Cultural Institutions, Women Entrepreneurs and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

Abstract

In this study, we set out to address important research questions: How do economic, political, education and health gender gaps influence total entrepreneurial activity? How do social costs of failure affect the relationship between gender gaps and total entrepreneurship activity? Are these effects the same for the distinct and important facet of high growth entrepreneurship? We applied a legitimacy theory framework, reasoning that smaller gender gaps connote the legitimacy of women entrepreneurs. We further conjectured that preexisting perceptions and challenges to the fit of women in the entrepreneurship domain are magnified in institutional contexts with high social costs of failure. We found that in societies with smaller gender gaps, there are increased levels of both total entrepreneurship activity and high-growth entrepreneurship activity, and that these relationships are moderated by the social costs of failure.