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The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that drive superior social enterprise performance for women-led social enterprises. The authors examined the role of individual entrepreneur cognitive characteristics contributing to social enterprise performance and recommended a framework for women's social entrepreneur development.

The authors conducted an exploratory qualitative study of 22 women founders of social enterprises using a semi-structured questionnaire. In-depth interviews were conducted, and the transcripts were analyzed using thematic content analysis.

This study found a significant impact of self-efficacy on the performance of social enterprises among the studied subjects. Social support in the form of material, information and emotional support enhanced the ability of women social entrepreneurs to better achieve business sustenance and continuance of operations. The business skills of the women social entrepreneurs led them to move from just social impact generators to becoming thought leaders. The strong prosocial motivation of the founders contributed to building their resilience in the face of adversity.

This study extended the existing theories on social entrepreneurship by bringing the dimensions of entrepreneurial resilience in driving social enterprise performance along with business skills. Thus, it provided an enhanced explanation to the existing body of knowledge on contributors to superior social enterprise performance.

This study gathered insights into the role of entrepreneurship education focused on business skills, especially for women social entrepreneurs in achieving superior performance for their social ventures. This also reconfirmed the role of social support and how structurally this could be provided by educational systems to aspiring women social entrepreneurs.

The practice of social entrepreneurship by women social entrepreneurs has been growing. Its importance in developing economies because of its ability to make grassroots changes at the lower levels of society was substantive. Women have shown more inclination toward social business with an affinity for prosocial contribution. By focusing on nurturing these social enterprises, governments as well as global agencies like the United Nations and the World Economic Forum could accelerate social change. Furthermore, support for the current women social entrepreneurs as change-makers making a difference in society could be achieved.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research study was one of the first studies on women social entrepreneurs focusing on the factors of self-efficacy, social support and entrepreneurial resilience contributing to social enterprise performance. This study combined the social entrepreneurship intention theory with entrepreneurial resilience and business skills to understand the factors leading to successful social enterprise performance for women social entrepreneurs.

This exploratory research examines the effect of motivational factors on the firm performance of women entrepreneurs in Lebanon. An interview questionnaire was used to collect data from 110 women entrepreneurs. Findings of the multiple regression model indicated three women entrepreneurial motivations (internal locus of control, self-efficacy, and financial success) were positively related to firm performance. Other entrepreneurial motivations that were explored (need for achievement, desire for independence, and passion) appeared to have no significant positive relation with firm performance. Generally, this exploratory research suggests that theories regarding women entrepreneurship derived from developed countries should be examined carefully before being used in developing country settings like Lebanon.

The purpose of the study was to ascertain the influence of innovation conviction, innovation mindset and innovation creed on the performance of women entrepreneurs in South African small and medium enterprises and their capacity for innovation. The study also examined how proactive personality and entrepreneurial education moderate the relationship between innovative capability and women entrepreneurs' performance.

The study used a quantitative research design and administered a questionnaire to collect data from participants. Since there was no sampling frame available, purposive sampling, a non-probability sampling technique, was used to select suitable respondents who were identified as entrepreneurial women. Data were collected from 304 women entrepreneurs in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The data were analyzed using smart partial least squares.

The findings demonstrated that innovation conviction, innovation mindset and innovation creed have a positive impact on innovation capability. It was also discovered that innovation capability, proactive personality and entrepreneurial education all positively and significantly impact women entrepreneurs' performance. Furthermore, the results showed that entrepreneurial education and proactive personality had a positive and significant moderating effect on the nexus between innovation capability and the performance of women entrepreneurs.

This study will add to the body of knowledge on women's small business management and entrepreneurship in Africa, two topics that are typically ignored by academics in developing nations.

Muslim Indonesian women entrepreneurs (MIWEs) lie at the intersection of religion and gender. Given the growing participation of women in entrepreneurship and economic stability in Indonesia, the purpose of this study is to identify the factors (and their significance) influencing MIWEs’ business performance.

A survey of 101 MIWEs was conducted, and results were analyzed via structural modelling equation using SmartPLS 3.

