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Exploring gender-related perceptions of SME success

Paull Christopher Weber (School of Management, Curtin Business School, Curtin University, Bentley, Australia)
Louis Geneste (School of Management, Curtin Business School, Curtin University, Bentley, Australia)

International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship

ISSN: 1756-6266

Article publication date: 4 March 2014

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Abstract

Purpose

Small and medium enterprise (SME) research into the meaning and perception of success is now reaching beyond (the somewhat stereotypical) extrinsic success measures such as sales, number of employees, and profit. Researchers now identify the goals and expectations of the owner(s) of a business as central to their likely performance and preferred success metrics. Therefore, this paper aims to overlay perceptions of success and gender to establish whether success is conceptualised in the same way across genders.

Design/methodology/approach

The study analyses the responses from 375 male and female SME owners to a range of quantitative success metrics and also explores the responses provided to a number of qualitative questions surrounding the owners' perceptions of success.

Findings

Although the average female-owned business in the study is significantly smaller than the average male-owned business, they perform equally well on extrinsic measures that relate outputs (profit) to inputs (assets and hours worked). Further, the female SME owners appear to be more satisfied with both the success of their business and their lifestyle, than their male counterparts.

Originality/value

The findings suggest that the social feminists hold sway (men and women have different perceptions of success) and there is value in incorporating a feminine perspective when examining what business owners are looking for from their ventures. That is, measures of SME success need to adopt a person-centered perspective.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

A big thank you to the editor of the special edition John Watson for his valuable assistance on shaping and lifting this paper.

Citation

Christopher Weber, P. and Geneste, L. (2014), "Exploring gender-related perceptions of SME success", International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 15-27. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJGE-04-2013-0038

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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