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This paper aims to inform strategies to enhance public procurement opportunities for women-owned small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To do so, the study examines two research questions: To what extent are women-owned enterprises under-represented among SME suppliers to government; and Do barriers to public procurement – as perceived by SME owners – differ across gender?

The study draws on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and on theories of role congruity and social feminism to develop the study’s hypotheses. Empirical analyses rely on comparisons of a sample of 1,021 SMEs that had been suppliers to government and 9,376 employer firms that had not been suppliers to government. Data were collected by Statistics Canada and are nationally representative. Logistic regression analysis was used to control for systemic firm and owner differences.

Controlling firm and owner attributes, majority women-owned businesses were underrepresented as SME suppliers to government in some, but not all sectors. Women-owned SMEs in Wholesale and Retail and in Other Services were, ceteris paribus, half as likely as to be government suppliers as counterpart SMEs owned by men. Among Goods Producers and for Professional, Scientific and Technical Services SMEs, there were no significant gender differences in the propensity to supply the federal government. “Complexity of the contracting process” and “difficulty finding contract opportunities” were the obstacles to contracting cited most frequently.

The limitations of using secondary analyses of data are well documented and apply here. The findings reflect only the perspectives of “successful bidders” and do not capture SMEs that submitted bids but were not successful. Furthermore, the survey did not include questions about sub-contractor enterprises, data that would likely provide even more insights about SMEs in government supply chains. Accordingly, the study could not address sub-contracting strategies to increase the number of women-owned businesses on government contracts. Statistics Canada’s privacy protocols also limited the extent to which the research team could examine sub-groups of small business owners, such as visible minorities and Indigenous/Aboriginal persons. It is also notable that much of the SME literature, as well as this study, define gender as a dichotomous (women/female, men/male) attribute. Comparing women/female and men/males implicitly assumes within group homogeneity. Future research should use a more inclusive definition of gender. Research is also required to inform about the obstacles to government procurement among the population of SMEs that were unsuccessful in their bids.

The study provides benchmarks on, and directions to, enhance the participation of women-owned SMEs or enterprises in public procurement. Strategies to support women-owned small businesses that comply with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are advanced.

The study offers insights to reconcile economic efficiency and social (gender equity) policy goals in the context of public procurement. The “policy-practice divides” in public procurement and women’s enterprise policies are discussed.

The study is among the first to use a feminist lens to examine the associations between gender of SME ownership and public procurement, while controlling for other salient owner and firm attributes.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of financial inclusion among women-owned informal enterprises in India.

The study is based on a primary survey of 321 informal enterprises. The data has been collected through a structured questionnaire. A chi-square test has been used to examine the significant association between the characteristics of informal enterprises and their owners and financial inclusion. A logistic regression model has been developed to analyse the determinants of financial inclusion among women-owned informal enterprises.

A significant and negative association has been found between business duration and entrepreneurs’ experiences with financial inclusion. In addition, the chi-square test shows a significant association between resource capability, use of ICT by enterprises and financial inclusion. Further, logistics regression shows that duration of business, entrepreneurial experience, resource capability in terms of machinery and equipment use, and ICT are significant determinants of financial inclusion among women-owned informal enterprises.

There are several practical implications for national policymakers and other stakeholders, such as banks and international bodies working on financial inclusion. It is suggested that while designing the policy for financial inclusion among woman-owned informal enterprises, it should ensure that experience and older woman entrepreneurs are included in financial inclusion schemes.

There has been very few research on financial inclusion in woman-owned businesses. However, no research has been conducted on the financial inclusion of women-owned informal businesses. This study fills a gap by investigating the factors that influence financial inclusion in women-owned informal businesses.

This study aims to examine the influence of entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge management orientation on participation of women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in public procurement. The research also aimed at examining the influence of knowledge management orientation on entrepreneurial orientation, and the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between Knowledge management orientation and participation of women-owned SMEs in public procurement.

The study used a quantitative cross-sectional survey design. Data were collected using a drop-off pick-up method. The determined sample size for the women-owned SME firms was 123, while an effective sample size of 103 was obtained, and covariance-based structural equation modelling was used to test the research hypotheses.

