thesis on female entrepreneurship

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Women Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review to Outline the Boundaries of Scientific Literature

Associated data.

All datasets generated for this study are included in the article/supplementary material.

In recent years, the study of women entrepreneurship has experienced great growth, gaining a broad consensus among academics and contributing above all to understanding all those factors that explain the difficulty of women in undertaking an entrepreneurial career. This document tries to contribute to the field of study, thanks to a systematic analysis through the publications present in the topic. For this purpose, 2,848 peer-reviewed articles were analyzed, published between 1950 and 2019, using the Scopus database (SCImago Research Group). Through the use of a series of bibliometric indicators it was possible to define the current state of research on the international scene. The analysis revealed that it is a multidisciplinary field of study and that has started to expand further since 2006, culminating in 2019, which makes it become a current and valid object of study. The analysis of the clusters allowed to isolate 6 different lines of research in which emerged, on the one hand, the importance of entrepreneurial education, social entrepreneurship and the socio-cultural context of reference (e.g., culture, family, and institutional support) as tools to overcome the gender gap, on the other, the importance that women entrepreneurship assumes in the economic growth of the country (especially in developing economies), promoting social inclusion and combating poverty and discrimination. The study presents an important contribution to reflect on current policies and to outline future lines of investigation.

Introduction

Female entrepreneurs represent the fastest growing category of entrepreneurship worldwide and have received, especially in recent years, the attention of many academics. According to the emerging literature, women can make a significant contribution to entrepreneurial activity (Noguera et al., 2013 ) and economic development (Kelley et al., 2017 ; Hechevarría et al., 2019 ) in terms of creating new jobs and increasing the gross domestic product (GDP) (Bahmani-Oskooee et al., 2013 ; Ayogu and Agu, 2015 ), with positive impacts on reducing poverty and social exclusion (Langowitz and Minniti, 2007 ; Rae, 2015 ). The percentage of women who decide to pursue an entrepreneurial career is, however, lower than that of men (Elam et al., 2019 ), and this difference is greater as the level of development of the country increases (Coduras and Autio, 2013 ).

A theoretical framework used to explain this difference underscores the importance of economic and regulatory conditions (Estrin and Mickiewicz, 2011 ). For example, in the literature it is possible to trace substantially two macro-categories that have a different impact on the entrepreneurial activity of men and women. The first refers to the role of property rights underlying an entrepreneurial productive activity. In general, property rights facilitate access to resources and, in many institutional contexts, women are particularly limited in their access to the economic resources necessary for entrepreneurship (Brush et al., 2009 ), as entrepreneurs have to rely more on informal networks that usually tend to be dominated by men (Aidis et al., 2008 ). Furthermore, because of gender-defined social positioning, men can also be more effective in dealing with government officials (Bardasi et al., 2011 ).

The second focuses on a group of government-determined regulations and policies, such as welfare and system taxes. Some studies (Parker, 2009 ; Aidis et al., 2010 ) have found that a larger state sector militates against entrepreneurial activity. Therefore, tax and social security provisions can influence entrepreneurial entry through their direct impact on expected returns from entrepreneurial activities and opportunity costs. High levels and rising marginal tax rates can weaken incentives for opportunity-oriented entrepreneurs by reducing the potential, while higher levels of social assistance provide alternative sources of income and, therefore, by increasing alternative wages, they can reduce incentives for entrepreneurship. This appears particularly important in the case of women as a large state sector is dedicated to women offering security, educational services, health care and housing, but inevitably reducing their premiums.

However, among countries with similar economic conditions (Minniti, 2010 ; Dheer et al., 2019 ), this difference continues to exist between men and women when it comes to starting a business, which has led to calls to further expand the scope of explanatory factors (McGowan et al., 2015 ).

In line with this reasoning, there is empirical evidence that a woman's decision to start a business depends on her socio-cultural background (Ahl, 2006 ).

A first theme of analysis useful to explain the gap between men and women in entrepreneurship can be represented by the social roles and stereotypes that are culturally assigned to men and women.

