Female Business Research Articles

Latin American female business executives: an interesting surprise

Purpose– Because women ' s status in Latin American countries appears comparable to their status in organizations of more economically advanced nations, this paper probes the mystery of how and why these women fare relatively well in their careers, given that socioeconomic and cultural factors could limit their possibilities of achieving higher management positions. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– Exploratory study of 162 Latin American women who demonstrated exceptional success by attaining first and second level positions in private organizations. They responded to a semi-structured interview of 49 closed-ended questions about career challenges and barriers, leadership style, ambition, personal goals and work-life balance, plus two open-ended questions about men and women ' s leadership differences and how they understand their success.Findings– Interviewees disagreed on issues of discrimination, recognized few serious professional career barriers and regarded work-life balance as their main challenge. They understood their success in terms of individual factors such as personality characteristics, performance and results, and their own leadership traits. Most admitted that machismo limits women ' s access to upper level positions. They recognized their ambition to attain power positions mainly for personal satisfaction, and their main goal was personal development and fulfilment.Research limitations/implications– Given the sample size per country, future research could include a more representative and large sample or concentrate on one country per region to establish relationships between women ' s personal characteristics and organizations ' sector, or challenges faced and leadership style. Also family-owned companies as well as women entrepreneurs could contribute knowledge about women ' s leadership in these countries. Studying only national companies, a more neatly description of local culture and gender awareness in its organizational practices that hinder or promote women ' s leadership and participation in decision-making positions may be obtained. Transcultural studies that compare women ' s rise and upper management performance in countries where support from domestic help and extended family as well as cultural values are very different, could permit to understand more fully what it takes to reach top management positions and the weight that these particular cultural conditions have.Originality/value– This study is unique in shedding light on a multinational sample of Latin American female executives and their perceptions of their success, leadership style and barriers and challenges faced.

The Impact of Gender and Dual Career Issues on Work-Family Decisions

This study examines the relationship between family responsibilities and family support, on the one hand, and decisions by men and women concerning owning their own business, as well as how many hours they work in that business. We used data collected by the U.S. Current Population Survey (CPS) between 1989 and 2011, and had a starting sample of 823,090 individuals, and a final sample of 13,887. We found that both women and men are more inclined to own a business when they are married, have children, or receive financial support from their spouse. We also found widespread gender differences in these analyses. Financial support from a spouse has a larger impact on women than on men. The influence of marriage on owning a business is stronger for women than for men. The findings also indicate that male business owners work longer hours if they have young children. In contrast, female business owners reduce their work hours if they are married, have young children, and receive support from their spouse. The r...

Culture, Moral Reasoning and Teaching Business Ethics: A Snapshot of United Arab Emirates Female Business Students

Culture, Moral Reasoning and Teaching Business Ethics: A Snapshot of United Arab Emirates Female Business Students

Exploring the links between mentoring and work-integrated learning

The role of work-integrated learning (WIL) is a popular focus at many universities, including among academics in the business disciplines in Australia. This article explores whether a mentoring programme provided for female business and law students results in similar benefits as those reported for WIL activities and, hence, provides career- and study-related benefits for the participating students. While research into mentoring is not a new phenomenon, this qualitative study focuses on mentees as students who are assigned mentors from a range of organisations, rather than the typical studies which have both parties employed in an organisational context. The study explores the career-related and psycho-social benefits reported by students in a mentoring programme, including increased confidence, improved knowledge about their chosen profession, stronger career focus/understanding and, for some, opportunities leading to employment post-study. These benefits are then considered in relation to how they mirror the outcomes of WIL. While the sample size is small, the findings have implications for academics and career development professionals in higher education seeking to better integrate theoretical knowledge with the realities of the workplace, thereby helping to prepare students more effectively for their careers.

