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The purpose of this paper is to address entrepreneurial programs offered by Greek higher education institutions (HEIs) to 1639 students in different scientific disciplines at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) and Technical Educational Institution of Thessaloniki (TEITh). The programs were analyzed and it was revealed that there were differences in participation rates, attitudes towards entrepreneurship education and perceptions about required skills between the two genders.

During the developmental phase of the particular entrepreneurship program, an evaluation stage had been predicted, whereby student participants (344 females and 370 males AUTh students and 410 females and 515 males TEITh students) would anonymously fill out questionnaires upon completion of the program, regarding male as opposed to female attitudes and perceptions.

There are higher enrollment rates of males than females. Regarding attitudes towards participation in entrepreneurial educational programs, females demonstrate a stronger interest in acquiring knowledge, developing skills, facing career competition and networking with local business, to a significantly higher degree than their male counterparts. In addition, females rank all skills as of higher significance in successful entrepreneurial activity, assigning lower value only to communication skills, compared to men. The opposite holds for males, who ranked communication skills as of greatest importance among all other skills.

This paper provides insight into gender differences regarding male and female involvement in entrepreneurial education and as to their “pre‐entrepreneurial” profile and characteristics. It therefore sharpens understanding as to the way in which entrepreneurship education can encourage female participation within the entrepreneurial arena in future.

Factors that male and female students consider to be most important in issues of entrepreneurship education are identified, providing a framework for the effective design, quality and delivery of such programs.

The present paper constitutes one of the first to examine factors accounting for male and female student participation in entrepreneurship education programs offered by HEIs in the Greek context. The value derived aids the development of curricula tailored to gender distinctive needs and demands.

The present study explores gender inequalities in the entrepreneurial landscape in Romania, based on Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data, highlighting similarities and differences between women and men entrepreneurs. Even if the GEM reports include data on entrepreneurship since 1999, Romania has been among the participating countries only since 2007 for the Adult Population Survey (GEM, APS). Thus, to include Romania in the analysis, the data from this study were selected for nine years, namely from 2007 to 2015. Our results indicate that among Romanian men and women, similar drivers influence the odds of engagement in entrepreneurial activities relative to not being involved in businesses. For both men and women, having confidence in their knowledge and skills had the highest odds ratio values. Also, identifying opportunities proved to be positive and significant for both genders, while fear of failure had the opposite effect. Knowing other entrepreneurs can lead to great benefits generated through social exchange. Findings reveal that the external knowledge that an entrepreneur’s environment gives rise to can prove to be supportive in the discovery of opportunities and their exploitation.

The main objective of this paper is to analyse the influence of environmental factors on entrepreneurship at the Spanish regional level, using institutional economics as the theoretical framework for the research. Additionally, this work aims to emphasize how environmental conditions have different effects according to the gender of entrepreneurs.

Regional panel data (19 Spanish regions and the 2006‐2009 period) from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), specifically from the Spanish National Expert Survey (NES) for environmental conditions and the GEM Adult Population Survey (APS) for entrepreneurial activity were analysed within a fixed effects model with panel corrected standard errors.

The main findings of the study indicate that both informal (cultural and social norms, perception of opportunities to start‐up and entrepreneur social image) and formal factors (intellectual property rights) influence entrepreneurship, but the informal are more determinant than the formal. Concerning the gender issues, informal and formal institutions are also determinant, but female entrepreneurship is significantly associated with the women's support to start‐up, whereas primary and higher education are associated only with male entrepreneurial activity.

The results of the research should be interpreted carefully, because the availability of data constrained the analysis to a time period that is not reflective of the economic cycle; on the contrary, the data correspond to a period of recession, and thus the results cannot be generalized. Also, the study could extend the analysed period and compare the obtained results with international data, considering the global number of participant countries in the GEM Project.

The study provides a methodology to analyse the environmental factors for new firm creation at a regional level, combining GEM data and institutional economics.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the entrepreneurial activity, attitudes and social connections of four groups of ethnic minority females in the UK, with the aim of examining the extent of gender and ethnic background effects on nascent start‐up activities and the attitudes of women belonging to these ethnic minority groups.

A two‐stage approach is adopted to examine the situations of four main female ethnic minority groups using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) adult population survey for the UK. The first stage adopts a binary logistic approach to determine the importance of social networks, opportunity perception and risk aversion to the probability of being involved in nascent entrepreneurial activities. The second stage of analysis examines the differences in these perceptual variables to determine the extent to which different female ethnic minority groups are embedded in different social environments when attempting to start a business.