The term gender was first introduced by Stoller to describe people based on biological physical characteristics, this would determine the individual's behavior. Based on these characteristics, men are expected to behave well masculine while women should think and to behave feminine. According to the social role theory (Eagly, 1987 ), gender stereotypes can make a person socially acceptable. When a role is associated with men, women they are not suited to the role because they do not have the necessary skills. The behavioral differences related to gender specific perceptions and preferences could explain the different inclination of men and women toward entrepreneurship. Koellinger et al. ( 2011 ) conducted an analysis in 17 countries showing a lower entrepreneurial propensity for women. In addition, the authors provided empirical evidence of gender differences related to self-efficacy and fear of failure.

Literature shows that entrepreneurs are described as aggressive and with high-risk proclivities (Bird and Brush, 2002 ), as well seem more socially inclined to achieve and obtain economic benefits, an image which does not fit in women (Ahl, 2004 ; Dileo and Pereiro, 2019 ), who seem closer to care and the emotional sphere, therefore, in pursuit of social value (Hechevarría et al., 2012 ; Urbano Pulido et al., 2014 ).

Additionally, in an analysis aimed to investigate how academics contribute to the perpetuation of stereotypes about female entrepreneurship, Ahl ( 2004 ) found that in all the texts reviewed, women entrepreneurs were considered secondary to men. The reasons for this “negative representation” remains the subject of international debate, for which there are no common results.

This stereotyped and male-centered vision discourages some women from participating in business activities, which could also have a consequence on people who interact with women at the community level, creating an additional barrier (Langowitz and Morgan, 2003 ). The results of the systematic analysis conducted by Sullivan and Meek ( 2012 ) suggested that the attributions of society and the different socialization processes relating to men and women may create obstacles for women due to the unequal distribution of assets and services, educational objectives and daily life activity expectations.

According to a study by Guzman and Kacperczyk ( 2019 ), females are 63% less likely than males to obtain external financing in terms of risk capital, and the most significant part of the gap derives from differences in gender.

The social construction of the entrepreneur as an independent and stereotyped man calls into question a second theme of analysis that can be limiting for women, namely the responsibility that women seem to have on the family/work issue (Jennings and Brush, 2013 ; Neneh, 2018 ). Boz et al. ( 2016 ) discovered that women who care most about the family have negative behaviors at work, consequently, the balance between family and work is more difficult for women entrepreneurs, which represents a fundamental obstacle to the growth of their businesses.

Other empirical evidence has shown the opposite. According to Thébaud ( 2015 ), work-family conflict can be an important factor that motivates women to start a business. For example, business creation can offer women considerable flexibility in terms of work hours (for example, work only a few hours a week or work at home) allowing them to find a balance between work and family commitments (Kirkwood and Tootell, 2008 ).

In this sense, the study by Rembulan et al. ( 2016 ), which analyzed differences in the work-family conflict between women who work as employees (98 employees) and those who work as entrepreneurs (91 entrepreneurs), showed that most female entrepreneurs have very low conflict in all aspects: time, tension, and behavior; unlike women who work as employees who tend to have higher conflict. One possible explanation may be in the gap of the annual income received. Specifically, the higher the income, the less the stress caused by the work- family conflict.

The literature has paid little attention to the analysis of women's motivations and expectations about entrepreneurship and how it really offers a better “balance” between family and work. McGowan et al. ( 2012 ) conducted a qualitative study with 14 women from Northern Ireland while they established and managed heir businesses, balancing family needs. The results showed that the motivation to engage in venturing was the desire to balance family responsibilities thanks to the greater flexibility that characterizes this type of work, with the desire to achieve personal independence.

However, entrepreneurship offered a partial answer. In some cases it has acted as a trigger for women to take a positive step they have been contemplating for some time. On the other hand, the negative realities of the company posed serious challenges to these women. For most of them, obtaining and maintaining an adequate balance between the domestic and working spheres of their lives has remained a constant challenge, a source of stress.