Ask us equally if we want to go

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore gender differences in career prospects and changes in attitudes to international assignments over recent decades in Finland. This is relevant in light of the international immobility trend among staff with which MNCs especially are struggling, coupled with the persistent unequal ratio of male to female expatriates. The paper aims to increase the understanding of how gender and family relations affect international career prospects and what changes have evolved over time.Design/methodology/approach– The paper compares differences and changes in opportunities to and preferences for long-term international assignments between male and female business graduates in Finland. It uses survey data on attitudes to expatriation from 1994 to 2008.Findings– A general shift from individual career centeredness towards family centeredness was detected between the two points in time. Paradoxically, this research shows that while gender equality seems to be increasing between spouses, it seems to be decreasing in who is being offered international assignments. The results give valuable insights into how the trend of international immobility has occurred and how the gender relations and gendered values are developing in society.Practical implications– While the international immobility trend persists, women apparently remain as an under-utilized resource when searching for employees to send on long-term expatriate assignments. Global HR professionals should pay more attention to whom expatriate assignments are offered and to how dual career couples and families can be better supported in the expatriation process.Originality /value– The paper contributes to the understanding of gendered careers and women's opportunities in international assignments with a unique comparison of changes over time.

“Women doing their own thing”: media representations of female entrepreneurship

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact gendered media representations of entrepreneurs may have on the reality of female entrepreneurship. It analyses the representation of women entrepreneurs in a women ' s magazine. Media representations influence, firstly, whether women perceive entrepreneurship as desirable and attainable, and thus impact the strength and direction of their entrepreneurial aspirations. Secondly, media representations shape how key stakeholders such as bankers or clients view and interact with female business owners, thereby impacting women entrepreneurs’ business relations and opportunities.Design/methodology/approach– The paper reviews research on media representations of women entrepreneurs, gender inequalities in entrepreneurial activity and work before presenting an in-depth qualitative analysis of a magazine series reporting on female entrepreneurs.Findings– The authors’ analysis reveals how the woman ' s magazine in question portrays female entrepreneurship as focused on traditionally female activities and pursuits and as domestically-centred. Relating these findings to evidence on gender inequalities in entrepreneurial activity, the paper raises important questions about the impact of media representations of women entrepreneurs.Originality/value– The paper demonstrates the benefits of understanding entrepreneurial activity as work and includes analytical perspectives from the sociology of work in the analysis of media representations of entrepreneurship.

Family ties: Migrant female business owners doing identity work on the public–private divide

This article contributes to the literature on identity work and small business studies, by identifying various forms of identity work of female business owners of Turkish and Moroccan descent in the Netherlands, in relation to two sets of identity regulations stemming from their families, regarding the norms of ‘being a good woman’ and ‘dealing with family support’. Identity work refers to the way subjects form, maintain, strengthen or revise constructions of self in relation to the claims and demands issued on them. Our analysis, which is based on McAdams’s life-narrative approach, demonstrates in detail how social actors perform identity work in continuous interplay with their family environment when powerful, multiple, and even contradictory normative demands are made on those identities. We have demonstrated how these migrant female business owners use various cultural repertoires to negotiate and manipulate the family norms and values in order to seek and hold their position in the public domain effectively. Our research has revealed a variety of identity work manifestations, all strategically maneuvering between conflict and compliance.

The Challenges of Business Ownership: A Comparison of Minority and Non-Minority Women Business Owners

