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The purpose of this paper is to investigate student motivation for undertaking an entrepreneurship education programme and their ultimate employment aspirations through a novel data mining technique. The study considered what relationship certain motivation characteristics have to students’ aspirations, specifically in terms of their intention to be self-employed or employed.

The study examined enrolment data of 720 students on an entrepreneurial education programme, with work statuses of full-time, part-time or unemployed and have known aspirations to either employment or self-employment. The Classification and Ranking Belief Simplex (CaRBS) technique is employed in the classification analyses undertaken, which offers an uncertain reasoning based visual approach to the exposition of findings.

The classification findings demonstrate the level of contribution of the different motivations to the discernment of students with self-employed and employed aspirations. The most contributing aspirations were Start-Up, Interests and Qualifications. For these aspirations, further understanding is provided with respect to gender and student age (in terms of the association with aspirations towards self-employed or employed). For example, with respect to Start-Up, the older the unemployed student, the increasing association with employment rather than self-employment career aspirations.

The study identifies candidate motivation and the demographic profile for student's undertaking an entrepreneurial education programme. Knowing applicant aspirations should inform course design, pedagogy and its inherent flexibility and recognise the specific needs of certain student groups.

The study contributes to the literature examining motivations for undertaking entrepreneurship education and categorising motivating factors. These findings will be of value to both education providers and researchers.

This empirical study investigates the characteristics of a cohort of 166 small businesses which were set up during a period of recession by founders, all of whom had experienced a period of unemployment prior to start‐up. These new ventures were appraised and supported by their local Training & Enterprise Council (TEC) prior to start‐up and in their formative months. This paper analyses the appropriateness and success of support services in the light of an empirical investigation of the factors which appear to impact on survival/failure and growth prospects of surveyed businesses. Comparisons are made between those businesses which are still trading and those which have ceased trading and between businesses with high and low growth expectations. Factors which are investigated include the founders’ personal background and experience; reasons put forward for start‐up; early problems encountered in running a business; business objectives and expectations.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model that explains how necessity and opportunity start-up motivation affects firm performance among women entrepreneurs (WEs) through the mediating influences of motivation to learn (MtL) and women entrepreneurial competencies (WEC).

Necessity (NEC) and Opportunity (OPP) motivation is used as the guiding theory to acknowledge the contraries of women entrepreneurial motivation. Female Entrepreneurial Competency (FEC) framework is used as a basis for WEC. Embedded in this reasoning, MtL and FECs are integrated into the conceptual model to understand the connection between start-up motivation and business performance among WEs in a developing economy.

To date, there is a limited understanding of how learning motivation and competencies together explain the business performance of WEs through the lens of their differences in start-up motivation. In this respect, this conceptual model advances scholarly insights by conceptualizing the relationship between NEC and OPP motivation, and business performance through the mediating influences of MtL and WECs.

The proposed conceptual model does not consider any aspects other than entrepreneurial motivation, learning motivation and competencies related to business performance such as access to finance, sociocultural aspects and personality traits.

The proposed conceptual model can contribute to academics by adding to the body of knowledge on women entrepreneurship. It can also aid policymakers in understanding the critical link between differentials in start-up motivation and firm performance through the mediating influences of learning motivation and competencies, thus potentially providing a basis for formulating focused skilling strategies for WEs.

This paper proposes a unique conceptual framework that incorporates theories of learning motivation and FECs to examine the critical link between start-up motivation and business performance among WE.

Women entrepreneurs are often categorized and assessed for various outcomes based on their start-up motivations. It is generally assumed that entrepreneurs with opportunity motivation have better performance when compared to necessity entrepreneurs. This study aims to test these suppositions through the lens of the entrepreneur’s motivation to learn (MTL) and level of female entrepreneurial competencies (FECs), namely, business and management, entrepreneurial, human relations (HR) and personal.

Data collected from 344 respondents through a survey questionnaire was analyzed using the structural equation modelling – partial least squares method using SmartPLS 4.

The findings highlight the need of recognizing the differentials between necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs as they were found to influence performance and learning outcomes. Opportunity entrepreneurship was found to significantly impact both MTL and the FECs. The authors also observed that business and management skills along with HR competencies played a greater role in the firm performance.

The findings demonstrate a case for specialized, tailor-made policy approaches rather than the “one size fits all” approach as evident in many government programs. As necessity entrepreneurs form a vital part of the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem, apart from mentoring, need-based competency development programs may be looked at. Opportunity entrepreneurs may need support and encouragement through advanced skilling and uncomplicated funding options.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, empirical studies related to women-owned micro, small and medium enterprises in India establishing the relationship between start-up motivation and business performance are scarce. Even in the global context, this is one of the initial studies to examine the relationship through the lens of MTL and competencies.

When we take the lens of race, ethnicity, gender, and class to the collected academic work on women business owners, what does it reveal? What do we really know? Are there differing definitions of success across segments of the women businessowner demographics? Do the challenges faced by African American women entrepreneurs differ from those confronting white female entrepreneurs? Do immigrant female women businessowners face more significant institutional barriers than their counterparts who have been U.S. citizens for at least two generations? Are there similar reasons for starting their businesses?

