Male Entrepreneurs Research Articles

Exploring the linkages between energy, gender, and enterprise: Evidence from Tanzania

The productive use of electricity is essential for poverty reduction in newly electrified rural communities as well as for the financial sustainability of electricity suppliers. Because men and women assume different roles in the rural economy, the inclusion of gender concerns in interventions to promote productive uses of energy could improve development outcomes. Using a multi-methods approach, this study provides new evidence about how men and women use energy in rural micro-enterprises in Tanzania, and which benefits they obtain from it. In our research region, most businesses are owned by men and men-owned enterprises use electricity more frequently and intensely than women owned enterprises. The latter dominate the productive use of cooking fuels like charcoal and firewood. Electricity use is consistently associated with better business performance, but women entrepreneurs do not use it as much as men. There are multiple reasons for this gender imbalance. First, women enjoy less favourable starting conditions for enterprise creation due to poor access to finance, education, and other resources. Furthermore, women are required to balance care responsibilities with paid work and are subject to social norms that determine the acceptability of certain productive activities. Typically, female activities are less profitable and less mechanised than men’s. Consequently, in the absence of gender interventions, male entrepreneurs are more likely to benefit from the promotion of productive uses of electricity. The paper discusses several approaches to improve the gender equity of PUE interventions.

Pelatihan “Lingkungan Media Sosial Kontemporer: Tantangan Dan Peluangnya” Bagi Perempuan Wirausaha Di Wilayah Jabodetabek

One group that has the potential to boost entrepreneurship, but is often undervalued is women. Although they consist of approximately sixty per cent of all entrepreneurs in Indonesia, they often face more challenges in comparison to male entrepreneurs in conducting their business ventures. These challenges include limited access to funding, multiple roles and responsibilities in the family and society, limited knowledge of information and communication technologies, and inadequate support system.
 Many women turn to social media to enable them opening a business that they can manage from home. While generally social media bring positive consequences to these woman entrepreneurs, the dynamic of the social media environment means that these women have to face obstacles to keep up with the technological developments and the changes of interactions that they bring to the business conducts and sellers-consumer interactions.
 This community service program aimed to provide capacity building training which focuses on women who own online micro businesses. Through this community service program, we introduced participants to the potential challenges that are brought by the changes in the social media environment. At the same time, we also assisted them in planning an effective social media communication plan that can help them to overcome these challenges. This workshop also allowed participants to network with other woman entrepreneurs that can potentially increase their social capital.

A relational capital perspective on social sustainability; the case of female entrepreneurship in Italy

PurposeFemale entrepreneurship has been part of the political agenda internationally. Public entities should promote entrepreneurship in general, and female entrepreneurship in particular, with dedicated resources and programs. Female entrepreneurs are considered a key asset for developing economic growth. However, women experience much more difficulties than men in opening their own ventures. Relational capital is particularly relevant when it comes to female entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that affect the opening of new ventures and the role of relational capital in female entrepreneurship, taking into consideration the Italian context during the financial crisis.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a mixed-method approach analyzing data from a regional program to enhance the creation of new companies, trying to understand the issues of potential entrepreneurs in general and women in particular. A single case is then investigated using the characteristics – ambience – organization – sustainability model of micro-entrepreneurship and the network relationship model by Paoloni (2011).FindingsThe analysis highlights how women face much more difficulties in starting new ventures concerning their previous experience if their employment condition finds an extended period of inactivity. Additionally, potential female entrepreneurs are more sensitive to the complexity of the initiative, concerning the required investment and the number of employees, compared to male entrepreneurs. Relational capital is a crucial asset in fostering the success of the venture, especially in the start-up phase.Originality/valueThe purpose of the study is to contribute to the debate regarding the issues affecting the opening of new companies, as well as the link between relational capital and female enterprises. The paper offers some insights about a program covering a well-sized population during the financial crisis.

Gender Asymmetry of Small Business (on the Example of Moscow)

The article examines trends, problems and prospects for broader involvement in entrepreneurship of women as the most professionally educated part of the country’s manpower, which could, on the one hand, impart the necessary dynamics to the business development process, and, on the other hand, expand opportunities and flexibility of professional employment of women themselves. The purpose of the article is to analyse the existing gender asymmetry of the parameters of Russian entrepreneurship and their characteristics in the capital, to identify gender differences in the barriers that entrepreneurs face in their work, to assess the possibilities and conditions for expanding employment of women in small and medium businesses. The work is based on data from Rosstat, obtained in the framework of projects “Population survey on employment problems” and “Comprehensive monitoring of living conditions of the population”, as well as from a survey of Moscow population engaged in small business, which was conducted by the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2015. The author showed that barriers faced by entrepreneurs in their activities are not discriminatory, and the differences in expectations for government support, demonstrated by male and female entrepreneurs, mainly reflect the difference in the size of their business and segregation of the business by economic activity.