IntroductionWomen-owned businesses represent a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. economy. According to the Small Business Administration (2011), the number of women-owned businesses increased by 44% since 1997 which was double the growth in male-owned firms. In 2011, women-owned businesses accounted for 36% of all firms. While business ownership presents its own set of challenges, it may be particularly challenging for women business owners (e.g., Winn, 2004). Minorities comprise an increasing share of new entrepreneurs, increasing from 23.6% in 1996 to 39.8% in 2011 (Fairlie, 2012). Among women business owners, minority women may experience greater challenges than their non-minority counterparts. Smith-Hunter and Boyd (2004) found that minority women became business owners for different reasons than did non-minority women, and that they faced greater challenges in starting and operating their businesses. Drawing from Aj zen's theory of planned behavior (1991), differences in perceptions of challenges may affect the decisions the business owners make and ultimately the direction and success of the business. The purpose of this study is to examine differences in the perceptions of challenges faced by minority and non-minority women business owners.Literature ReviewPrevious research has focused on differences in the business environment for women- and minority-owned businesses, examining differences in challenges associated with major business functions, accessing financial capital, and developing social capital. Considerable research has been performed on the differences between male and female entrepreneurs as well as between minority and non-minority entrepreneurs; however, due to sample size constraints, few studies have been able to examine the joint effects of gender and minority status simultaneously, particularly for minority women business owners.Harris (2011) examined the differences between small business owners' perceptions of problems presented by major business functional areas by gender and ethnicity. He found few differences between the perceived problems of male and female small business owners (women perceived greater problems in the area of strategic goal development), but found many differences between minority and non-minority business owners of both genders combined. Minority small business owners perceived greater problems in the areas of finance, accounting, personnel management, and purchasing.The challenge of woman- and minority-owned businesses in obtaining financial capital is well documented. Pearson, Fawcett, and Cooper (1993) listed the most significant impediments to successful relationships involving minority businesses from the perspectives of both owners of minority business enterprise (MBEs) and corporate purchasing personnel (CPPs). Undercapitalization was perceived as the first issue for both MBEs and CPPs. Lucas (2006) argued that minority women business owners may have difficulty in obtaining access to capital because of a lack of both business experience and industry-specific experience and because their businesses tend to be smaller and newer. Rosa and Hamilton (1994) examined how gender barriers and stereotypes disadvantage women business owners in acquiring business funding. Christopher (1998) estimated that 46.6% of African American, 38.7% of Hispanic, and 33.4% of Asian business owners utilized commercial bank loans as compared to 55.4% for non-minority business owners. Christopher (1998) also found that a threshold debt to equity ratio of 65% with access to commercial capital increased the likelihood of survival of the enterprise, thus highlighting the importance of access to capital. Coleman (2004) examined the relationship between the business owners' gender, race, level of education and their ability to borrow money. She found that white women were no less likely than white men to apply for loans or to avoid applying because of a fear of being turned down. …

Entrepreneurship education and start‐up activity: a gender perspective

PurposeThis article seeks to evaluate whether entrepreneurship education (EE) in upper secondary schools promotes male and female start‐up activity. The Company programme (CP) reaches more than 200,000 European youths annually.Design/methodology/approachThe control‐group design is methodologically strong, and the empirical data are from Norway. Telephone interviews were conducted with 1,171 24‐25 year olds; 50 per cent of the respondents had been involved in CP in the period 2004‐2006, and 50 per cent had not. The analyses also control for other factors of relevance to start‐up activity.FindingsResults from econometric analyses indicate a positive correlation between participation in CP and start‐up activity. The analyses also indicate that CP has more impact on male start‐up activity as compared to women.Research limitations/implicationsA lot of other influences occur between the participation in CP and the start‐up activity. Although CP may be associated with more start‐ups, these are not necessarily start‐ups of a higher quality, survival rate or growth potential. The analysis also conceals variations in start‐up activity among CP‐participants with regard to time spent on CP, position in the CP, and obligatory vs voluntary participation.Practical implicationsTo promote start‐up activity among women more effectively, CP could be more focused on shaping confidence and increasing perceived competency among girls participating in the programme.Social implicationsOne solution for how to increase start‐up activity among young men and women could be to offer EE within upper secondary schools.Originality/valueThe study measures experience with start‐up activity 6‐8 years after EE‐participation in upper secondary school, it compares the impact of EE on male and female business start‐ups, and the control‐group design is advantageous compared to previous studies.

Signaling devotion to work over family undermines the motherhood penalty

Women experience workplace penalties when they become mothers, whereas men who become fathers are not penalized. We explored whether a working mother’s self-professed devotion to work over family would undermine the “motherhood penalty.” Male and female business students evaluated an applicant for an industrial engineering job. The applicant was always described as married, with 2 children. Depending on random assignment, the candidate was male or female, and expressed devotion to work or to family. Family-devoted mothers experienced strong hiring discrimination (with lower ratings than all other candidates), but work-devoted mothers escaped the motherhood penalty and were rated as highly as work-devoted fathers. We discuss the advantages and drawback to expressing work devotion to escape the motherhood penalty.

