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1 – 10 of over 2000Katherina Kuschel, María-Teresa Lepeley, Fernanda Espinosa and Sebastián Gutiérrez
Women in entrepreneurship can have a significant impact on economic and social development globally and particularly in developing countries. But the challenges entrepreneurial…
Abstract
Purpose
Women in entrepreneurship can have a significant impact on economic and social development globally and particularly in developing countries. But the challenges entrepreneurial women face are unique and multiple, pressing the need for research and policies to maximize impact. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the challenges women start-up founders face to secure funding in the technology industry. The tech industry was selected because it is a non-traditional industry for women with high potential for role models to bridge an existing gap in information on women start-up founders to secure capital financing to attain business sustainability. It covers venture capital investors’ role, Latin American cultural reasons, and gender.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on an inductive, qualitative approach and in-depth interviews with 20 women entrepreneurs and start-up founders from Latin American countries who received support from the Chilean Government sponsored accelerator “Start-Up Chile.”
Findings
The analysis uncovered ten aspects that impact entrepreneurial women founders’ access to capital in three categories: capital needs, networks, and individual characteristics.
Originality/value
This study identifies factors that affect women entrepreneurs in raising capital and in facing the following challenges: first, working in a non-traditional field for women as it is the technology industry, and second assuming a leadership role as start-up founders. The results offer recommendation with potential to drive public policies in Latin America, which may be scalable to other developing and also to developed countries where market systems prevail. The findings show that women entrepreneurs, but also men, seeking start-up financing and alternatives are a viable source of employment and economic sustainability to mitigate the effects of increasing levels of unemployment worldwide.
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Namrata Gupta and Henry Etzkowitz
This study aims to understand the socio-cultural context of Indian women's high-tech entrepreneurial experience. Despite a small proportion of women entrepreneurs, and the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand the socio-cultural context of Indian women's high-tech entrepreneurial experience. Despite a small proportion of women entrepreneurs, and the traditional gender dynamics among the educated middle-classes that appears to be antithetical to female entrepreneurship; women-led high-tech start-ups are on the rise.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with women founders at an academic incubator in an elite Indian Institute of Technology. The study was based on the post-structural feminist approach that women entrepreneurs are embedded in their socio-cultural and institutional context. During data collection, the Coronavirus lockdown provided a natural experiment, highlighting entrepreneurial response to unforeseen obstacles.
Findings
It finds that the context is significant in constructing opportunity, and in navigating challenges of gender and entrepreneurship. Further, in the process of construction of an entrepreneurial identity, women innovators not only reproduce, but also modify their context. Also, the experiences with academic incubator indicate positive results both for gender dynamics and enhancing an emergent entrepreneurial culture.
Practical implications
The study highlights that women's high-tech entrepreneurship has considerable potential for enhancing women's status in society through the support of academic incubator. This has certain implications for policy.
Originality/value
It provides an insight in to the hitherto neglected issue of women's high-tech entrepreneurship in India, and argues that a study of “social embeddedness” not only highlights constraints for women entrepreneurs unique to that context, but also the potential of women's entrepreneurship in advancing women's agency and gender equality.
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Wejdan Alakaleek, Sarah Yvonne Cooper, Barbara Orser and Richard Harrison
This study sought to examine how women founders navigate gender and cultural influences in constructing network ties in Jordan.
Abstract
Purpose
This study sought to examine how women founders navigate gender and cultural influences in constructing network ties in Jordan.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth interviews document the experiences of 14 women founders operating digital technology-based businesses in Amman, Jordan.
Findings
Gender homogenous ties were perceived to be of diminished quality, limiting the ability of the women founders to acquire resources while risking isolation from diverse networks. Formal professional, male-centric ties were perceived to offer more business impact due to the applicability and usefulness of information. Formal communication, use of intermediaries and industry events were used to develop network ties. These approaches enable founders to respect gendered collectivist norms, such as adhering to family members’ expectations about occupational roles, while meeting new business associates. The strength of network ties emerged as a continuum with strong, weak and midpoint ties. Midpoint ties offered valued encouragement and emotional support but were perceived to be less effective and provided fewer resources compared to strong network ties.
Originality/value
Mechanisms of gender inequality are evidenced in how gender, culture and social networks operate in relation to each other. Perceptions reflect culturally situated, within-group stereotypes, informing how women founders discount other women’s knowledge and experience.
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Constanza Reyes and Helle Neergaard
The objective of this article is to map and assess current evidence in women's technology entrepreneurship in business incubators with the aim of producing a conceptual framework…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of this article is to map and assess current evidence in women's technology entrepreneurship in business incubators with the aim of producing a conceptual framework that will allow us to understand how gender shapes the life of women technology entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a systematic literature review. The data set comprises 49 publications, including peer-reviewed articles and prominent book chapters. These are first categorized according to their feminist approach and second analysed using an inductive thematic approach to map dominant concepts and research methods.