An assessment of gender differences in the operational efficiency of businesses run by persons with disabilities

PurposeProgress accomplished by the disabled entrepreneurs on the fronts of profits, turnover, return on investment (ROI), employees engaged, capital employed and diversification shall be studied and prevalence of gender differences in such progress shall be assessed.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed research is descriptive in nature, based on primary data, collected by personally administering a well-structured interview schedule to 201 disabled entrepreneurs in Puducherry selected using a snowball sampling technique. Data collected has been analyzed using SPSS 21, using the tools of mean, one-way ANOVA, factorial ANOVA and chi-square (χ2) analysis.FindingsThe prevalence rate of entrepreneurship among female disabled is very low. Female disabled entrepreneurs manage higher turnover than their male counterparts and manage insignificantly higher progress in terms of capital employed, while male disabled entrepreneurs have managed insignificantly higher progress in terms of profits, diversification and ROI. Illiterate disabled, both men and women, struggle to manage decent turnover while the better educated manage better turnover.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper has highlighted the low prevalence rate of entrepreneurship among women disabled though the fewer women disabled entrepreneurs are performing better than their male counterparts in operating their business.Originality/valueThe findings of this paper may be taken as base for formulation of effective government policies in empowering disabled persons in general and women disabled in particular.

Gender and Overconfidence in the Kauffman Firm Survey

Abstract While an emerging line of research has begun to examine how firm survival correlates with the psychological trait of overconfidence, almost none of this work looks at how this relationship is mediated or modified by the minority status of the individual within the area of entrepreneurship. We employ a proportional hazard survival model and analyze the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS) of entrepreneurs during the period of 2004-2012. We find that, while overconfidence relates to firm survival, it is more strongly related to survival for female than for male entrepreneurs. Our analysis is unique in examining the trait of overconfidence for small firm survival, and it is the first that we know of to stratify the effects of this overconfidence by gender. The present work has implications for possible methods and strategies to promote the entrepreneurship of individuals from underrepresented groups, with an eye towards owner-overconfidence helping female-led firms to survive the first few years of a firm’s existence.

SOCIALIZATION OF MOBILE BANKING AND INTERNET BANKING FOR MIKRO AND SMALL ENTREPRENEUR (GENDER AND BUSINESS SECTOR PERSPECTIVE- KEMAYORAN NIGHT MARKET COMMUNITY)

The aim of this socialization is to increase the usage of mobile banking and internet banking applications by micro and small entrepreneurs in the Kemayoran Night Market community. The method used through socialization is related to the benefits and ways of utilizing mobile and internet banking to micro and small entrepreneurs. Grounded along with the outcomes of the study at the time of the activity, it was found that female entrepreneurs had a profound understanding of the use of mobile and net banking facilities compared to male entrepreneurs. In summation, it is also known that the business sector in the field of Bags, Shoes & Clothing, and food & beverages uses the most mobile and net banking facilities. Therefore socialization is needed related to understanding the functions and benefits of mobile banking and internet banking to micro and small female entrepreneurs.

Do female and male entrepreneurs differ in their proneness to heuristics and biases?

PurposeAlthough heuristics and biases seal the fate of entrepreneurial enterprises by directly influencing entrepreneurs’ decisions, previous studies have ignored the role of gender in this regard by considering female and male entrepreneurs homogeneous in their susceptibility to heuristics and biases. Thus, this paper aims to advance the existing body of knowledge on heuristics and biases in the field of entrepreneurship by exploring two heuristics of affect and representativeness as well as three biases of overconfidence, escalation of commitment and illusion of control in female and male entrepreneurs’ entry and opportunity-related decisions.Design/methodology/approachThe data were gathered through semi-structured and in-depth interviews with ten male and nine female Iranian techno-entrepreneurs active in advanced medicine and biotechnology. The gathered data were analyzed by thematic and narrative data analysis.FindingsAccording to the results, while both male and female entrepreneurs show certain heuristics and biases, there are some noteworthy distinctions. More precisely, contrary to their male counterparts, the female entrepreneurs neither rely on the representativeness heuristic nor show any signs of the escalation of commitment in their decisions.Practical implicationsThere are some valuable implications emanated from this study which could be of use for not only future researchers but also entrepreneurs, especially the ones founding and running small businesses themselves.Originality/valueWhile there is a strong body of literature on heuristics and biases in the field of entrepreneurship, previous studies have considered female and male entrepreneurs homogeneous in their proneness to heuristics and biases. Thus, the current study enriches the body of knowledge by being the first comparative study of heuristics and biases in female and male entrepreneurs’ decisions.