The current state of female leadership in the United Arab Emirates

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to research the state of affairs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the presence (or absence) of women in senior business leadership positions, and to investigate where they are located within organizations (e.g. board members, chief officers, vice presidents, top management, division or unit heads).Design/methodology/approachThis is a quantitative gender analysis of 954 organizations; based on data available from the Zawya database that tracks information about public and private companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.FindingsWomen are still underrepresented in senior company and top department leadership positions, however, they are found slightly (but not significantly) more in departmental leadership, pseudo services and hospitality industries, and in smaller and public companies.Research limitations/implicationsThe database utilized did not contain completed company data; specifically any response variable; hence, the study was descriptive in nature and lacked advanced statistical techniques for comparison and relationship analysis.Practical implicationsThis study provides helpful insights for government leaders, as well as educators, and scholars, who work to help prepare women for leadership in this region. For business practitioners, the presence and development of female business leaders extends choice and increases value in the human resource pool.Social implicationsThe authors believe that it is important that UAE females take up roles in both the public and private sector so they can become more effective role models to a rising generation of female workers.Originality/valueThis is one of the first scholarly studies conducted on the presence of women leaders in various sectors within the UAE.

Female entrepreneurs do it differently

PurposeThis paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approachThis briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.FindingsLeadership and entrepreneurship both have gender connotations. Business continues to operate within a male hierarchical model making it difficult for women to reach the pinnacle of top business positions. Women who have broken through the so‐called glass ceiling to achieve senior management positions, or who have spearheaded innovative businesses have often felt the need to adapt a more masculine persona in order to do so. The female business executive who arrives in the boardroom suitably “suited and booted” only weeks after giving birth, or the entrepreneur who relinquishes a collaborative team working approach to push her new product into the limelight demonstrate the adoption of a masculine model of success.Practical implicationsThe paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.Originality/valueThe briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

Subtle gender bias and desegregation of promotion ladders: Challenges and remedies

Although societal and economic forces have dramatically altered the fabric of the workplace, gender inequities continue to exist in organizations. These inequities include wage disparities, glass ceilings, and other differences that impact the productivity, advancement, well-being, and contributions of men and women in the business world. Although such inequities are well documented, there are continuing gaps in our understanding of these phenomena. This symposium presents four methodologically diverse papers with a common focus on investigating the nature of gender bias in organizations. These papers rely on analyses of archival data (Compustat), inductive analyses (50 career stories), and laboratory work and simulation, with the shared focus on how to address important gaps in our comprehension of why gender biases exist and how to address them at both the individual and organizational levels. The symposium has three primary objectives. First, the symposium advances theoretical insights into the nature of gender bias. It shines the spotlight on how even small gender biases can result in increased segregation of promotion ladders and how the presence of uncertainty in the upper echelons of a firm can exacerbate such bias. Second, it presents key findings on how women can prevail despite subtle gender bias and how such bias might be overcome by decision makers. In particular, it discusses how women can climb the corporate ladder by emulating female business leaders who successfully made it to the top by establishing the legitimacy of their ascent. Third, it points at a structured way out of the gender bias labyrinth by designing a nudge for promotion committees. Specifically, it suggests that such committees should be encouraged to engage in joint versus individual evaluation of male and female applicants to provide a level playing field for both sexes. Together, the four papers that constitute this symposium not only present state-of-the-science research findings and discuss the practical implications of the research, but also highlight avenues for future work in the domain of glass ceilings and related gender bias issues. The themes of the symposium will be drawn together by the discussant, Jeanine Prime, Vice President of Catalyst, a leading nonprofit organization on the topic of gender issues. A particular feature of this symposium is that it brings together a diverse collection of participants with different backgrounds (economists, OB scholars, mathematicians), experience in academia and practice, and cultures that hail from different parts of the world (England, USA, India, and Malaysia). From bias to exclusion: A multilevel emergent theory of gender segregation in organizations Presenter: Richard F Martell; Montana State U. Presenter: Cynthia G. Emrich; Catalyst Presenter: James Robison-Cox; Montana State U. Claiming authority: How women explain their ascent to top business leadership positions Presenter: Hannah Riley Bowles; Harvard U.