Findings
The authors develop a framework with four dimensions: (1) antecedents, (2) challenges, (3) outcomes and (4) solutions. The authors show that current literature mainly focuses on the challenges faced by women technology entrepreneurs in incubator settings. Although liberal feminist research is present, social feminist perspectives dominate, with poststructuralist research as a close second. Interestingly, current research has not focused much on individual characteristics; in other words, the baggage that women bring with them in terms of prior experiences is hardly investigated, even though there is general agreement that socialization shapes women's experiences of and responses to gender challenges.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to the literature in the following ways: The developed framework assists in understanding how gender is an overarching factor that shapes every facet of the life of a women technology entrepreneur, and how incubator environments intensify gender issues. Indeed, being in an incubator environment adds an extra layer of gendered conditions, thus intensifying the challenges that women meet, creating a “triple masculinity trap”. The review highlights that little is known about how early conditioning shapes women technology entrepreneurs' reactions to the gendered conditions they meet and that there is a lack of research on how women “do entrepreneurship”.
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Sancheeta Pugalia and Dilek Cetindamar
Technology sector is the pivotal element for innovation and economic development of any country. Hence, the present article explores past researches looking into challenges faced…
Abstract
Purpose
Technology sector is the pivotal element for innovation and economic development of any country. Hence, the present article explores past researches looking into challenges faced by immigrant women entrepreneurs in technology sector and their corresponding response strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a systematic literature review (SLR) technique to collate all the relevant literature looking into the challenges and strategies from immigrant women entrepreneur's perspective and provide a comprehensive picture. Overall, 49 research articles are included in this SLR.
Findings
Findings indicate that immigrant status further escalates the human, financial and network disadvantages faced by women who want to start a technology-based venture.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature by categorizing the barriers and strategies on a 3 × 2 matrix reflecting the origins of the barrier or strategy (taking place at the individual, firm or institutional level) versus the type of the barrier or strategy (arising from being an immigrant woman and being a woman in the technology sector). After underlining the dearth of studies in the literature about the complex phenomenon of immigrant WEs in the technology sector, the paper points out several neglected themes for future research.
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Raushan Aman, Maria Elo, Petri Ahokangas and Xiaotian Zhang
Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) research has focused on high-growth scale-up entrepreneurship, whereas the role of EEs in nurturing the ventures of marginalised groups like…
Abstract
Purpose
Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) research has focused on high-growth scale-up entrepreneurship, whereas the role of EEs in nurturing the ventures of marginalised groups like migrant women entrepreneurs (MWEs) has often been elided from extant discussions. This research explores how the EE's structure, policies and programmes advance diversity, equity and inclusion to foster MWEs, and MWEs' contribution to the dynamics and sustainability of the host country's EE based on EE actors' perspectives. We contribute to EEs' diversity, equity and inclusion, which are important but neglected social aspects of sustainable EEs.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative data was collected through thematic interviews with EE actors, including NGOs and entrepreneurial support-providing organizations based in Finland. The collected data was complemented by interviews with MWEs, archival data and published supplementary materials on ecosystem actors.
Findings
EE structure, policies, programmes and individual agency, coupled with MWEs' proactivity in lobbying the necessary actors in the required places for their interests, enhance their businesses' development. There were both impeding and fostering dynamics, which may have idiographic and contextual features. Evidently, by being occupied in various sectors, from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to socially beneficial niche service sectors, MWEs contribute to the host country's EE dynamics not only through their productive entrepreneurship but by enriching the ecosystem's resource endowments and institutional arrangements.
Originality/value
We argue that exploring the gender and inclusivity aspects of EEs as the accommodating context is particularly relevant, given that the United Nation's sustainable development goals 5, 8 and 10 aim to improve women's empowerment at all levels, promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and ensuring equal opportunities and reduced inequalities within the population. Inclusion and embeddedness in EEs positively affect diversity and sustainability in the host country. Theoretically, our contribution is twofold. First, by exploring female migrants' entrepreneurial experiences within the EE based on EE actors' perspectives, we broaden the research on inclusivity in EEs and gender aspects and enrich the research on their societal impact, which has received scant attention from scholars. More specifically, we contribute to EE research with (1) a novel understanding of MWEs and EE elements, their interconnections and dynamism, (2) identifying previously ignored elements shaping MWE and (3) providing EE actor insights into the co-creation of EE for MWE. Second, by analysing the impact of MWEs' businesses on the host country's EE, we contribute to calls for research on MWE contributions to its economic environment.
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Jabir Ali, Sana Shabir and Ateeque Shaikh
This paper aims at identifying the antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions among females in India using the theory of planned behaviour.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims at identifying the antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions among females in India using the theory of planned behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on the Adult Population Survey (APS) of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), which has covered 1,683 female respondents from India. The data has been analysed using simple techniques such as chi-square statistics and logistics regression. The antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions have been identified using the theory of planned behaviour.