Gender Inequality: Entrepreneurship Development in the MENA Region

Entrepreneurship is increasingly popular among policy makers worldwide to promote and achieve economic development and growth. However, entrepreneurship rates differ from one country to another, and particularly the number of women entrepreneurs is still significantly lower than the number of male entrepreneurs in many contexts. In the present paper, we critically assess how country measures of gender inequality shape men and women’s entrepreneurial intentions, which were shown in literature to be excellent predictors of the establishment of new ventures. We analyze the direct and moderating effects of gender inequality on important individual-level antecedents of entrepreneurial intention. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) identified gender inequality as a key contributor to the loss of human development and declared “gender equality” as a sustainable development goal (SDG) in the UN 2030 agenda. Our research draws on the gender inequality index and GEM data from nine Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries. Our results show that a culture of inequality leads to limited entrepreneurial behavior by both men and women in a population.

Milk in the city: profiles and development paths for urban dairy holders in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Demand for dairy products is growing fast in urban areas. Due to poorly developed rural infrastructure, urban dairy farms are pivotal in making milk available and affordable in towns and cities. Yet current supply fails to meet the increasing demand. In order to formulate fit interventions that can expand urban dairy production, a detailed understanding of urban dairy systems is needed. Using a cluster analysis approach, we profile 304 urban dairy farms in Mekelle, Northern Ethiopia, along three dimensions: input efficiency, market integration, and resilience towards demand seasonality. Our results suggest five distinctive farm types: surviving farms, processing female farms, young male entrepreneurs, established output-efficient farms, and established output-input-efficient farms. We observe large discrepancies in terms of dairy enterprise’s productivity, profitability, and suitability in future urban policy planning. For each of the identified dairy systems, we sketch potential intervention approaches that can feed into more tailored dairy development programmes.

El desarrollo de la orientación emprendedora en mujeres y hombres. Un estudio desde la perspectiva institucional

We examine the regulatory, normative and cognitive burdens to define the current institutional framework, then we established the potential influence on the individual entrepreneurial orientation, given this, our study explore the differences between male and female entrepreneurship in order to identify the main problem in gender role. Our methodology was PLS-SEM applying a comparative method in 250 Mexican entrepreneurs. The findings show that disparity between genders is defined by a stronger normative male role, inferring a hostile context for women entrepreneurs. Also, the taking-risk skills are higher than men which it implies a proclivity to react a hazardous motivations for women. This study attempts to fill the recurrent role of women on economic field as crucial to build a balanced institutional context based on legal protection, social certainty and business social skills to confront the market in the most innovative, proactive and assertive way.

Current State and Impact of Strategic Planning Activities on Entrepreneurs’ Financial Performance: Case of Serbia

The paper presents research on strategic planning practice of Serbian entrepreneurs. More specifically, it explores main features of the currently implemented strategic planning activity and its impact on financial performance of Serbian entrepreneurs. As female entrepreneurship continues to grow and is becoming more important economic and social issue, the research also takes into account the gender aspect. Building on literature review, hypotheses were developed and then tested on a random sample of 101 respondents. Main results suggest that strategic planning is underdeveloped management activity of Serbian entrepreneurs, primarily in terms of its long-time horizon, formality and use of objective data and analysis. Short-tem, informal and based on personal experience, feelings and intuition is planning of both female and male entrepreneurs without any statistically important difference based on gender. At the same time, as the strategic planning is more developed, the better are the financial performance of Serbian entrepreneurs. Besides contributing to the strategic management and entrepreneurship literature, the paper highlights certain aspects of these fields that should be emphasized in academic courses and training programs.

The impact of social dominance orientation on female entrepreneurial intention

Purpose Understanding the factors that influence entrepreneurs throughout the entrepreneurial process has been a vital topic of entrepreneurial research. Despite societal changes, male entrepreneurs still outnumber females. The purpose of this paper is to develop a greater grasp on the factors that contribute to this phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach Utilizing social dominance theory and social cognition theory, the authors suggest that a female entrepreneur’s social dominance orientation (SDO) and mentorship experiences will influence her social and conventional entrepreneurial intention. Findings The authors’ theorizing suggests SDO can lower entrepreneurial self-efficacy which in turn can lower conventional entrepreneurial intentions but increase social intentions in some women. However, if the entrepreneur has mentoring, the effect could be dissipated. Originality/value This paper is one of the first to examine the impact of SDO on entrepreneurial intentions, and builds on the work of other scholars.

