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The purpose of this paper is to focus on the positive and negative effects of gender and ethnicity in relation to discrimination and the problems encountered in accessing social support (including emotional and instrumental support).

Qualitative data were collected through in‐depth interviews with 40 Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) female small business owners based in north west England. The main aims and objectives of the study were to: investigate the discriminatory experiences of BAME female small business owners related to their gender and ethnicity; and to identify the forms (formal and informal) and types (emotional/instrumental) of social support available in relation to their entrepreneurial activities that enabled them to cope with and overcome, the discrimination they may encounter.

Over half of the respondents in the study had experienced discriminations because of their gender, ethnic background or both. This was attributed to a number of factors, including stereotypical images of specific ethnic cultures, religions and practices. Many respondents reported difficulties in accessing different types of formal social support, e.g. formal business and financial support. Informal support by respondents' families was reported as a key source of both emotional and instrumental.

This paper is just a starting point for this area of research and, because the sample covers women from a variety of BAME backgrounds, it is not possible to generalize the findings to the wider population of BAME women. However, it does give an indication of what issues need to be considered in the provision of instrumental support for BAME women small business owners.

The paper shows that a key element in the development of a strategy for addressing the needs of the BAME female small business owners is the necessity to appropriately re‐design mainstream business support systems and financial services, in order to provide these women effective access to formal social support.

The experiences of BAME small business owners have received little attention and this paper offers a unique insight into the relationship between social support, gender, ethnicity and business ownership.

The aim of this paper is to explore the intersection between gender and ethnicity in relation to discrimination and the problems encountered in accessing social support (including emotional and instrumental support) experienced by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women business owners.

Qualitative data were collected through in‐depth interviews with 40 BAME women small business owners based in North West England. The main aims and objectives of the study were to: investigate the discriminatory experiences of BAME women small business owners related to the intersection between their gender and ethnicity, and to identify the forms (formal and informal) and types (emotional/instrumental) of social support available in relation to their entrepreneurial activities that enabled them to cope with and overcome, the discrimination they may encounter.

The degree of discrimination experienced was reported as a result of gender, ethnic background or an intersection between both. This was attributed to a number of factors, including stereotypical difficulties in accessing different types of formal social support, e.g. formal business and financial support. Informal support by respondents' families was reported as a key source of both emotional and instrumental support.

This paper is just a starting point for this area of research and, because the sample covers women from a variety of BAME backgrounds, it is not possible to generalise the findings to the wider population of BAME women. However, it does give an indication of what issues need to be considered in the provision of instrumental support for BAME women small business owners.

The paper shows that a key element in the development of a strategy for addressing the needs of the BAME women small business owners is the necessity to appropriately re‐design mainstream business support systems and financial services, in order to provide these women effective access to formal social support.

The experiences of BAME women small business owners have received little attention and this paper offers a unique insight into the relationship between how the intersection between gender and ethnicity impact on experiences of discrimination and social support. Whilst it highlights many intra group differences, it has also demonstrated the lack of homogeneity between and within women from different ethnic backgrounds.

Women and men business owners are often thought to have different success criteria for their businesses, but there is little empirical research to support this. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of self-defined success factors, and to compare women and men’s success criteria.

This study surveyed 216 New Zealand business owners’ (78 women, 138 men) self-perceived success criteria for their businesses. Results are based primarily on an open-ended question on their interpretation of what success means to them. In total, 30 main categories of success factors were identified, and the four main factors analyzed in depth.

The four most frequently occurring success factors were financial success, personal satisfaction, work-life/work-family balance, and satisfied stakeholders. Women and men business owners described very similar success criteria, which were balanced across financial success and personal and relationship factors. No statistically significant gender differences were found in the incidence of these success factors, suggesting a movement of male business owners to a more holistic view of business success that incorporates financial success, alongside personal and relationship aspects.

Offers implications for researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. Highlights the need to be careful when designing research studies in multi-faceted areas such as business success, and also in gender comparative studies.

Uses self-perceived success criteria to assess gender differences.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate women small business owners’ informal learning behaviour. There is limited qualitative research that examines women small business owners’ learning process and this study aims to address this gap. The study was driven by the following research questions: “Do women small business owners prefer informal learning to formal training?” and if so, “Why do women small business owners prefer informal learning to formal training?” and “If informal learning is preferred, what role do networking and mentoring play in this learning process?”

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 Western Australian women small business owners who were recruited through purposive sampling methods.

The small business owners had a strong preference for informal learning. Participants used their own work experience and knowledge to start-up their businesses. A low uptake of formal training was found due to time and resource constraints and personal preferences. Participants relied on contacts within their networks to acquire knowledge or they hired others who possessed the requisite knowledge or skill. Only a small portion of participants had mentors or acted as a mentor.

This study has limitations that tend to be commonly found in exploratory studies, such as a small sample size.

The research has implications for recognised training institutions that are engaged in entrepreneurship education. By gaining greater understanding of the nature of learning in small business, they may be able to offer more affordable and flexible informal courses that specifically target women small business owners, incorporate mentorship programs within their business courses by engaging with industry partners, or appoint instructors with industry contacts and experience, to provide mentoring support for these business owners.