Findings indicated that entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge management positively and significantly influenced both the search for tender opportunities and the number of times the firm submitted bids. Knowledge management orientation had a significant positive influence on entrepreneurial orientation, while entrepreneurial orientation partially mediated the relationship between knowledge management orientation and participation of women-owned SMEs in public procurement, thus implying that both knowledge management orientation and entrepreneurial orientation contribute to search for tender opportunities and the number of times a woman-owned SME firm submits bids.

The study was cross-sectional and quantitative in nature, yet it involved behaviour aspects such as participation in public procurement. Further, a wholistic approach is taken when studying the SMEs disregarding the industrial characteristics to which the SME belongs.

Almost 30% to 38% of SMEs in developing countries are owned by women. Focusing on increasing the number of women owned SMEs participating in public procurement will improve the nations’ GDP and increase the number of the citizens in the labour force due to increased employability.

Previous research takes a wholistic approach when examining SMEs participation in public sector procurement disregarding the impact of gender. Further, knowledge management orientation and entrepreneurial orientation in women-owned SMEs are studied for the first time in a public procurement setting.

Given the previous research on the disparities of lending rates and their relationship with lending institutions for women-owned and minority-owned businesses, the study poses the research question: How much Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding was distributed to women-owned and minority-owned businesses in comparison to other firms? Additionally, as the purpose of the PPP funding was to assist small businesses in retaining their workforce, the authors pose a second research question: Of those who received PPP funding, how many jobs on average were retained? And importantly related to our first research question, are there differences across gender and race in the average number of jobs retained?

This is one of the first empirical studies with an initial sample size of 661,218 loans from July 2020 that examines whether the United States PPP had the intended impact to save jobs in small businesses and to examine any reported differences across gender and race in loans issued and jobs saved.

The authors find that significant differences exist between women- and men-owned businesses across all five loan categories, with male-owned firms receiving over 80% of PPP loans. However, women-owned firms saved more jobs on average across all but the largest loan category. Significant differences were also found between minority- and White-owned businesses with minority-owned businesses generally saving more jobs on average across most loan categories.

A limitation of this study pertains to certain missing data that were not reported by participants. While a participant may have included their gender, they may not have included their race. Therefore, the varying sets of data may not be a reflection of the same individuals. Additionally, the industries were not included in this analysis, which may shed light on the job creation differences across gender and race.

Many of the industries that have been significantly impacted have been the tourism, restaurant and hospitality sectors, and knowing “where the money was allocated” can assist policymakers in allocating additional funds to those businesses, especially those who did not receive funding in the initial first waves of PPP.

This is one of the first empirical studies that examine over 600,000 loans and found that women-owned firms saved more jobs across all loan categories except the largest loans. Significant differences were also found between minority- and White-owned businesses with minority-owned businesses generally saving more jobs on average across most loan categories.

The main purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence which identifies the impact of ethnicity and other relevant variables on external capital acquisition among Swedish women‐owned businesses at start‐up.

Several methods have been employed to analyze the sample including a binary logistic regression model. The sample consists of 836 women‐owned businesses in southeast Sweden; 97 immigrant‐owned, 739 native born‐owned.

The results indicate that there are partly significant differences between native women‐owned firms and immigrant woman‐owned businesses at start‐up. Unlike the native‐owned firms, the immigrant woman‐owned businesses rely more on loans from family members and less on bank loans.

The results reveal that age has a positive impact on loans from family members, while the additional job outside one's own business, the amount of the owner's personal start‐up capital and firm size positively influenced access to capital from banks. The owners' level of education, previous business experience, the legal form taken by the firm and the industry affiliation conversely played no significant role in explaining the women owners' attitudes toward loans from either friends or the bank.

To the authors' knowledge, this study is the first empirical investigation addressing this issue in the Swedish context.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the growth barriers of women’s home-based businesses (HBBs) in Iran.

The qualitative approach was used by 22 in-depth interviews with Iranian female HBBs owners/mangers.

Business growth barriers of women were categorized in a multi-level framework of individual barriers (micro), business-related barriers (medium) and environmental barriers (macro). The most important micro-level barrier is lack of skills and experience, while the financial barriers identified as the most business-related one and, finally, the problems of having work interactions with men is the most important environmental barrier women-owned HBBs mentioned.