The findings of this study suggest that, within the macro frame of the moderate version of Islam practiced and women’s economic engagement, women business owners’ skills and religious factors significantly influence their business performance. Factor analysis indicates that the role of the veil, Shariah guidance for business and managing stress through the practice of Salah (prayer) are important for MIWEs. However, this study also indicates that, in addition to religious factors, MIWEs’ own effective and participative leadership style, honesty and fairness reputation in business dealings and a good market image are also significant variables affecting business performance. This is in contrast to past studies, where the role of environmental factors such as access to capital, family and government has been shown to have a stronger influence on Muslim women entrepreneurs’ business performance.

Because of Indonesia’s unique pluralistic national context, along with increasing women’s economic participation, MIWEs emerge as a distinct category of entrepreneurs who integrate religion and their own skills to navigate their business performance.

This study investigates the antecedents of women entrepreneurs’ performance in an emerging economy. Based on the review of extant literature, six antecedents of women entrepreneurs’ performance, namely, motivation, networking, socio-cultural, business environment, training and development, and financials were proposed and subsequently empirically examined.

Gaps in the literature were identified, based on which the theoretical background of the study was formulated. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were applied to confirm the factor-item structure. The impact of explanatory variables was investigated using the structural equation modeling (SEM) based path analysis.

The study concludes that motivation, networking, socio-cultural, business environment, training and development, and financials have a significant positive influence on the performance of the women entrepreneurs.

There is a dearth of quality research that holistically investigates the key antecedents of performance among women entrepreneurs. Most existing studies have not considered the possible antecedents of performance concomitantly. Additionally, the relationships have been measured individually rather than at the construct level. Further, a majority of the existing studies investigating the performance of women entrepreneurs have been confined to settings within developed countries. By providing insight into the antecedents of women entrepreneurs’ performance elsewhere, the present study attempts to bridge these identified gaps. This study is expected to advance the knowledge about the factors influencing the performance of women entrepreneurs in emerging economies such as India. These insights will likely be valuable when creating policies related to this crucial aspect of economic development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between women entrepreneurs’ firm performance and two dimensions (enrichment and interference) of the business-family interface (BFI) in the moderating context of the level of economic development in two emerging countries – Morocco and Turkey. The enrichment perspective was operationalized as family instrumental (financial) and affective (moral) support, while interference was operationalized as gender-related personal problems.

The study drew upon the work-family interface (WFI) theory from the family embeddedness perspective in the context of institutional economics. In Morocco, a purposive sample of 116 women entrepreneurs completed a self-administered questionnaire using field collection, mail, and phone surveying methods. In Turkey, 147 women entrepreneurs completed the questionnaire online and through personal contacts in business organizations.

The findings indicated a positive relationship of family financial support with business performance of female entrepreneurs in Morocco, a less economically advanced country. However, family moral support is related to better firm performance in Turkey, a more advanced economy. Gender-related personal problems of women entrepreneurs appear to hamper their business performance in Turkey; while in Morocco, the performance of women entrepreneurs seems to improve in the face of such impediments.

The results provide initial evidence that female entrepreneurs benefit from the linkages of family-to-business enrichment in different ways, depending on the country’s level of economic development. In less economically developed countries, women entrepreneurs benefit more from instrumental rather than affective components of the enrichment dimension of the BFI. Conversely, in more economically advanced countries, female entrepreneurs benefit more from affective rather than the instrumental elements of this dimension. Likewise, the components of the interference dimension of the BFI affect female entrepreneurs differently depending on the economic development of the countries. Women in the less-developed country of Morocco are less impeded by their personal problems compared to their counterparts in Turkey, a more developed economy. Actually, Moroccan women entrepreneurs improved their business performance when facing obstacles, most likely due to their increased inner strength and resilience acquired when battling adversarial institutional conditions.

The present study makes three unique contributions to the entrepreneurship literature. First, the study links the two BFI dimensions (enrichment and interference) to firm performance with an exclusive focus on female business owners. Second, within the construct of enrichment, the study employs both family instrumental and emotional support. Third, the study shows that the country’s level of economic development moderates the relationships between the BFI dimensions and firm performance.

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize, develop and validate a scale reflecting performance dimensions of women entrepreneurs. The study intends to address the important aspects of women entrepreneur such as identifying factors influencing performance of women entrepreneur in emerging economies including India, and to develop a reliable and valid scale for measuring performance from women entrepreneurs’ perspective, which will help to explain the phenomena of entrepreneurship among women by using a holistic approach.