In addition, men and women cannot participate in the same entrepreneurial activity due to differences in the access to diverse forms of capital. For example, Johansen ( 2013 ) points out as issues the difficulty in obtaining support (institutional, family, and financial), fear of failure, self-assessment of the gender gap, and unfavorable social perceptions. Noguera et al. ( 2013 ) highlight fear of failure and self-efficacy as important barriers that hinder the propensity of women to pursue a business career. Other authors have reached similar conclusions in recent years (Wieland et al., 2019 ).

The results are not uniform, but despite the differences, these studies generally show that women entrepreneurs experience a greater lack of support than men when they try to access business resources (Langowitz and Minniti, 2007 ). However, the results of a study by Centindamar et al. ( 2012 ) on the relative importance of the three types of capital for business: human, family, and financial, underlined that, regardless of sex, these three types of capital influence the likelihood of becoming entrepreneurs. In addition, contrary to expectations, the impact of human capital on the probability of becoming an entrepreneur is greater for women than for men. The data also revealed that family capital facilitates the entry of women into entrepreneurship only in large families. No gender differences were observed with respect to the impact of financial capital.

From this outlined literature, it seems necessary to clarify the existing theoretical concepts to better explain the uniqueness of female entrepreneurship as an independent research topic. Over the years, in fact, the lack of specific research on the phenomenon (De Bruin et al., 2007 ), and a stereotypically male business model considered as a natural way for doing business (Bruni et al., 2004 ), caused a delay and underestimation of the study of women in the business process as an important area of research until the late 90's (Jennings and Brush, 2013 ). As Brush ( 1992 ) noted: “Women business owners are similar to males across some basic demographic factors, problems, and business characteristics, but they differ widely from male business owners across individual dimension related to education, work experience, skills, approach to venture creation / acquisition, business goals, problems and performance” (p. 24).

Global statistics also highlight this aspect. Although over the years there has been a significant increase in the number of women who have developed or undertaken an entrepreneurial activity, it will take at least another 108 years to completely close the gender between men and women, and 202 years to achieve equality between the two genders in the workplace. This is confirmed by the Global Gender Gap Report 2018 published by the World Economic Forum ( 2018 ), which taking into account four indicators: economic opportunity, political growth, training, health, and survival, showed in 2018 a 68% gap. The wage gap is almost 51%, and in 2018 women in leadership positions were only 34%. The same is also true for 2020 (Global Gender Gap score stands at 68,6%) (World Economic Forum, 2020 ).

In addition, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2018/2019, which provides an overview of the status of female entrepreneurship in 49 countries, Slovenia, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Turkey are the countries where women startups are less than half of men's. In some countries in Europe and North America, the levels of the TEA (Total Entrepreneurial Activity) rate for women do not reach 5% (Bosma and Kelley, 2019 ).

In startups around the world the situation is no different. As highlighted by the Startup Outlook 2018 survey, published by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) ( 2019 ), 71% of new American companies do not have women on their board, and 57% do not have the top positions in the so-called C-Suite. Other information obtained from the new companies registered in CrunchBase indirectly confirms the data of the Svb Survey: in 2017, only 17% of the young innovative companies had a female co-founder.

This considered, it seems important to increase the percentage of women in entrepreneurship, an issue that has aroused political interest in recent years by emphasizing the possible economic benefits that could be derived from it (Carter et al., 2015 ), stating gender equality contributes to economic growth. In fact, the “global gender gap” is at the base of EU policy, as it identifies a clear economic logic to encourage women to become independent entrepreneurs (Carter et al., 2015 ; Sorgner et al., 2017 ). Nonetheless, this purely economic emphasis for multiple female entrepreneurs has been defined as an intention to “sell neoliberal values to defenders of gender equality” (Elomäki, 2015 ). Additionally, according to Boyd ( 2016 ), what is missing is a critical counterweight in the public debate: there is no collective questioning among all the actors who work from different fields to understand the gender-related discrimination, something necessary for a truly sustainable development.

