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The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief history of the evolution of the Diana Project and the Diana International Research Conference. The authors examine the impact of the publications, conferences and research contributions and consider key factors in the success of this collaborative research organization. They discuss the ongoing legacy, suggesting ways to extend this into the future.

This paper uses an historical narrative and a citation analysis.

The Diana Project was founded by five women professors in 1999 with the purpose of investigating women’s access to growth capital. Following a series of academic articles, and numerous presentations, the first Diana International Conference was held in Stockholm, Sweden. At this convening, 20 scholars from 13 countries shared their knowledge of women’s entrepreneurship, venture creation and growth, culminating in the first volume of the Diana Book Series. Since then, 14 international conferences have been held, resulting in 10 special issues of top academic journals and 11 books. More than 600 scholars have attended or participated in Diana conferences or publications.

Contributions from the Diana International Conferences’ special issues of journals and books have advanced theory across topics, levels, geographies and methods. Articles emerging from Diana scholars are some of the top contributions about women’s entrepreneurship and gender to the field of entrepreneurship. Future research directions are included.

This analysis demonstrates the success of a unique woman-focused collaborative research initiative and identifies key success factors, suggesting how these might be expanded in the future.

To date, more than 600 scholars have participated in the Diana International Conferences or publications. Diana is the only community dedicated to rigorous and relevant research about gender and women’s entrepreneurship. Going forward, efforts to expand work on education for women’s entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurship faculty and careers, and women entrepreneurs, gender and policy will take place to extend this legacy.

The paper is unique in that it is the first to show the substantial legacy and impact of the Diana project since its inception in 1999. Further, it demonstrates how a feminist approach to entrepreneurial principles can yield insights about this unique research initiative and collaborative organization.

Previous work on employee-driven innovation (EDI) has demonstrated the benefits of employees’ proactive behavior in achieving success with innovations. The purpose of this paper is to employ the concept of personal initiative to investigate the underestimated role of employees’ agency in complex processes of innovation, showing the impact of personal initiative on employees’ innovation success.

Based on two embedded cases of environmental bottom-up innovation at a large manufacturing company, this study examines employees’ behavior in generating, championing and realizing such initiatives.

This paper provides insights into how employees succeeded, through taking initiative in generating, championing and realizing environmental initiatives despite facing high complexity, and resource constraints. Without being prompted from the top down, employees started these initiatives themselves and showed phase-specific behavior in overcoming the various challenges. Thus, self-starting behavior was found dominant in generating ideas, whereas proactive and persistent forms of behavior were found to be prevalent in championing and rolling out the initiatives.

Current understandings of EDI highlight the importance of developing employees’ potential capabilities and organizational-level guidance. Using an active performance perspective, this study emphasizes the importance of employees’ agency in ensuring EDI success, even when conditions are not conducive to their doing so.

The venture capital industry is an important provider of capital to start-ups and has grown considerably in recent decades. This study explores how investors' gender perceptions influence venture capital investment decisions in an industry that remains highly gender imbalanced, both amongst the venture capital decision-makers and with respect to the allocation of capital to entrepreneurs.

The authors' approach was informed by a thorough literature review and in-depth qualitative interviews with ten decision-makers at some of the foremost venture capital funds in Norway. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded using NVivo.

The authors' findings demonstrate that the Norwegian venture capital industry is influenced by homophily and role congruity. The authors highlight the challenges entrepreneurs face in gaining access to venture capital if they are not already members of the investors' network, a situation that results in a recycling effect that helps maintain the industry’s gender imbalance. Moreover, it appears that venture capitalists (VCs) favour masculine characteristics when assessing entrepreneurs, revealing a potential incongruence between female characteristics and perceived entrepreneurial attributes.

The authors' study contributes to and extends the extant literature on homophily and role congruity. Indeed, through investigating the gender-based perceptions of VCs, the authors shed new light on the mechanisms involved in their assessment of entrepreneurs, as well as on the drivers and barriers affecting female entrepreneurs.

Projects often present specific difficulties for the Records Manager. Records are created in a manner which is fast and furious — with many records being generated in a short space of time. These records are created by different organisations — by the project team, by contractors and by sub‐contractors — and are circulated between them. Different types of document are produced: drawings are often particularly important, as are parts lists. Complex computer applications are now used in many projects, and the records generated by the system should ideally be retained in native format, rather than printed on paper. Change control is important both for hard copy documents and computer based material: documents may go through many revisions, and it is essential that these revisions are managed effectively. The hand‐over of documentation from project to operator can be problematic if the views and requirements of both groups are not considered at an early stage. In this programme, the opportunity was provided to meet with both project and operations personnel: it was significant that both groups were aware of the importance of the documentation generated during the project and were concerned that important records series should be identified and retained. Project staff were aware of the importance of retaining material as a basis for new projects while operating railway personnel require items such as as‐built drawings and manuals to provide an effective ongoing railway service.

This chapter analyzes the role of grassroots organizations as natural helping systems for women’s empowerment in the rural areas of central Mexico. For almost three decades, productive projects have been the preferred strategy by the Mexican government in order to alleviate extreme poverty and promote women’s empowerment. Even if the impact of productive projects on women’s empowerment has been limited, grassroots organizations are created in order to have access to financial resources that have promoted the collective dimension of women’s empowerment. Through semi-structured interviews and participatory observation, this study retrieves the experience of women’s leadership, frustrated by changing public policy, local corruption, and political use of the social policy. In those difficult circumstances, grassroots organizations are fundamental tools for women’s well-being as they promote a specific understanding of empowerment, where family, community, and relatedness are values more important than competition and individualistic achievements.

This paper aims to extend Lewis and Simpson’s (2010) work on the complexity of (in)visibility and explores what it means to women’s entrepreneurship in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This piece contributes to the special issue on COVID-19 and the impact on women entrepreneurs. Specifically, it applies an (in)visibility lens to argue that responses to COVID-19 in Canada negatively affect women entrepreneurs disproportionately and that while initiatives such as the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH) are threatened, they can also serve as an agitator during this time to advocate for an inclusive recovery approach.

Despite progress through such government funded initiatives as the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES), which is targeting more than $2bn (Cdn) in investments towards women entrepreneurs, structural inequality and the (in)visibility of women’s entrepreneurship has been amplified during COVID-19. Through a particular understanding of the (in)visibility vortex notion (Lewis and Simpson, 2010), it is concluded the (in)visibility of women entrepreneurs as deeply embedded and that there is a continued need to advocate for a gender and diversity lens, to ensure inclusive recovery that benefits women and diverse entrepreneurs.

An (in)visibility lens brings an important addition to the literature on women’s entrepreneurship, as well as illuminates the important differences within this broad category, deepening the understanding of these trends and their impact during COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights how the complexities of intersectionality are critical to understand, and their recognition can help to drive a clear evidence base, as well as advocacy. The piece call researchers and practitioners alike to consider the question under COVID-19, will these conditions create a new vortex in this domain, or can the work of organizations and researchers position gender and intersectionality in women entrepreneurship as a disrupter for the future?

Graduate or Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Majors

Entrepreneurship/Venture Capital (VC) Investing

The case highlights a women-founded venture capital firm that values investments in diverse entrepreneurs and an innovative retail business started by two minority entrepreneurs. Students will be asked whether the firm should invest in the venture and will also be asked to discuss models that may help transform the retail business into a VC-backed scalable technology business.

By the end of the discussion, students will be able to evaluate the feasibility and scalability of a new business venture; and evaluate the alignment between a venture capital company and a new venture.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

This case highlights the lack of resources for women and minority entrepreneurs as well as the underrepresentation of minority women in the VC industry.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship