2013 Awards for Excellence

2013 Awards for Excellence

Article Type: 2013 Awards for Excellence From: International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, Volume 6, Issue 1

"Women’s access to SME finance in Australia"

Andrew van Hulten
Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test whether Australian female and male entrepreneurs differ in their growth aspirations and demand for finance; denial, discouragement and financial constraint rates; and sources of finance.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper applies logistic regression techniques to data drawn from a comprehensive survey of Australian small- and medium-sized businesses, which was conducted in 2010.
Findings – After controlling for a wide range of firm, owner and risk characteristics, female entrepreneurs are found to have lower growth aspirations than males but do not differ in their demand for business finance. Gender does not influence the probability of reporting denial, discouragement or financial constraint. Females and males do not differ significantly in the types of finance that they use.
Research limitations/implications – The online survey had a low response rate.
Originality/value – First, the paper tests the proposition that gender mediates demand for finance whilst controlling for a wide range of firm, owner and risk variables. Second, the paper tests whether female entrepreneurs are more likely than males to be financially constrained, that is, to have foregone viable investment opportunities due to inadequate access to finance. In doing so, it endeavours to reconcile the financial discrimination and financial constraint literatures. Third, the paper tests whether gender produces its effects in interaction with owners’ migration status.

Keywords: Australia, Discouraged borrowers, Entrepreneurialism, Financial constraints, Financial discrimination, Gender, Small to medium-sized enterprises

"Women-focused small business programming: client motives and perspectives"

Barbara Orser, Catherine Elliott and Sandi Findlay-Thompson

This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 3, 2012, International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship

"Support for women’s entrepreneurship: a Nordic spectrum"

Katarina Pettersson

This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 1, 2012, International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship

Outstanding reviewers

Dr Mine Karatas-Ozkan
Mr Muhammad Azam Roomi