This systematic analysis attempts to present an overview of the topic, tracing the current trend of research on women's entrepreneurship, highlighting the future directions of research, with the aim of deepening our understanding of this research branch.

Specifically, this article has two main objectives. The first is to highlight the growth of female entrepreneurship in scientific literature through the chronological distribution of publications and the productivity of authors, journals and countries. The second objective is to track the lines of research most developed and analyzed by the scientific community.

The article is organized in the following manner: first, we discuss the research review approach used in the article and, second, present the results of the analysis performed. Lastly, we present the conclusions that can be drawn from our analysis, the limitations of the study, and indications for future research.

Materials and Methods

We carry out this systematic analysis of the literature to contribute to the systematization of scientific production on the relationship between entrepreneurship and women. In this sense, we have used the Scopus database, widely recognized in the scientific community, with more than 27 million abstracts, and is currently considered the largest database of scientific literature (Burnham, 2006 ).

The selected search terms included the words “entrepren * ” and “women,” using the “AND” Boolean connector and including “all fields” as a search field, with no time margins. The bibliographic search ended in December 2019, generating a total of 4,164 documents published between 1950 and 2019.

The final selection of the articles was made using the following inclusion criteria: (i) scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals, since they are considered valid sources of knowledge (Podsakoff et al., 2005 ), (ii) written in English. All articles related to the year 2020, articles written in a language other than English, conference presentations, book and thesis chapters, etc. have been removed. Although this may represent a limitation since part of scientific contributions has been excluded, we believe it is an effective way to garantee the quality of the work thanks to their reliability in the academic world and the rigorous review processes that are usually carried out (Nicholas et al., 2015 ).

This selection phase narrowed the field, producing the final result of 2,848 scientific articles. To minimize the subjective component and possible attribution errors, we followed the guidelines of the PRISMA method (Liberati et al., 2009 ; Moher et al., 2009 ; Urrútia and Bonfill, 2010 ). This allows replicating the work (Lourenço and Jones, 2006 ; Pittaway and Cope, 2007 ), and we used a series of bibliometric indicators to analyze the temporal evolution of scientific production, the most influential authors on the subject, the most productive scientific journals with regards to the number of articles published, and countries with the highest number of scientific contributions. Figure 1 shows the flow chart of the bibliographic research according to the recommendations of the PRISMA method.

Flow Diagram—PRISMA method, 2009.

The analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics to describe the general panorama of female entrepreneurship. In addition, VOSviewer software version 1.6.10 (Van Eck and Waltman, 2010 , 2014 ) was used, a bibliometric technique that allows the graphic representation, identification and classification of groups in an associated strategic matrix based on similarities and differences (distance based mapping). Although the qualitative analysis of the literature may be influenced by the subjectivity of the author, this method solves this problem. Using the keywords used by the authors themselves, it allows to reduce the distortion deriving from subjective variables, moreover, the graphic creation of maps allows to examine the deep relationships between the variables, which helps to better understand the nature of a research field, becoming an indisputable analysis tool (Vallaster et al., 2019 ), currently used (Martínez-López et al., 2018 ).

Specifically, an citation analysis was conducted to identify great impact of authors and co-citation analysis was conducted in order to measure the similarity between authors, journals and countries. Keyword co-ocurrence analysis was used to analyze the type and strength of the relationship between different fields of science. In Table 1 we report the first 5 keywords that in our study had greater strength.

Occurrence of most relevant keywords.

Elaborated by the Authors. Source: VOSviewer 1.6.10 .

Results and Discussion

Bibliometric analysis.

Figure 2 shows the progress of scientific research on entrepreneurship and women over the years. It is a research field that, although studied for 70 years (the first article dates back to 1950), has developed mainly in recent years, registering a significant increase since 2006 ( n = 61) and reaching the highest peak of publications in 2019 ( n = 381). This increase could suggest a change in interest in scientific research and a continuous and growing evolution of research in the field of female entrepreneurship as a valid trend.

Evaluation of scientific publications per years. Source: Elaborated by the Authors.