This research responds to calls for studies aimed at developing a more nuanced understanding of the learning behaviour of women small business owners.

To advance knowledge about the relationship between small firm networks and social capital by considering the network experiences of women business owners. To engage in such research, the paper proposes a conceptual model of business owner networking which is informed by social support theory.

To develop a conceptual model of business owner networking the paper reviews extant small business network research and argues that, while network theory can provide an understanding of the impact which social capital may have on the entrepreneurial process, a concentration on quantitative methodologies has restricted understanding of this. To address the gender bias in small firm network research the paper integrates social support theory into a conceptual model of business owner networks.

The conceptual model proposed recognises the interplay between network structures, interactions and contents and argues that consideration of these three network dimensions may provide insights into the impact of gender on business owner networks, social capital and experiences of business ownership. The paper also discusses the methodological implications of this model and proposes a research agenda for future business owner network research.

The paper addresses a recognised gap in extant small business network research and proposes a conceptual model of business owner networking which may be better suited to and more reflective of women business owners' networking experiences.

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 explore what female business owners hide to better understand social norms and discourses that influence the decisions women make about how they structure their home and work lives.

The author used qualitative interviews to access the narratives of female business owners in public relations within the USA. This industry segment attracts primarily women and, unlike a retail store, offers women a variety of ways to structure their business hours and locations.

Women use hiding as a way to manage others’ impressions and as a way to gain legitimacy for themselves and their organizations. Specifically, the findings fall into three categories: hiding childcare obligations, obscuring their work locations and “fake it until you make it”. Hiding is used a strategy to deal with tensions that arise based on women’s interpretations of social norms and discourses.

Based on the finite nature of any study, it is difficult to assess the long-term impact of hiding. Further, as with many studies, the geographic location, gender and industry segment provide a context for this research, which means the reader must determine the transferability.

Few studies explore hiding as a means to gain access to gendered discourses that can undermine identity construction and business growth. By uncovering what female business owners hide, it provides opportunities for self-awareness and agency.

While the entrepreneurship and small business research literature has tended to portray women as lesser than men in identifying the differences between them, little research has looked at how gender is construed in business ownership. The purpose of this paper is to provide a new focus, examining how male and female business owners construe each other.

The research employs George Kelly's personal construct theory and repertory grids to examine the constructs associated with male and female business owners.

It is found that there are many constructs used to describe business owners and, counter to predictions from some of the literature review, few differences between the way in which male and female business owners are construed. The paper offers explanations as to why so few differences are found.

The sample is limited to just one area of Britain and the businesses had all been established in the last three years. This will influence the generalizability of the findings.

This paper is able to offer research evidence to demonstrate that male and female business owners do not construe male and female business owners differently.

Whereas the extant literature on women's entrepreneurship is almost exclusively focused on developed nations, the effect of many context-specific issues of other countries on ventures of women has been overlooked. The study aims to reveal how political unrest, a common feature of the developing nation, can significantly affect the experiences of women in small businesses of that region.

This feminist research is conducted on Bangladesh, which is one of the most politically unstable countries in the world. The study conducts interviews with women to explore the adverse effect of political unrest on their small firms.

The feminist research reveals some problems of women business-owners concerning political unrest in this highly patriarchal context. It also discloses how political chaos challenges the government initiative in financially supporting women business-owners.

Policymakers of developing nations can be benefitted by taking into account the problems of women business-owners concerning political unrest, specifically the access to debt financing issues while designing policies for women's empowerment.

The article contributes to the women's entrepreneurship scholarship with reference to political unrest, a contextual issue of developing nations. Whereas the existing studies mostly concentrate on holding women individually liable for the limited scale of their business operation, this research potentially challenges the view by drawing upon political unrest as an external factor that negatively affects their ventures. The study further advances the prevailing knowledge by critically unveiling some gender-specific problems of women business-owners regarding political unrest.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how gender, interacting with race and ethnicity, plays a role in women entrepreneurship process and how women entrepreneurs’ experiences shape and are shaped by their communities.

First, five-year 2010-2014 American Community Survey data are analyzed. Then, in-depth interview and focus groups discussion are conducted with 40 women business owners and the data are analyzed using the software package QSR Nvivo.

Women entrepreneurs face the challenges and the difficulties of managing both family roles and work. However, they have strategically negotiating with their multiple roles through entrepreneurship to gain independence and purpose, as well as the opportunity to contribute to society. In particular, their embeddedness within local communities provides meanings, opportunities, and functional strategies for their entrepreneurial activities.

The study is based on only one study area. A larger sample size with more cases from multiple study areas can provide further insights.

Findings from this study have profound implications for practices of equitable growth, community development, and urban planning under the rapid growth of immigration.

First, extending focus on the social identity of “motherhood,” this study argues for considering multiple social identities of women entrepreneurs and the intersectionality of multiple identities. Second, it extends the traditional focus of entrepreneurship studies from a singular focus on economic growth to include additional dimensions of work-life balance and sense of community. Third, place is not only a context but also acts powerfully into the entrepreneurial process. It argues that women entrepreneurs and their businesses are deeply embedded in local communities as their multiple identities are shaped at both home and work.