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In recent years much research attention has focused on managers and entrepreneurs, but very few studies have compared the two. In the current exploratory study, 20 Israeli entrepreneurs (that are the focus of great curiosity but little research) were compared to 47 managers and to a control group of 33 aspiring entrepreneurs. They were interviewed regarding traits of their father, mother, and self. Findings revealed a number of similarities (a similar commitment) as well as differences (entrepreneurs' greater love of challenge) between the managers and the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs also described themselves as having a greater sense of significance in their work. The question why managers and entrepreneurs are who they are is answered within a psychoanalytic‐existential framework that focuses on the managers' positive identification with their father and better relationship with both parents as compared to the entrepreneurs' negative identification with father and greater identification with work. Implications for treatment are suggested.

The paper addresses the influence of culture and gender on the choice of a management career among men and women MBA students in Israel, the USA, the UK, Turkey, Cyprus, Hungary and India. The culture by gender comparison enabled an examination of five theories: two that focused on culture (Hofstede's and an application of Schneider's ASA model) and three that focused on gender (evolutionary theory, social role theory and social construction theory). The five theories have contradictory predictions about the relative influence of culture and gender.

Seven hundred and forty‐seven MBA students (390 male and 357 female and approximately 100 in each country) responded to a self‐report measure that was assembled especially for the purpose of the study.

The findings showed large cross‐cultural differences and small gender differences in the influences and aspirations associated with a career choice in management.

The findings support Hofstede's research and social construction theory, which predicted the cross‐cultural differences. They provide some support for social role theory, which predicted both gender and cross‐cultural differences, and very limited support for evolutionary theory, which predicted large and universal gender differences, and for the application of Schneider's ASA model, which predicted no cross‐cultural differences.

The findings are important in light of the small percentage of women in top management positions and the view of an MBA as means for breaking through the glass ceiling into top management. The findings can be translated to recommendations for encouraging women's entry into management.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the papers in this special issue and some issues surrounding choosing management as a career. A jointly developed questionnaire is also presented.

The paper is descriptive in nature.

It is crucial for researchers and practitioners to expand their perspectives to include other cultures and other theoretical perspectives beyond those offered by traditional vocational choice theories.

Understanding the antecedents, correlates and consequences of people's vocational choice to become managers will not only help researchers and practitioners and benefit managers, but will improve the understanding of career choice in general.

The aim of this article is to identify the reasons MBA students have for their career choices, and to explore the contextual and gender‐related aspects of career choice and development, based on a comparative study carried out with participants in six countries, i.e. Hungary, Israel, North Cyprus, Turkey, the UK and the USA. The paper seeks to investigate how cultural values and beliefs and gender differentially influence the career choices of MBA students towards managerial or entrepreneurial careers.

A quantitative research design was applied by using a survey instrument that draws on a cross‐national study.

Differences exist in influences on career choice and development between women and men in one of the research settings (Turkey). In all six countries, women have a more societal value orientation and tend to undertake more charity work. Men are more likely to believe that “competition is the law of nature” and men appear to opt more for an entrepreneurial career route in all six countries.

The study provides an understanding of the major gender‐related similarities and differences in the career development of MBA students in six countries, and paves the way for further research in the field.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate gender differences in burnout, style of coping and the availability of peer support among high‐tech engineers

A longitudinal study investigated gender differences in burnout, style of coping and the availability of peer support among high‐tech engineers, an interesting occupational group from a gender perspective both because of the masculine culture of the engineering profession and the many prejudices against women engineers. Both the masculine culture and the prejudices help explain the paucity of women engineers and predict high levels of burnout among them.

The paper's findings supported this prediction. They revealed a significant gender difference in burnout, with women engineers reporting higher levels of burnout than men. The gender differences in burnout were interpreted as related to other findings: women's greater tendency to utilize emotion‐focused coping, their smaller peer support and greater work–family conflict.

In addition to their implications for gender theory and research and for burnout theory and research, the paper's findings point to the need to encourage and support the small and unique group of women engineers.

While the numbers of, and research on, women entrepreneurs have accelerated radically in recent years, the rates of women entrepreneurs remain significantly lower than men's. Research has shown that subjective perceptual variables have a crucial influence on the entrepreneurial propensity of women and account for much of the gender differences in entrepreneurial activity. The paper aims to describe three studies that addressed gender differences in entrepreneurial perceptions, testing predictions derived from Schneider's Attraction Selection Attrition (ASA) model.

Each study focused on a different subject population with different entrepreneurial activity. The first was a national telephone survey that involved 514 Israeli adults. The second involved 313 Israeli management students who responded to a self‐report questionnaire. The third involved interviews with 101 Israeli small business owners.