Findings
About 20% of the adult females have reported intention for starting an entrepreneurial venture in the country. A significant relationship emerged between the demographics of females with and without intention towards entrepreneurship. The results showed that there is a positive and significant effect of attitudes towards the behaviour, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control to the entrepreneurial intentions among females.
Practical implications
This paper provides insights on factors affecting entrepreneurial intention among females and helps in developing a policy framework for promoting new ventures among female entrepreneurs. This also explores the possibility of future research on entrepreneurial intention in the Indian context.
Originality/value
Considering the current focus of the government in India for promoting new ventures, this piece of research can be valuable for different stakeholders in adopting a gender-based approach in implementing inclusive entrepreneurial initiatives.
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Arosha Adikaram and Ruwaiha Razik
This paper aims to explore the motivations behind women in a developing South Asian country – Sri Lanka – to embark on entrepreneurship in science, technology, engineering and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the motivations behind women in a developing South Asian country – Sri Lanka – to embark on entrepreneurship in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, which is a doubly masculine hegemony operating within a culturally nuanced gendered context.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs a qualitative research approach, conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews with 15 STEM women entrepreneurs, following the theoretical lenses of push and pull motivation theory and gender role theory.
Findings
Although the motivations of STEM women entrepreneurs cannot be exclusively categorized as either push or pull factors, the pull factors had a greater influence on the participants in motivating them to become entrepreneurs. The primary motivators for starting businesses in STEM were: inspiration from something or someone, inner calling, the identification of business opportunities, the need for flexibility, necessity and/or desire to help society. It was often difficult to identify one dominant motivator in many instances, as many factors were interlinked to motivate women to start a business. The study also revealed that gender ideologies could stifle the participants' motivation, while the inner need to break these gender ideologies implicitly stimulated their motivation.
Originality/value
The study contributes to and expands the knowledge of STEM women entrepreneurs in general and to the limited existing knowledge of STEM women entrepreneurs in developing countries specifically. The paper brings contextual novelty as Sri Lanka produces more female STEM graduates than men, which is unique compared to most other parts of the world.
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Amanda Bullough, Fiona Moore and Tugba Kalafatoglu
The purpose of this paper is to address the paradox that represents a shortage of women in management and senior leadership positions around the world, while research has…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the paradox that represents a shortage of women in management and senior leadership positions around the world, while research has consistently shown that having women in positions of influence leads to noteworthy organizational benefits, as guest editors for this special issue, the authors provide an overview of four key streams of cross-cultural research on gender – women in international management, anthropology and gender, women’s leadership, and women’s entrepreneurship – which have been fairly well-developed but remain underexplored.
Design/methodology/approach
Each author led the review of the scholarly literature stream that aligned most with personal research areas of expertise, while particularly focusing each literature review on the status of each body of work in relation to the topic of women and gender in international business and management.
Findings
The authors encourage future work on the role of women and gender (including gay, lesbian, and transgender) in cross-cultural management, and the influence of cross-cultural matters on gender. In addition to new research on obstacles and biases faced by women in management, the authors hope to see more scholarship on the benefits that women bring to their organizations.
Practical implications
New research could aim to provide specific evidence-based recommendations for: how organizations and individuals can work to develop more gender diversity in management and senior positions around the world, and encourage more women to start and grow bigger businesses.
Social implications
Scholars can lead progress on important gender issues and contribute to quality information that guides politicians, organizational leaders, new entrants to the workforce.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to cover these topics and review the body of work on cross-cultural research on women in international business and management. The authors hope it serves as a useful launch pad for scholars conducting new research in this domain.
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Bat Batjargal, Justin W. Webb, Anne Tsui, Jean-Luc Arregle, Michael A. Hitt and Toyah Miller
The purpose of this paper is to disentangle individual-level gender differences and norm-based gender roles and stereotypes to provide a finer-grained understanding of why female…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to disentangle individual-level gender differences and norm-based gender roles and stereotypes to provide a finer-grained understanding of why female and male entrepreneurs experience different growth returns from their social networks across different national cultures.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses a survey of 637 (278 female and 359 male) entrepreneurs across four nations varying on relational culture (importance of social relationships) and gender egalitarianism (importance of gender equality or neutrality in social and economic roles).
Findings
The authors find evidence that male entrepreneurs in high relational cultures benefit the most in terms of growth in revenues from larger network size while women in low relational cultures benefit the least. In cultures with low gender egalitarianism, male entrepreneurs benefit more from their larger social networks than did the female entrepreneurs.
Practical implications
The study presents implications for female entrepreneurs’ behaviors to gain more benefits from their social networks, especially in cultural contexts where relationships are important or where there is equality in gender roles. In these contexts, they may need to develop other strategies and rely less on social networks to grow their ventures.
Social implications
This research suggests that female entrepreneurs still are disadvantaged in some societies. National policy may focus on developing more opportunities and providing more support to women entrepreneurs as a valuable contributor to economic growth of the nations.
Originality/value
The authors disentangle the effects of gender differences, norm-based gender stereotypes and networks on entrepreneurial outcomes.
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