There are considerable differences amongst different ethnic groups in the level of entrepreneurial activity by women, their attitudes towards entrepreneurship, and the social capital available to them when starting a business.

The findings suggest that policy makers should take the differences by ethnic groupings into account when developing bespoke development policies designed to alleviate the barriers faced by women.

The paper is one of the first comparative studies focusing on women from different ethnic backgrounds. Rather than assuming homogeneity, or examining specific groups in isolation it allows the different conditions faced by prospective entrepreneurs from each group to be examined.

Female entrepreneurship is a growing segment in the context of developing countries and has the potential to become a driving force for economic development. However, research suggests that females are less inclined toward entrepreneurship when compared to their male counterparts. This fact is related to a complex mix of causes such as the belief that entrepreneurship is a male domain, certain conditions within the economic and social environment and a general lack of confidence with regards to succeeding in such activities. Barriers to female entrepreneurship are prevalent in the patriarchal Arab world. The purpose of this paper is to measure the perceptions of female Jordanian business students with regards to the socio-cultural barriers to entrepreneurship. It also looks at the conduciveness of the education they are receiving in terms of new venture creation.

A sample of 254 female business students from two universities in Jordan was asked to evaluate various factors within the entrepreneurial ecosystem, including the business education they are currently receiving. A factor analysis has been performed to show which relevant elements may prevent young women from engaging with entrepreneurial activities. A comparison of perceptions about the educational system has also been presented to understand how a supportive educational environment may affect the previous analysis.

The results indicated that a strong supportive education system to some extent may reduce the perception of potential barriers for entrepreneurship but the overall impact can be limited. Conversely, an educational system lacking a supportive environment and concrete initiatives can deeply affect and worsen the fears of engaging in entrepreneurship amongst female students.

The role of women in the Arab world is quite marked and the reluctance of women to take a more decisive engagement in entrepreneurship may be reinforced by conservative, societal traditions. A supportive education system has the potential to act as a catalyst to encourage active female participation in the entrepreneurial domain, thus helping to spur economic development in the region.

Entrepreneurial firms contribute to economic growth, but the potential gendered nature of this contribution must be investigated as outcomes of male-owned and female-owned firms differ. The study investigates the female underperformance hypothesis in a cross-country analysis of Schumpeterian entrepreneurs. Next, it investigates if there is a gendered dimension of Schumpeterian firm contribution to economic growth.

The study utilizes both nonparametric and parametric methodologies. Through nonparametric methods, the success of female-owned and male-owned firms is compared. Next, a parametric ordinary least squares regression model tests if there is a gendered nature of an entrepreneurial firm's economic contribution.

In nonparametric analyses, female-owned entrepreneurial firms in developed countries perform similarly to male-owned firms, while in developing countries male-owned firms significantly outperform female-owned firms. The author also finds strong evidence that the gender of the Schumpeterian entrepreneur does not matter in the contribution in economic growth.

In all countries, the number of female-owned entrepreneurial firms was significantly lower than that of male-owned firms. The findings point to consistent cultural barriers for women in innovation-related fields and persistent gendered norms in entrepreneurship. Thus, removal of cultural barriers and continued support for Schumpeterian entrepreneurship will benefit women and contribute to a country's economic growth.

The data for this study is a unique utilization of the Enterprise World Survey to identify Schumpeterian entrepreneurial firms. Additionally, the study challenges the female underperformance hypothesis and contributes to the literature on the role of entrepreneurship in economic growth.

Drawing on the multiplicity of context approach, this study investigates whether female entrepreneurs are more likely than male entrepreneurs to create environmentally oriented organizations. This study aims to examine how context, measured by gender socialization stereotypes and post-materialism, differentially affects the kinds of organizations entrepreneurs choose to create.

To test the hypotheses, this study utilizes Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from 2009 (n = 17,364) for nascent entrepreneurs, baby businesses owners and established business owners in 47 counties. This study also utilizes the World Values Surveys to measure gender ideologies and post-materialist cultural values at the country level. To test the hypotheses, a logistic multi-level model is estimated to identify the drivers of environmental venturing. Data are nested by countries, and this allows random intercepts by countries with a variance components covariance structure.

Findings indicate that female entrepreneurs are more likely to engage in ecological venturing. Societies with high levels of post-materialist national values are significantly more likely to affect female entrepreneurs to engage in environmental ventures when compared to male entrepreneurs. Moreover, traditional gender socialization stereotypes decrease the probability of engaging in environmental entrepreneurship. Likewise, female entrepreneurs in societies with strong stereotypes regarding gender socialization will more likely engage in environmental entrepreneurship than male entrepreneurs.