Sexual behavior among unmarried business process outsourcing employees in Chennai: Gender differences and correlates associated with It

Premarital sex is often associated with high risk sexual behavior such as early age of initiation, multiple partners and inconsistent condom use. Evidence shows that such sexual behavior pre-disposes to sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. This paper tried to investigate the correlates of premarital sexual behavior among male and female business process outsourcing (BPO) employees to highlight the gender differences that exist in relation to it. Data were collected from 526 unmarried BPO employees during behavioral surveillance survey in Chennai, in the year 2009. The results showed that about one-third of respondents (males - 39.6%, females - 26.1%) had experienced premarital sex. Men reported having had their first sexual intercourse at 12 years and women at 16 years of age. While the prevalence of premarital sex was found to be high, the percentage using a condom during last sex was also high, especially, among the female employees (82.4%). Logistic regression showed that monthly individual income, work in shifts, migration, peer influence and friends with previous sexual experience were significant predictors of premarital sex among the male BPO employees. Visit to night clubs was significantly associated with a higher prevalence of premarital sex among the female employees. The study concludes that there is a significant gender dimension in the premarital sexual behavior among the BPO employees and that even as the sexual behavior of the young people is transitioning; their ability to negotiate safe sex behavior is also increasing. It is recommended to enhance efforts to advocate safe sex behavior among young adults employed in the BPO industry.

신문보도사진에 나타난 남녀 경제리더의 이미지 분석

현대사회에서 뉴스는 신화와 같은 역할을 한다고 한다. 신화는 사람들이 세상을 이해하고 체험하는 의미의 틀을 제공하는데, 그 신화를 구성하는 데 미디어 뉴스가 큰 역할을 하기 때문이다. 그런 의미에서 본 연구는 남녀 고위직 경제인들이 신문보도 사진에 어떻게 재현되는지를 내용분석의 양적인 방법과 기호학적인 질적방법을 통해 분석하고자 하였다. 1990년 1월 1일부터 2011년 12월 31일까지 지난 20년간 조선일보에 실린 기획 인터뷰 및 인물중심 기사 가운데 여성 경제리더 사진 전수와 무작위로 뽑은 동일 수의 남성 경제리더 사진을 분석하였다. 분석결과 남성은 대체로 업무현장과 밀접한 배경에서 역동적이고 진지하게 묘사되었고, 인물의 이미지를 강하게 표현하는 바스트샷이 대부분을 구성하였다. 반면 여성들은 업무와 분리된 장식적인 배경 속에서 인위적인 포즈를 취하고 있는 전신사진을 통해 수동적인 객체로 재현되는 남성주의적 시각이 발견되었다. News plays a similar role with myths in modern society. Myths provide the framework from which people understand and experience the world, and news media plays an important role in constructing these myths. In this context, this study examined how female and male business leaders have been represented in newspaper photographs through quantitative and qualitative textual analyses. Photographs of female business leaders which appeared in news interviews and profile news stories from 1990 to 2011 were analyzed, and photographs of male leaders corresponding to the total number of female photographs were also investigated. As a result, gender perspectives were found. While male business leaders were portrayed as active and serious figures in connection with their professional work places, mostly in bust shots, female business leaders were represented as passive objects artificially posed for the news in a context separated from their business, and often in full length shots.

Gender and Alternative Start-Up Business Funding

The broad context for our study is set by discussions of equality of opportunity to start-up business finance. There is an increasing literature which suggests that female entrepreneurs face significant disadvantages compared to their male counterparts in their access to resources from orthodox channels such as banks. The consequence of undercapitalization during the start-up phase is underperformance during the life of the business. Adopting a range of informal ‘bootstrapping’ techniques gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to obtain alternative financial resources without resorting to debt or equity funding. In this article, we draw on a unique sample of 211 nascent entrepreneurs in the early stages of business start-up, contacted through a postal and web-based two-wave longitudinal survey, to examine gender differences with regards to different forms of bootstrapping behaviour. The study demonstrates significant differences in the ways that male and female entrepreneurs access informal financial resources. We discuss explanations drawn from women's studies suggesting that the features of capital markets and business and personal characteristics that limit female business owners from accessing sources of orthodox finance also impede their access to the most effective forms of bootstrapping. We suggest that further explanatory and qualitative research is required to investigate these effects.