The moderating influence of national culture on female and male entrepreneurs’ social network size and new venture growth

PurposeThe 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/approachThis 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).FindingsThe 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 implicationsThe 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 implicationsThis 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/valueThe authors disentangle the effects of gender differences, norm-based gender stereotypes and networks on entrepreneurial outcomes.

Minimum Wages and Nascent Entrepreneurship in the US

Abstract The effect of minimum wages on employment is one of the most widely studied and most controversial topics in labor economics and public policy but its impact on early startups is poorly understood and under-researched. In this manuscript, we investigate whether minimum wage rates correlate with the probability that a nascent startup hires employees and achieves profitability, a topic that has never been addressed before. We found negative but not significant correlation between the minimum wage rates and a nascent venture’s probability of hiring employees. However, female entrepreneurs were significantly less likely than male entrepreneurs to hire when faced with higher minimum wage rates. For ventures with employees, higher minimum wage rates were correlated with lower probability of achieving profitability vs. quitting the startup process.

Household Matters: Revisiting the Returns to Capital among Female Microentrepreneurs

Multiple field experiments report positive financial returns to capital shocks for male and not female microentrepreneurs. But these analyses overlook the fact that female entrepreneurs often reside with male entrepreneurs. Using data from experiments in India, Sri Lanka, and Ghana, we show that the observed gender gap in microenterprise responses does not reflect lower returns on investment, when measured at the household level. Instead, the absence of a profit response among female-run enterprises reflects the fact that women’s capital is typically invested into their husband’s enterprise. We cannot reject equivalence of household-level income gains for male and female capital shock recipients. (JEL G31, J16, L25, L26, O12, O16)

Are early stage investors biased against women?

We study whether early stage investors have gender biases using a proprietary data set from AngelList that allows us to observe private interactions between investors and fundraising startups. We find that male investors express less interest in female entrepreneurs compared to observably similar male entrepreneurs. In contrast, female investors express more interest in female entrepreneurs. These findings do not appear to be driven by within-gender screening/monitoring advantages or gender differences in risk preferences. Moreover, the male-led startups that male investors express interest in do not outperform the female-led startups they express interest in—they underperform. Overall, the evidence is consistent with gender biases.

Why it pays to be a male tech entrepreneur

Engineering and tech start-ups might be at the cutting-edge of technology, but when it comes to raising money, the situation is far from modern if you're female.

Factors underlying the economic migration of German women to Poland

The aim of the research and analysis was to identify the factors which contribute to stimulating entrepreneurial spirit among women. Special attention was paid to German women who had undertaken business activity in Poland. Based on a survey, it was determined that apart from such barriers to developing business as experienced by all businessmen (e.g. ensuring cash flows, having a sound knowledge of laws and regulations connected with business, and being competitive in the market), a female entrepreneur must meet other challenges arising from the position of a woman in society. Women’s determination in the pursuit of business did not depend on gender or émigré status, but on their willingness to start a business in a culturally foreign environment. The respondents emphasized that they were highly active and goal-oriented. Women would rather be perceived as entrepreneurs than as women or migrants, because the characteristics assigned to the two latter roles do not coincide with the typical image of ‘male entrepreneurship’.

DOES HAVING CHILDREN REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE: THE CASE OF SOUTH AFRICAN FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS

Family responsibility has been identified as a potential unique female entrepreneur challenge. Although some females may willingly enter into entrepreneurial activity when having children as it may provide more work life flexibility, some may be challenged by time restrictions especially when children are still young. However, empirical data show that females who decide to become self-employed may in many cases do so to enjoy higher flexibility but may be restricted regarding growth and other factors such as finances, motivation and support. In light of this, the purpose of this study is to identify differences between two groups of South African female entrepreneurs: those with and those without children. Differences were compared between groups considering several factors such as, motivation, financial constraints, intention to grow the business and socio-cultural barriers to name a few. The study followed a descriptive research design using self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed to a purposive and convenience sample of female entrepreneurs from all nine South African provinces resulting in a final sample of 510. Data were analysed using reliability and validity analysis and Multiple Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and Analysis of Variances (ANOVA). Results indicated that the only entrepreneurial variable or factors that were influenced by having children or not were financial constraints, government support and socio-cultural barriers. Factors such as intention to remain in business, intention to grow the business and motivation returned non-statistically significant results for the said groups. The results from this study link to previous findings indicating that differences were observed between female entrepreneurs with children and those without. Further studies indicate that fewer differences were observed between male entrepreneurs with children and those without children, therefore implying that the presence of children among female entrepreneurs could be considered a unique challenge.