To identify the “research front” on female entrepreneurship through temporal overlap, we used the analysis of the co-ocurrence of keywords (with a minimum of five keywords).

The “research front” (Price, 1965 ) is the growing tip of literature and characterize the transient nature of a research field. It is a dynamic analysis, as it is affected by changes in the research area, as well as by the importance, over the years, of a specific research linea. The identification of the research front helps scholars to outline the most current trends in literature (Boyack and Klavans, 2010 ).

As can be seen in Figure 3 , in recent years there has been a change in interest in the international research. From observing the financing and capitalization of women's businesses (the keywords in purple: commercial development, financing, economic growth, informal economy), there has been a growing emphasis on more sensitive issues that place the need to study women's entrepreneurship as a separate field of research, with an emphasis on factors that differentiate them from its male counterpart and that allow overcoming the male-female gap in entrepreneurship (the keywords in yellow: social networks, role models, culture, entrepreneurship education, women empowerment, social entrepreneurship, family support, empowerment, social capital, self-efficacy). In fact, the relative emphasis on education, empowerment, family, social entrepreneurship, culture highlights the effort of researchers in analyzing that set of contextual and socio-psychological factors to allow the desired change.

Temporal overlay on a keyword co-word occurrence map for women entrepreneurship articles.

In the 2,848 articles selected for the bibliometric analysis, a total of 3,903 authors were found, with an average of 1.95 authors per article, which shows that this is a fragmented field of research, probably due to its recent development in the scientific landscape and its multidisciplinary character. The most productive author is Marlow with 18 published articles followed by Ahl ( n = 15 articles), Kaciak with 13 articles, Welter ( n = 12 articles), and Orser ( n = 10 articles).

The Figure 4 , indicates author co-citation analysis. Out of a total of 68,657 authors in the author co-citation network, 443 researchers met a threshold of at least 45 author co-citations.

Author co-citation analysis of the woman entrepreneurship literature.

The most highly “co-cited authors” about female entrepreneurship are Brush (1,297), Welter (992), Marlow (898), Carter (802), and Ahl (660). It should be noted that their highly cited documents tend to focus on two investigative lines of female entrepreneurship: that relating to the study of economic factors and associated barriers especially in developing countries (red cluster) and that relating to culture, gender roles and stereotypes (blue cluster). The results seem to suggest that, over the years, the interest of academics who have approached the study of female entrepreneurship has fundamentally concerned the study of barriers (economic, political, social) and the relationship between socio-cultural factors and gender-gap.

In Figure 5 we present the results of the main scientific journals that have published on female entrepreneurship. We considered the journals with at least 10 published articles, for a result of 28 scientific journals (out of a total of 841 journals). The scientific journals are displayed by circles and labels. The size of the publication circles and the label depends on the total strength of the links of a given publication. To avoid label overlap, some labels may not be visible. The color of an element is determined by the cluster to which the scientific journals belongs. The distance between two journals indicates the strength of their relationship in terms of links to common themes (Van Eck and Waltman, 2010 , 2014 ).

Scientific Journal analysis of the women entrepreneurship literature.

These journals published 900 articles, accounting for 32.6% of the scientific production on female entrepreneurship. In particular, the scientific journals that have most published on the topic of female entrepreneurship have focused on three investigative lines: obstacles to female entrepreneurship (red cluster), the relationship between culture, gender roles and stereotypes (blue cluster) and the role of human and social capital in the growth of female enterprises (green cluster). In addition, the analysis of the research areas further clarifies the nature of the journals, underlining how these investigative lines have been treated from different perspectives ( Table 2 ). The first 28 scientific journals, in fact, cover a differentiated range of topics such as business and management, social sciences and gender studies, human resource management; economics, law, engineering and technological innovation.

Scientific journals with the most publications on the subject and Research Area.

R, Rank; TC, Total Citation. Source: Elobarated by the Authors .

This aspect to underlining the multidisciplinary nature of research about female entrepreneurship, also underlines the importance of the topic as a tool to generate value in the international economic market.