The results of this paper can help policy-makers better understand growth barriers for women-owned HBB and attenuate these barriers by developing purposeful supportive growth policies that are commensurate with the barriers. Also, HBB women owners themselves could better concentrate on removing barriers by deepening their understanding of their business growth barriers.

The paper contributes to the scarce knowledge about women-owned HBBs in Iran, a rapidly growing, developing country, which can provide better insights from a less explored context. Moreover, as there is only a limited understanding of HBB growth, especially in relation to women business owners, the paper results can prove helpful for researchers in the domain of female entrepreneurs.

When we take the lens of race, ethnicity, gender, and class to the collected academic work on women business owners, what does it reveal? What do we really know? Are there differing definitions of success across segments of the women businessowner demographics? Do the challenges faced by African American women entrepreneurs differ from those confronting white female entrepreneurs? Do immigrant female women businessowners face more significant institutional barriers than their counterparts who have been U.S. citizens for at least two generations? Are there similar reasons for starting their businesses?

Research investigating female self‐employment has often highlighted gender‐based differences in the performance of women‐owned firms. Some studies have linked the under‐performance of women‐owned firms to the lower levels of capitalisation used at business inception, associating this with disadvantages accrued in waged work and occupational segregation more generally. Drawing on this association, there has been a tendency to treat self‐employed women as an undifferentiated group, failing to recognise heterogeneity therein. Considers the impact of the possession of professional qualifications on self‐employment and to what degree they might have the potential to mobilise substantial business capital. The discussion explores the influence of gender in the work and career experiences of women and whether the advantages accrued from professional status might challenge gender disadvantage within self‐employment. Results are presented from an exploratory study of male‐owned and female‐owned accountants in independent practice, which suggest that gender disadvantage persists, even within the context of professional practice.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the family context may affect female firms’ performance by contextualising the study within Italy and empirically analysing 307 Italian women-owned firms.

By using ordinal regressions, this paper empirically investigates the influence of three dimensions of the family context on female firms’ performance, namely: the motivations to start a business; the support from the family once the business is established; and the mechanisms to achieve a suitable balance between work and family life.

Overall, the results offer substantial support for the assumption that female business owners benefit from being pulled into the endeavour, from specific linkages with family and also from selected mechanisms to balance work and family life, thus contributing to show how strong the relationship between a firm’s performance and the family context is for women.

Today female entrepreneurship represents an important economic driver worldwide, leading scholars to strongly advocate the need to shift the female entrepreneurship research focus from the analysis of women business owners’ characteristics to the investigation of those specific factors able to directly affect female firms’ activities. In this vein, this paper aims at pushing further into the still less studied domain of work/family intertwinement as, surprisingly, the impact that family-related factors exert on women-owned businesses’ performance is still under-researched.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between perceived desirability (attitude towards growth) and feasibility (entrepreneurial self-efficacy) of business growth and women entrepreneurs’ continued business growth aspirations. Hypotheses are derived guided by the Entrepreneurial Event Model (EEM). The authors also address the following research question: what reasons do women entrepreneurs state for wanting or not wanting continued business growth?

The sample consists of 93 of the largest independent businesses in Norway started by women entrepreneurs in 2004, 2005 or 2006 (response rate 57.5 per cent). The hypotheses are tested using logistic regression. The authors carry out a post hoc analysis of open-ended questions, containing a qualitative analysis of the reasons for not wanting or wanting the business to grow.

The results support the hypotheses. Controlling for industry, location and the women entrepreneurs’ age, perceived desirability and feasibility of business growth predict growth aspirations. Thus, the findings suggests that the EEM is an appropriate and useful model. Reasons are grouped in reasons relating to considerations for the entrepreneur, the business and the environment. The most common reason for not wanting the business to grow relates to business considerations, including that growth would jeopardize the quality of services offered by the business. Important reasons for wanting the business to grow include fun and excitement.

Policy makers and educators can encourage business growth by efforts aiming to increase the desirability and feasibility of growth. Practitioners as well as scholars should be aware of the inducements and costs associated with business growth. The study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by exploring and identifying areas that both encourage and hinder further business growth among high-growth women entrepreneurs.

Research on women-owned businesses is still scarce, and few if any previous studies have surveyed growth aspiration in new high-growth women-owned businesses. The combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques is also a novel contribution of this survey.