There has been increased policy and research interest in the growing number of female entrepreneurs and their potential contribution to both the local and global economy. Nevertheless, the extant literature on female entrepreneurship is often limited to the start‐up phase of business. An important gap in the literature is an enquiry into the development of these female‐owned organisations from inception to maturity, and their growth in domestic and/or international markets. This paper therefore aims to address key themes such as motivation to start‐up, growing the business, gender issues and the challenges faced by these women.

An innovative, internet‐based methodology was employed to collect the data in the chosen locations. Using internet resources such as online media, company web sites and other pertinent sites, a significant volume of information was gathered. Any information gaps or issues requiring further clarification were then addressed via e‐mail exchanges with the individual entrepreneur.

Initial findings demonstrate threads of commonality between female entrepreneurs in different countries. It also highlights differences in the experiences of these women, not only across countries but also within certain countries. A comprehensive discussion of these findings is contained in the paper.

This research has highlighted a number of issues which merit further investigation; however, the issue of social responsibility within this sample of female entrepreneurs would indicate that women have much more socially‐oriented motives for starting and developing a business. The authors would like to investigate this further using qualitative investigation of a larger sample within one country before drawing any definitive conclusions.

Given a limited understanding of such issues mentioned above, this contribution seeks to provide an insight into the heterogeneous experiences of female entrepreneurs using cross‐national data rather than a one‐country study.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how women small business owners’ (SBOs) business start-up motivations influence their network content.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 women SBOs who were recruited through purposeful sampling methods. Interview data on their start-up motivations were used to categorise them into three types: classic, forced and work-family. The interviews explored the network contents of the three categories of participants.

There were many similarities between network contents of classic and forced SBOs, as both groups had started their business for financial reasons rather than family reasons. All the participants’ networks contained information and advice, economic transactions, intangible support and strong ties. However, the sources and types of network content were different for the classic and forced SBOs when compared to work-family SBOs.

This study has limitations that tend to be commonly found in exploratory studies, such as a small sample size. However, the findings lay the groundwork for future quantitative studies that examine associations between SBOs’ motivations for starting a business and their network contents.

This research responds to calls for studies aimed at developing a more nuanced understanding of SBOs’ networking behaviour. The study provides empirical evidence of a relationship between the motivations for starting a business and the network content of SBOs. The findings can be used by businesswomen’s network organisations in their mentoring and training interventions.

This paper aims to investigate age and gender differences in initial motivations for starting a business. What is not known, however, is whether the initial motivations for starting the business are different for older people and whether any gender differences exist. Historically, women were “pushed” rather than “pulled” into business ownership, but more recent studies have indicated that, overall, many women now actively choose self‐employment. However, age may be a new barrier for women and men.

The study combined a self‐administered questionnaire which was used to collect data relating to general information about the respondent and their business, in addition to their start‐up motivations. In total 270 questionnaires were returned. About 15 in‐depth interviews were also conducted to verify the empirical findings.

The results showed that self‐employment is a reactive rather than proactive decision for both older women and men; however, women were less inclined to actively seek self‐employment as their employment option of choice. In addition, the findings also show that a significant motivation for many younger women is still because of the double domestic shift, indicating therefore that some things change but some things stay the same for women.

Whereas the majority of previous research has looked at start‐up motivation, few have considered age and gender as independent variables. Given the increasing number of “baby boomers” starting their own businesses, this research can have practical policy implications.

The success or failure of a new business is often dependent on overcoming a series of potential barriers, eg securing sufficient financial backing, adequate and appropriate guidance and training etc. Yet, in light of the substantial growth rate of micro and small businesses, there has been little research into the experiences of potential and new business owners during the start‐up of such enterprises. To date there has been no systematic study of this group in the UK, and many questions remain unanswered. This study of micro and small business during the initialisation and formation of new venture creation (eg pre‐start‐up, 0‐6 months and 6‐12 months∥ sought to answer some of those questions. It identifies the needs of new business owners, the barriers they encounter, and the strategies they use to overcome those obstacles. The findings indicate that financial difficulties and the attitudes of banks towards new business owners are the main barriers to successful enterprise creation, with mentors and more specific advice cited as the assistance regarded as affording the greatest benefit to potential and new business owners. In addition, small and micro business owners are going out of business, or are unable to fulfil their potential, because they are denied access to those factors that promote success.

While the general trend in the UK is towards an increase in female owned small businesses, during the last few years the number of North West of England businesses owned by women has fallen by 12.5 per cent. Aims to investigate the barriers preventing women from entering into growth businesses in the North West. The research included discussions with 12 service providers as well as in‐depth interviews and focus groups with 99 potential and established female business owners. The main barriers blocking women’s ownership of small businesses involved the widely held stereotype of business owners as “white, middle class, males”, cultural differences, a shortage of premises for new businesses and the lack of appropriate childcare.