Female Business Ownership in Birmingham 1849–1901 Midland History Prize Essay 2011

This article uses a combined quantitative and qualitative methodology to shed light on the previously unexamined female business owners of late nineteenth-century Birmingham. Examination of the Birmingham trade directories from 1849 to 1901 shows that women continued to enter the business community of late nineteenth-century Birmingham and owned a range of businesses. These findings suggest not only that women continued to trade in late nineteenth-century Birmingham as they had prior to 1849, but also that there was no marked deterioration in their opportunity to do so. Attention then turns to the personal and professional lives of some of the 20,000 businesswomen identified in the trade directories. Using a wide variety of sources, the article explores the professional achievements of the businesswomen, their familial and friendship networks, their assets, and their wealth distribution strategies. The results of this analysis demonstrate not only that businesswomen played a public role in the urban business economy of late nineteenth-century Birmingham, but that they acted first and foremost as business owners. This highlights the dangers of using gender as a way to describe the economic opportunities available to women in nineteenth-century England and emphasizes the importance of acknowledging commonality as well as difference.

Ethnic female business owners: more female or more ethnic entrepreneurs

PurposeThe primary objective of this study is to attempt to answer the question, even with a limited sample of interviewees, if ethnic female entrepreneurs are behaving more as “female” or more as “ethnic” entrepreneurs.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents empirical data from a face‐to‐face interview type research conducted in the regions of Attica and Central Macedonia, Greece. The study involved conducting face‐to‐face interviews with 15 founders of ethnic minority businesses (EMBs), between May and June 2009.FindingsThe results suggest that ethnic female entrepreneurs may share some common characteristics with their ethnic male entrepreneurial colleagues but ethnic women's unique qualities, characteristics, motivations, background and business views distinguish them from their male ethnic counterparts bringing forth more their femininity rather than their ethnicity.Originality/valueThis paper presents the results of the first‐ever research on ethnic female entrepreneurs in Greece. It examines the influences and the factors that facilitate ethnic female entrepreneurs' decision to become self‐employed and their experiences of entrepreneurship. It discerns in which economic sectors they develop occupational niches and investigates how strong is family participation and support in their businesses. Last but not least this research brings forth the balance between domestic and business responsibilities and how much support from governmental initiatives, policies and training programs they receive.

Heroic Career Changers? Gendered Identity Work in Career Transitions

This article contributes to the literature on agency and its constraints in new careers by focusing on the role of gender in identity work. Drawing on the concept of positioning, this article offers a longitudinal and contextualized analysis of identity work among Finnish female business graduates considering career change. The study shows how identity work is gendered in three respects: via the masculine position of a career changer in master narratives of career change, the positions used to account for the need to change careers and the positions at the heart of identity struggles. This article problematizes individualistic new career discourses by showing how gender, intersecting with age, constrains identity work in career change. However, it also brings to light possibilities for agency via alternative resources of identity.

Turning trash papers into gold

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how a Chinese entrepreneur, Zhang Yin, exercises international entrepreneurship in her paper recycle business – Nine Dragons Paper company, and has become one of the most successful female business women in the world.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses an in‐depth case study or storytelling approach to explain the economic success of a Chinese female entrepreneur, Zhang Yin and her Nine Dragons Paper company. The illustration of Zhang's global coordination is divided into three parts: first, from Shenzhen, China to Hong Kong; second, from Hong Kong to Los Angeles; and finally, from the USA back to her home country, China.FindingsThis case illustrates and concludes that the business success of a paper recycling enterprise, namely Nine Dragons Paper, is attributable to the global coordination efforts of its founder, Zhang Yin, who is able to identify profit opportunities around the globe. With correct foresight, Zhang Yin is able to overcome cultural barriers, and venture into foreign markets. Her international entrepreneurship and global coordination enable world resources to be allocated in the most efficient way.Research limitations/implicationsAustrian economics, using storytelling approach, can be a very useful tool in interpreting entrepreneurial behavior and business strategies.Practical implicationsThe case provides us with an understanding of how the entrepreneur can earn profit by being alert to opportunities.Originality/valueThe case is the first of its kind to illustrate the international coordination function of a female Chinese entrepreneur and her paper recycle business.