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Purpose – The chapter aims to explore women's entrepreneurship in the sciences, specifically, veterinary medicine, and to highlight future potential.

Methodology/approach – Following a review of the extant literature, the chapter employs a single case approach to explore the experiences of a woman academic entrepreneur in the field of veterinary medicine.

Findings – The findings support the view that women are significantly under-represented in the sciences (SET/STEM) both as professionals and as entrepreneurs. The chapter also finds that, due to a relatively low number of veterinary professionals currently working in industry and/or commercialisable research areas, the sector offers significant potential for entrepreneurship, particularly among women veterinarians.

Research limitations/implications – Despite providing rich and meaningful insights that enhance understanding, the single case approach limits the potential for generalising the findings.

Practical implications – Given the significant increase in the number of women entering veterinary education in recent years, the chapter has important implications for how gender is considered in the promotion of entrepreneurship within veterinary medicine curricula.

Social implications – In view of the imminent gender shift within the profession, the case discussed in this chapter serves as an important role model to encourage more women to engage in entrepreneurship.

Originality/value of chapter – As one of the few studies offering insights on women's entrepreneurship in veterinary medicine, this chapter helps enhance our understanding of the field.

Purpose – To explore routes taken to start and grow businesses in science, engineering and technology (SET) sectors by 15 female entrepreneurs.

Methodology/approach – Entrepreneurial routes are explored using the ‘possible selves’ perspective to explore why they felt able to continue in SET when many do not and how they envisaged themselves in relation to SET and enterprise.

Findings – All participants felt that SET was ‘normal’, so there had been ‘no problem’ in starting or running a SET business as a woman but gendered practice was embedded in how they operated, how they made decisions and how they envisaged the future. The heuristics used by participants were acceptance, adaptation and allowances to adapt to a male environment in SET and within entrepreneurship.

Research limitations/implications – This was a qualitative study, therefore, as is normally the case, offers insights but cannot be generalised to populations.

Practical implications – The comments by participants on their experience of university and to some extent secondary school curriculum showed when they were ‘turned off’ SET mainstream activities. Changes in curriculum content and format and awareness building for staff might address this.

Social implications – Gendered practice remains in organisations due to the norms and expectations of a wider society, this chapter shows how this works in SET environments.

Originality/value of chapter – This is a new study given the lack of work so far exploring entrepreneurial routes of women in SET especially using the possible selves perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an empirically informed conceptual framework to analyse the gendered relationship between empowerment and entrepreneurship contextualised within the lives of displaced Palestinian migrant women operating home-based enterprises in Amman, Jordan.

A longitudinal qualitative study was undertaken during which semi-structured in-depth interviews were regularly conducted with 43 women producing high-quality traditional embroidered goods within home-based enterprises. The empirical material was utilised to inform and illustrate the creation of an empowerment framework.

Entrepreneurship is popularly presented as an individually focused economic undertaking. However, this paper demonstrates it is also a socio-politically situated activity; within this particular context, marginalised subordinated women were empowered through their home-based enterprises.

This paper offers a gender informed conceptual framework to inform the analyses of empowerment and entrepreneurship. The discussion describes the necessary processes for development goals to be realised, and explains how traditionally subordinated women can utilise enterprise to contribute to social change. In so doing, the proposed conceptual framework acts as a theoretical illustration of the gendered relationship between empowerment and entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this article is to present a framework for research on gender and innovation. The framework is developed based on a review of the current literature in the area; it is applied to provide a context for the articles in this special issue and to offer suggestions for future research.

The article relies on a literature review of gender and innovation. Additional literature searches on Scopus were conducted to provide an overview of the area. In addition, comparative analogies are sought from research fields of gender and entrepreneurship as well as gender and technology.

The article presents the scope and issues in the current research on gender and innovation. Based on the overview, research in this area is conducted in various disciplines applying a variety of methodological approaches. In order to make sense of the current research, the paper developed a framework consisting of various approaches to, gender and innovation; these include gender as a variable, construction and process and innovation as a result, process and discourse.

Based on the review, several recommendations for future research are made. First, future research should question the connection between technology and innovation and purposefully seek innovation activity also in low-tech and service sectors and firms. Innovation scholars and policy makers should not primarily target radical and product innovations but should be equally interested in incremental and process innovations. Second, understanding women's innovation activity needs to be embedded in understanding the normative frames and structural factors at play. A particular theoretical call is linked to the study of power and innovation. Third, it is imperative to develop and apply new methodological approaches and new operationalizations of innovation and innovators.

By focusing on gender and innovation, it is possible to discover innovation as a gender biased phenomenon. Policy makers should bear this in mind when developing innovation policies.

An understanding of innovation literature and innovation policy as gender biased has important social implications. Discovering gendered structures is important to further develop gender equal societies. Further, innovation may be hampered by biases in the understanding of the concept, including gender biases.

This introductory article puts forward a framework on gender and innovation that helps to make sense of the current state-of-the-art and to develop new research questions that need to be addressed for further theorising within the field.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the interplay between gender, entrepreneurial capital and firm performance. Using matched sample data, the paper considers how gender shapes the possession of entrepreneurial capital and discusses the implications of capital variance for business performance.

The methodology was designed to collect data about the entrepreneurial capital of small firm owners and the performance of their firms. A sample of 30 matched pairs of business owners (30 male, 30 female) was created. Data were collected in two stages involving a telephone survey followed by face to face semi‐structured interviews.

The findings reveal an interplay between economic, human, social and symbolic capital and suggest that our understanding of the possession and impact of entrepreneurial capital on firm performance can be advanced by recognising the convertible nature of entrepreneurial capitals. The paper also draws attention to the impact which human capital, particularly age and experience, can have on the accumulation of entrepreneurial capital.

The paper identified the value in exploring the convertibility of entrepreneurial capitals and the benefits of investigating all forms of capital.

The paper identifies gender as a critical influence and suggests that the relationship between gender and engagement in entrepreneurship should be more fully understood and addressed by policies designed to encourage and support business ownership.

The theoretical and methodological framework developed for this study lays the foundation for extending and developing literature on entrepreneurial capital and firm performance research.

The field of entrepreneurship is continuously expanding, and new perspectives on existing theories continue to emerge, challenging established norms and generating exciting avenues of inquiry. The aim of the ISBE-Emerald Book Series is to facilitate such inquiry by providing a platform for leading edge research that reflects the themes of interest to contemporary entrepreneurship scholars. Each volume in the series is designed around a specific theme that is both relevant to the ISBE Conference and of importance to the entrepreneurship and small business community. While volumes will seek to explore and develop theory and practice in the field of entrepreneurship and small business, the emphasis of the research will be on quality, currency and relevance.