In-depth literature reviews were conducted to identify manifest item measuring the latent scale dimensions. Semi-structured interview with women entrepreneurs also contributed toward item generation. A total of 1,032 valid and usable questionnaires were used for the final statistical data analysis. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) also conducted to confirm factors-item composition considered for the study.

A final scale comprising six dimensions of entrepreneurial performance has been developed. These dimensions are business environment, motivation (pull/push), training and skill development, networking and market information, socio–cultural and financial. Dimensions are reflecting perception of women entrepreneurs on performance. Psychometrically properties of the proposed scale were tested and the model fitness was established through CFA.

The proposed scale will be beneficial for both existing and nascent entrepreneurs toward gaining awareness regarding what accounts for their performance enhancement in the respective ventures undertaken. At the same time, the finding carries implications for regulatory bodies and policymakers as well, which are engaged in drafting guidelines catering to the development of women entrepreneurship in respective economies.

The authors believe that the proposed scale offers superior ability to explain factors that affect the performance of women entrepreneurs in emerging economies such as India.

The purpose of this paper is to test the female entrepreneurship underperformance hypothesis using a sample of small firms. The paper also attempts to explain why gender matters in entrepreneurship. The paper specifically investigates the differences in turnover of female and male entrepreneurs and also examines the reasons behind this differential performance by accounting for the gender factor.

This study uses survey data on 256 male and female entrepreneurs from the Island of Mauritius. The survey allows for the examination of the performance differential across male- and female-owned small businesses. The paper uses ordinary least squares and logistic estimation techniques to investigate the underperformance of female entrepreneurs. Sensitivity analyses are also undertaken to ensure robustness of the results.

The study finds evidence that gender matters when comparing the performance of male- and female-owned businesses. The results reveal that access to finance is an important hindrance to the performance of these small firms. Furthermore, the study also reveals that ethnicity plays a major role in influencing firm performance.

This paper is among the few studies, which investigates the female entrepreneurship underperformance hypothesis in a small developing state context and also attempts to explain the reasons why gender matters. The paper is an important empirical contribution to the literature in an African context.

This study aims to investigate the mediating effect of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between women entrepreneurs' experience of family-induced work happiness and the competitive performance of their companies, as well as the invigorating role of their perceptions of environmental hostility in this process.

Survey data were collected among a nationwide sample of women entrepreneurs in Denmark.

The spillover of positive emotions from family to work can spur competitive performance if women entrepreneurs adopt an entrepreneurial strategic posture. This intermediate role of entrepreneurial orientation is particularly prominent among women entrepreneurs who experience their market environments as highly threatening to their success.

For practitioners, this study identifies a key mechanism, an entrepreneurial strategic direction, by which positive work energy stemming from family involvement can enhance women entrepreneurs' business success. The study also shows how this mechanism is triggered by resource-draining competitive markets that appear hostile instead of benign.

The adoption of an entrepreneurial posture is an unexplored but critical factor through which women entrepreneurs' sense of happiness at work, caused by their family involvement, can be leveraged into enhanced success at the organizational level. This study also explicates how this beneficial role is invigorated by beliefs about environmental hostility, as a critical external source of resource depletion.

This study aims to examine entrepreneurial performance differences between indigenous Dayak women entrepreneurs of their high versus low enterprising tendency in Sarawak, Malaysia.

A quantitative approach was used for data collection and analysis. The population of this study was the indigenous women entrepreneurs in Sarawak, Malaysia. Primary data were collected from 129 indigenous women entrepreneurs using convenience sampling. The survey instrument for measuring enterprising tendency and entrepreneurial performance was adopted from the relevant literature. Data were analyzed using independent t-tests in Statistical Packages for Social Science.

This study found that indigenous women entrepreneurs with higher enterprising tendencies performed better than those with lower enterprising tendencies. A significant difference was found between entrepreneurs with a higher enterprising tendency and those with a lower enterprising tendency in three of the five entrepreneurial attributes: need for achievement, creative tendency and calculated risk-taking. Nevertheless, no significant difference was observed in need for autonomy and internal locus of control between the two groups of indigenous women entrepreneurs.

Very few studies are available in the Malaysian context explicitly concerning women entrepreneurs in general and indigenous Dayak women in specific. Therefore, this study provides novel insights into the relationship between enterprising tendency and entrepreneurial performance among indigenous Dayak women entrepreneurs in Malaysia.