Identity Strategy Selection of Women Entrepreneurs and Its Behavioral Implications: Theoretical Model and Future Issues

Abstract

Based on the social context perspective of gender difference, this paper argues that gender difference invokes identity issues and explores the antecedents and mechanisms of identity strategies of women entrepreneurs. Identity plays an important role in understanding how women entrepreneurs position themselves in the male-dominated entrepreneurial context, so as to explain the differences both in entrepreneurial behavior and business growth among women entrepreneurs. By summarizing and extracting the existing studies on women entrepreneurs’ identity, this paper constructs the theoretical logic of “social attributes of gender difference-identity strategy-entrepreneurial behavior”, and answers the questions of how women entrepreneurs choose identity strategy and how this choice affects entrepreneurial behavior. Firstly, this paper reviews the research progress of women entrepreneurship and points out that identity is the key spot under the heterogeneous hypothesis, which is most worthy of further exploration. Secondly, we clarify the identity strategy and its formation path under the contradictory social construction norms, to be specific, women entrepreneurs choose to accept or reject gender expectations and entrepreneurial archetypes, and adopt different identity strategies based on the mechanisms of legitimacy, distinctiveness and authenticity. Thirdly, women entrepreneurs’ identity strategy can influence their entrepreneurial behaviors and decision-making through information processing and attention, which is at least reflected in opportunity identification and resource integration. Finally, some future research suggestions are put forward:（1）Pay more attention to the concrete forms of the effects of identity at different levels, and extend them to firm performance;（2）Complement the boundary conditions of the above effects from the perspectives of economy, culture and institution;（3）Trace the changes of women entrepreneurs’ identity strategies along with entrepreneurial events, and explore how women entrepreneurs construct and manage their identities dynamically. Overall, the main highlights and theoretical contributions lie in two parts: Firstly, future researches can explore the rules of women’s entrepreneurial behaviors beyond the perspective of “gender comparison”; Secondly, on the basis of gender difference context, some in-depth academic understandings are made in identity researches in entrepreneurship domain.