With respect to the country with the most scientific contributions, the analysis showed that the United States is the nation with the greatest scientific interest, with 754 published articles, followed by the United Kingdom ( n = 393), India ( n = 212), Canada ( n = 180), and Australia ( n = 115). These five countries, mainly western countries, account for 1,654 articles (52,6%) of our full corpus of women entrepreneurship articles. Researchers in various Southern European countries (e.g., Spain: 109; Italy: 57; Portugal: 24) have also actively contributed to literature, representing a further 26% of the women entrepreneurship articles. Analyzing further, it was observed that 74% of the documents in the database came from developed companies and only 26% from developing companies ( Figure 6 ). This result, in line with previous systematic reviews (Hallinger and Chatpinyakoop, 2019 ), creates a strong geographical imbalance and represents a gap in the literature that should be filled.

Country analysis of the women entrepreneurship literature.

Topical Clusters of the Women Entrepreneurship

To get an overview of the main lines of research, we employed keyword co-occurrence analysis to reveal key topics within the women entrepreneurship knowledge base ( Figure 7 ). In particular, with a minimum of 10 co-ocurrences per keyword and a total of 44 keywords, the topics studied most frequently by women entrepreneurship scholars cohere into six themes. It is important to keep in mind that, according to the analysis performed, the same article can be in different groups if it contains keywords that are part of several groups. The different groups are shown in Table 3 .

A minimum of 10 co-occurrence for author's keywords.

Different clusters of scientific literature.

Source: Elobarated by the Authors .

As emerged from the analysis of “front research,” in the last decade, there has been a change in interest in the international research. From observing the financing and capitalization of women's businesses, there has been a growing emphasis on more sensitive issues that place the need to study women's entrepreneurship as a separate field of research (De Carolis et al., 2009 ; Davis and Shaver, 2012 ). In this sense, in a study conducted by Dawson and Henley ( 2015 ) it was found that the gap between men and women in starting an entrepreneurial career is due to lower risk attitude expressed by women. According to Dawson and Henley ( 2015 ), the low rate of women entrepreneurs is associated with a greater fear of failure, little confidence in their skills, and perception of poor support from social networks. In addition, in a systematic analysis by Mishra ( 2015 ), the 48 articles analyzed showed that self-confidence, the provision of assistance and institutional support; and the ability to access the credit service and social networks are factors that stimulate female entrepreneurs. Similar results were found a few years earlier by Alam et al. ( 2011 ), who highlighted how personality factors (self-efficacy and risk propensity) and contextual factors (social media and professional) are intertwined. These factors, which are part of a sustainable business, are highly relevant for female entrepreneurs.

In recent years, many researchers have analyzed female entrepreneurship and its associated limitations (cluster 1, in red), especially in developing countries (Gautam and Mishra, 2016 ; Raghuvanshi et al., 2017 ). Discussing about emerging economies is extremely important, as the factors behind the low percentage of women in business activities seem to be different in developing economies than in developed economies. One could argue that women in developed countries are more likely to find suitable jobs than women in developing areas, that are also more prone to gender-related discrimination and hostile work environments (Kirby and Ibrahim, 2011 ; Salamzadeh et al., 2013 ).

Research shows that in these countries, women entrepreneurs face greater barriers (Panda, 2018 ; Abou-Moghli and Al-Abdallah, 2019 ) and that their business ventures efforts are generally discouraged (Kapinga and Montero, 2017 ).

For example, the systematic analysis conducted by Panda ( 2018 ) on 35 articles and 90 developing countries, reveals that the constraints faced by women stem from gender discrimination, conflict between family and work, poor access to resources, lack of training and personality differences. Specifically, they are wary of risks and suffer from isolation in their entrepreneurial path, show a lack of self-confidence and an excess of insecurity.

