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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.

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.

Because procurement policies are one of the means of redressing discrimination and economic exclusion, the US Government has targeted 23 per cent of its annual half-trillion dollar spend to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 5 per cent of its spend to women-owned businesses.

The research framework is informed by two theoretical paradigms, feminist empiricism and entrepreneurial feminism, and uses a secondary analysis of survey data of active federal contractors.

Empirical findings inform the extent to which certifications are associated with bid frequency and bid success. The results indicate that none of the various certifications increase either bid frequency or bid success. The findings are consistent with entrepreneurial feminism and call for federal accountability in contracting with women-owned supplier firms.

The findings are consistent with entrepreneurial feminism and call for federal accountability in contracting with women-owned supplier firms.

Recommendations include the need to review the impact of consolidated tenders on designated (as certified) SME vendors and to train procurement personnel about the economic contributions of women-owned businesses.

This research studies the efficacy of various certifications, with particular reference to that of women-owned, on the frequency with which SMEs bid on, and succeed in obtaining, US federal procurement contracts.

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.

Title II of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act aims to make it easier for new ventures to raise funds from accredited investors via equity crowdfunding. The purpose of this paper is to understand whether Title II equity crowdfunding represents an opportunity for women-owned companies (those that have one or more female owners/founders) to raise capital at rates similar to companies owned by men.

The authors conduct an exploratory analysis using a data set containing 6,234 Title II equity crowdfunded offerings aggregated across 17 crowdfunding platforms between September 2013 and December 2015.

The authors find that women-owned companies constitute only 15.2 per cent of the ventures seeking funding in this data set; however, gender had no effect on the likelihood of successful fundraising under Title II.

This study is the first to examine the roll of gender on the success of equity crowdfunding campaigns the USA. It provides empirical evidence that crowdfunding has had limited impact on democratizing access to capital for woman-owned startups and small businesses. The data reveal that woman-owned companies are underrepresented in Title II equity crowdfunding to an even greater extent than they are underrepresented in angel and venture capital (VC) investments. The results of this study also highlight the importance of examining the role of gender in equity crowdfunding across different countries.

This study attempts to understand the nature and activities of growth‐oriented women‐owned businesses in the East of England by highlighting the problems faced by women entrepreneurs during the growth process.

The approach analysed the main growth factors and their influence on the adoption of different growth strategies. An online questionnaire was designed using Snap survey software™, with results exported to SPSS™ for analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected via a variety of scaled, open‐ended, rank order, dichotomous, multiple choice and open questions.

The research indicates that most do not opt to develop growth‐oriented businesses, choosing instead small, non‐scalable, locally focused businesses providing services or operating in low‐tech industries. Women who are growth‐oriented appear to be inhibited due to a lack of access to, and control over such resources as, capital, business premises, information and technology, production inputs, appropriate childcare, qualifications, experience, training facilities and appropriate assistance from business development agencies. Non‐effective accumulation and use of social capital hinders access to appropriate decision‐making circles, and limits the probability of accessing critical management and financing resources, especially through the venture capital industry.

This research has implications for government or other business development agencies seeking to understand the growth patterns and problems of women‐owned enterprises in the East of England.

There are few British studies that have focussed on growth oriented women‐owned businesses. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by attempting to understand the nature and activities of such business, by analysing the main growth factors and their influence on different growth strategies.

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.

Minority women continue to make significant gains in economic activity, particularly as entrepreneurs through the creation of small businesses. Despite this increased role in small business activity and an admirable rate of success, minority women-owned businesses continue to experience problems in acquiring capital. This difficulty, which some have attributed to discriminatory practices, forces a large number of these businesses to rely on governmental support programs for assistance in meeting their capital needs. Building on the idea that things are not as simple as commonly presented, a case is made that access to capital for women-owned businesses is affected by a number of other factors tied to the inability to join important networks.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings of a needs assessment study of South African women‐owned enterprises in construction. The study was done in preparation for the rolling out of an empowerment initiative country‐wide in South Africa, building on the lessons learnt and recommendations from the current and previous studies.

An extensive review of relevant literature was used to develop a survey instrument and guide the stakeholder workshops to establish the needs of women‐owned contractors in South Africa.

The study found that fair procurement processes, women‐friendly construction sites, a construction bank and relevant career‐aligned training with mentoring were enablers to transform existing enterprises to multi‐skilled independent entities able to participate in the mainstream construction sector and register in the higher grades of the CIDB Register of Contractors.

Findings are based on views from respondents in South Africa registered in grades 1 through 5 on the CIDB Register of Contractors with legitimate e‐mail addresses.

The professionally facilitated workshops and broad‐based stakeholder involvement in the project enhanced the validity of the study and the success of a development agenda if adopted for implementation.

The value of the paper lies in the roadmap for development for similar initiatives.

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.