Bias Against Women-Owned Enterprises? An Empirical Test

Abstract

Women-owned enterprises are proving to be a powerful economic force in the U.S. Yet, these enterprises have been found to face unique challenges, particularly in equity capital markets and corporate supplier markets (Center for Women’s Business Research, 2006 & 2005). In this paper, we empirically test corporate purchasers’ intention to purchase from both women-owned and men-owned enterprises, using Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior. Two hundred and seventy-two corporate purchasers across a diverse range of industries and geographical regions in the United States participated in a mail survey in which they responded to questions (capturing the constructs in the theory of planned behavior) related to a selected scenario. These scenarios (a 2 x2 factorial design) manipulated two constructs: male/female of the enterprise owner and corporate purchasers’ familiarity/unfamiliarity with the enterprise. The results provided general support for the theory of planned behavior, however, MANOVA revealed that the scenarios had no significant effect on the variables in the model, meaning that the corporate purchasers did not discriminate between women and men-owned enterprises in their intention to purchase from these enterprises. The unpredicted finding contributes to a better understanding of the opportunities and hurdles that women-owned enterprises face in the marketplace.