Roundtable Policy Briefs, which details the role of the private sector in the post-2015 development agenda. Female entrepreneurship represents a vast untapped source of innovation, job creation and economic growth in the developing world. The barriers to women’s entrepreneurship are various: Women face greater obstacles in accessing credit, training, networks and information, as well as legal and policy constraints. The World Economic Forum shows little progress in narrowing the economic gap between women and men. Yet not all is lost! Innovative initiatives to promote women’s entrepreneurship—driven by both the private and public sectors—are on the rise. This brief provides an overview of the global landscape of women’s entrepreneurship. It aims to demystify the challenges that women face in accessing finance, and it highlights some of the typical challenges regarding capacity- building programs targeted at women entrepreneurs. Above all, this brief focuses on potential solutions and enablers by drawing on practical experiences from the public and private sectors in both emerging and developed markets. It concludes that innovative partnerships, particularly when private and public sector entities are involved, are beginning to make a dent, with the potential for large-scale impact. Those who embrace women’s entrepreneurship as an opportunity are likely to reap the rewards in new market opportunities and higher development impact

Women Entrepreneurship across Nations

Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship in the Contemporary Knowledge-Based Global Economy, 2016

Since the past two decades the concept of women entrepreneurship has gained recognition as a significant contributor towards the economic growth of the country. This can be attributed to the many encouraging factors like family support, flexibility in work family schedule, encouraging policies etc. Nevertheless, there also exist certain barriers that hinder their path of progress. In the context of globalization today, women entrepreneurs across nations are also engaged in identifying opportunities for further growth. In this pursuit they face a number of challenges amidst the opportunities. The chapter intends to make a contribution to the topic of women entrepreneurship by examining what initiates entrepreneurship among individuals, comparison between male and female entrepreneurs, factors that encourage women entrepreneurs as well as those that inhibit their growth and on ways to overcome the challenges they face.

Worldwide role of women entrepreneurs in economic development

Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2020

Purpose The contribution of women entrepreneurs is still invisible and needs to be properly investigated. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this relationship by measuring women entrepreneurship and economic development at global level. Design/methodology/approach Secondary data has been retrieved from Female Entrepreneurship Index Report 2015, Human Development Report 2015 and KOF Index of Globalization 2015. Cross-sectional data is used from 69 countries of the world. Multiple regression is applied to estimate the data. Findings The results explained the significant impact of women entrepreneurship on the economies of the world. It was observed that women participation in entrepreneurial activities not only supports to their family income but also plays a significant role in economic development and social well-being of the society. Research limitations/implications There is no information about total output of women entrepreneurs in terms of new enterprises setups and es...