The results of the first study showed few gender differences in entrepreneurial traits and values. The results of the second study showed large gender differences in the willingness to start a business among management students and smaller differences among students who intend to start a business. Gender differences were far smaller among actual business owners. Alone and together the three studies support Schneider's ASA model.

The practical implications of these findings are addressed.

The paper provides valuable information on gender differences in entrepreneurship.

Few studies address the gender of small business owners (SBO) and those that do report inconsistent results. These inconsistencies are related to a controversy regarding gender differences in management: Are men and women managers similar or different and why? Four theories address this question: evolutionary, psychoanalytic, social role, and social construction. The purpose of the paper is to test the contradictory predictions derived from these four theories in the case of men and women SBO in Israel.

A sample of 101 Israeli SBO responded to a specially designed questionnaire.

All four theories received some support. The findings that men SBO described themselves as more motivated by status and were more concerned with competition support evolutionary theory. The findings that the most SBO were first born and had fathers who were business owners support psychoanalytic theory. The findings that more women SBO did not serve in the army whereas more men were commanders support social role theory. However, the most overwhelming support was for social construction theory. In every aspect studied, gender similarities were far greater than the differences: in demographic characteristics, characteristics of work and of business, and motivation for starting it.

Future studies will need to replicate these findings with larger samples, other types of businesses, and different cultures.

For the training and support of women and men SBO.

The paper is theory‐driven focuses on a widely debated topic (gender differences in management) in the context of a particular group (SBO) and a particular culture (Israel).

This exploratory, interdisciplinary, cross‐cultural study attempt to examine the hypothesis that in a country, where entrepreneurs have high status, individuals will describe themselves as more entrepreneurial, will exhibit greater risk‐taking tendency and more will be involved in entrepreneurial activity.

The study included MBA students in Israel, the USA and Hungary who were asked to compare the social status of entrepreneurs with that of other professionals, rate themselves on traits that were identified as characterizing successful entrepreneurs, and rate the risk they were willing to take to join a start‐up.

Results showed that Israelis perceived entrepreneurs as having higher social status than Americans and Hungarians. Israelis also demonstrated greater risk taking expressed in the readiness to leave a secure job to join a start‐up. Israelis and Americans rated themselves higher than Hungarians on initiative, love of challenge and independence, the three traits rated highest by actual entrepreneurs. Cautious attempt was made to relate these findings to the total entrepreneurial activity in the three countries and the percentage of adults in the population who start new businesses.

The study contributes to theory and resarch on entrepreneurship by demonstrating the potential inherent in a cross‐cultural, interdisciplinary perspective in general, and the connection between the social status of entrepreneurs and actual entrepreneurial activity in particular.

Since the 1970s, occupational burnout has become a popular topic of research and an important concern for career counsellors. The majority of studies on burnout focussed on documenting its existence within certain occupational groups. The assumption underlying these studies is that occupational burnout is a universal phenomenon that can be best explained by the stresses characterising a particular occupation or organisation. Few studies examined burnout cross‐culturally. The present study attempted to demonstrate the importance of such a cross‐cultural perspective using a comparison between Israeli Jews and Arabs, who live in the same country but are culturally different: Arabs traditional and collectivist, Jews modern and individualistic. Interviews with representative samples of the Jewish and Arab populations in Israel show significant differences in occupational burnout and various burnout correlates. Thus, Arabs’ burnout correlated negatively with the quality of relationships with mother and father, Jews’ with superiors and co‐workers. Arabs were significantly less likely than Jews to talk about a work‐related problem or approach a counsellor. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications for career counselling.

In 2008, the world had undergone a global economic crisis. Since women always face greater difficulties in obtaining capital than men, the economic crisis had a greater effect on them. The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of the global crisis for women's entrepreneurship, from the perspective of equality, diversity and inclusion.

The paper reviews studies on gender differences in entrepreneurship, focusing on 2007 and 2008 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) studies that examined the rates of entrepreneurship in 43 countries.

The data show that in all 43 countries, the rates of women's entrepreneurship are lower than men's. Furthermore, the percent of women entrepreneurs is higher in countries where the general income per capita is small and where women have no other option for making a living.

This surprising finding has been explained as a result of the difference between “necessity” and “opportunity” entrepreneurship, with necessity entrepreneurship found to be more prevalent among women in poor countries, thus pointing to the role played by inequality and exclusion in women's entrepreneurial inferiority.

From the perspective of diversity, equality and inclusion, entrepreneurship can be viewed as a means for inclusion of women and other marginalized groups in countries, especially low‐income countries, in which they suffer from lack of equal opportunities and social exclusion.

The paper usefully shows how, especially in times of a global crisis, the role played by inequality and exclusion in women's entrepreneurial inferiority has important implications; such as the need to create special funds for women and the importance of establishing social and business networks for women entrepreneurs.