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In this chapter, Lituchy, Reavley, and Bryer report on their interviews with women entrepreneurs from the Czech Republic, Poland, and Japan. Eastern European respondents expressed a desire for and the importance of business training. Many who had attempted to get bank loans were refused for lack of collateral or because their business plans were inadequate. Japanese respondents felt that experience was most valuable. They stated that gender adversely affected their financing prospects. Human resources issues as well as dealing with clients or suppliers from other cultures were concerns for all the women. Discussion and implications are presented.

Entrepreneurship is essential for the growth of both individual firms and overall economies. Through the creativity entrepreneurship fosters, new products, processes, and organizations emerge. Entrepreneurship provides the necessary flexibility and dynamism for responding to new market opportunities and challenges. Accordingly, it is important to understand entrepreneurship – how it takes place, the characteristics of entrepreneurs, the factors that encourage or discourage it, and how it differs across countries. Fortunately, research on entrepreneurship is active across the social sciences. This volume presents a collection of chapters that report on recent studies across a variety of areas, and the material reflects the vibrancy of both this emerging field of study and its subject area – entrepreneurship.