The present study uses a gender analysis approach to investigate empirical differences in environmental entrepreneurial activity based on biological sex. However, this research assumes that gender is the driver behind variations in ecopreneurship emphasis between the engagement of males and females in venturing activity. The findings suggest that female entrepreneurs pursuing ecological ventures are more strongly influenced by contextual factors, when compared to male entrepreneurs. Future research can build upon these findings by applying a more nuanced view of gender via constructivist approaches.

This study is one of the few to investigate ecologically oriented ventures with large-scale empirical data by utilizing a 47-country data set. As a result, it begins to open the black box of environmental entrepreneurship by investigating the role of gender, seeking to understand if men and women entrepreneurs equally engage in environmental venturing. And it responds to calls that request more research at the intersection of gender and context in terms of environmental entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the relationship between microfinance participation and entrepreneurial behaviour of Ghanaian families as well as the moderating role of the family head’s gender. It is argued from a resource-based theory perspective that microfinance is a financial resource that removes credit constraints to entrepreneurial behaviour of families. However, gender of the family head creates heterogeneity in this relationship in line with the gender theory.

In order to test these claims, cross-sectional data from 2,727 families on microfinance participation and household characteristics in Ghana are utilised.

The study finds that microfinance participation has a positive and significant relationship with a family’s decision to own an enterprise. Also, the study finds that female-headed families are better utilizers of microfinancial resources for entrepreneurial purposes compared to their male counterparts. This difference is a pure gender effect.

This finding is in contrast to the dominant stream of gender-based entrepreneurship research that suggests that women are subordinate to men and need to be helped to become “honorary men”. From a policy standpoint, solutions aimed at reversing discrimination against women in economic markets must consider women within their own right. The study makes a contribution to the literature by showing empirically the source of heterogeneity in entrepreneurial returns to microfinance participation by families.

The aim of this paper is threefold: to identify the combinations of national culture dimensions that lead to high (or low) entrepreneurial activity (EA) for men and women, to understand the role of economic development as a relevant condition that combines with national culture dimensions to achieve high (or low) male or female EA and to identify the differences between the configurations that lead to those outcomes.

Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and from the Hofstede Centre for 77 countries, this study uses a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore complex causal relations between national culture dimensions, the level of economic development (conditions) and the male and female EA (outcomes).

This research provides three major insights. First, it is not possible to talk about a single culture that promotes entrepreneurship, but instead in several entrepreneurial cultures. This is particularly interesting when distinguishing between genders, because there are configurations that are specific to one of the genders. Second, different levels of economic development (high/low) combine with national culture dimensions to produce different configurations that can lead to high EA. Third, differences found between the solutions for both genders are higher in the case of the configurations that lead to high EA than in the ones that lead to low EA.

These results are very important to governments and policy makers with the objective of stimulating the EA within their specific countries. When designing public policies to promote entrepreneurship, they should take into consideration the specific cultural context of the country. The cultural context of each country presents multiple dimensions; therefore, the design of public policies should not rely on single, occasional and unarticulated policies. There are countries where the cultural context only promotes EA for males or females. In those cases, the public policies should differentiate between men and women, to be equally effective.

By using a configurational approach, this study identifies several configurations of national culture dimensions and the level of economic development that lead to the same outcomes: high (or low) EA. Some of the configurations are specific to achieving only male or female EA (high or low).

This paper aims at measuring the factors such as cognitive, economic and social recognition affecting entrepreneurial intention across gender in India.

This study is based on the Adult Population Survey of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor covering 4,000 respondents on their characteristics, perception and attitude toward entrepreneurship and intention of individuals for starting businesses. The data has been analyzed using chi-square statistics and logistics regression.

The relationship among the perceptions toward cognitive, economic and social recognition indicates variation across gender. The probability of becoming entrepreneurs among males and females is significantly influenced by a variety of factors such as cognitive (self-efficacy, knowledge about entrepreneurs and fear of failure), economic (perceived opportunity, career choice and easy to start) and social recognition (sense of equality, status and respect in the society and social welfare) with controlling effect of age, family size, education, working status and household income.

This paper provides insights on factors affecting entrepreneurial intention across gender and helps in developing a policy framework for promoting new ventures among male and female entrepreneurs. This paper also explores the possibility of future research on entrepreneurial intention in the Indian context.

Considering the current focus of the government in the country for promoting new ventures through various schemes, this piece of research can be valuable for various stakeholders for adopting a gender-based approach in implementing entrepreneurial initiatives in the emerging economies.