Raghuvanshi et al. ( 2017 ), analyzed the different barriers that female entrepreneurs face, which can be summarized as follows: lack of education, experience and training opportunities; limited spatial mobility; lack of support from families; lack of institutional support; and problem in the acquisition of financial resources. Mirghafoori et al. ( 2010 ) in his study mentioned a series of obstacles faced by women entrepreneurs in Iran that result from the lack of confidence of financial institutions toward women.

According to Okoye ( 2013 ), although in Nigeria the main need for the emancipation of women is access to financing, other problems come into play, such as the high failure rate of political support programs. Santoni and Barth ( 2014 ) concluded that the barriers faced by female entrepreneurs in developing countries are inherent due to poor access to financing and lack of institutional support. These conclusions have also been shared in the past by other studies en Irán (Galard, 2005 ; Sarfaraz and Faghih, 2011 ).

In a study conducted by Yogendrarajah and Semasinghe ( 2015 ), on a group of women from Sri Lanka, the two authors found a statistically significant relationship between the development of entrepreneurship and the microcredit program. Helping women entrepreneurs to have better access to credit means increasing their awareness in terms of risk management and self-efficacy, contributing to the family economy, improving their quality of life and, not least, reduce gender disparities.

Studies that have focused on human and social capital (cluster 2, in green) can be included in this scenario. Human and social capital resources are the key to help entrepreneurs, especially in the initial phase of their business (Brush et al., 2002 ). Studies in this sector have shown that high levels of human capital are positively related to the performance and management of a company (Millán et al., 2014 ).

The results of a study by Klyver and Schenkel ( 2013 ), based on GEM data in 41 countries, revealed that human capital is positively associated with nascent entrepreneurship and also has a positive impact on both, objective elements such as starting a business, and subjective elements such as self-perception and self-efficacy.

Studies like Aldrich and Cliff ( 2003 ) and Kirkwood ( 2007 ) have also shown that social capital is one of the biggest supporting factors for female entrepreneurship. An analysis by Ventura Fernández and Quero Gervilla ( 2013 ) shows, for example, that the existence of links with support agencies influences women's self-efficacy levels and, therefore, their intention to undertake in business activities. According to Álvarez et al. ( 2012 ), in addition to the important role of formal social capital (policy support, financing and training), it is especially the “informal capital” (family, emotional support, social network) that has the greatest impact.

However, while the relationship between these types of intangible resources and women's businesses has been widely documented in developed countries, there is limited research in emerging economies. From our analysis, we found a study that considered the impact of human, social and reputational capital on women's businesses in Ghana. The results showed the positive impact of the three types of capital on corporate growth, but, to a greater extent, they highlighted the importance of women's social networks for the growth of their businesses, and to further improve the value of their intangible skills (Sallah and Caesar, 2020 ).

The third theme (blue cluster) analyzes the complex relationship between culture and gender differences (Eden and Gupta, 2017 ), considering female entrepreneurship a result of contextual and psychological factors that differentiate it from its male counterpart.

Culture greatly influences the way in which entrepreneurs develop their business initiatives, referring to prejudices, social roles and a stereotyped vision of the gender (for example, women are seen as incompatible with the business because it is too emotional and less rational in making decisions) that contribute to a men-cenetred vision of entrepreneurship (Shinnar et al., 2012 ; Rubio-Bañón and Esteban-Lloret, 2016 ). This is reflected in Hoyt and Murphy ( 2016 ) conclusion that the prejudices women face in business are the result of gender stereotypes.

These factors related to a country's different perceptions of the role of women in society, explain that the differences concern attitudes toward entrepreneurship, but also some psychological traits that influence entrepreneurial intention: higher levels of self-efficacy, self-confidence, independence, risk appetite, and autonomy in men compared to women (Langowitz and Minniti, 2007 ; Robb and Watson, 2012 ).

In addition, women compared to the male counterpart, to a greater extent reject the choice of an entrepreneurial career because they consider themselves as lacking in entrepreneurial skills and knowledge (Wilson et al., 2007 ; Kirkwood, 2009 ) and unable to respond to the challenges of a company as it is not very socialized in corporate roles (Yordanova and Tarrazon, 2010 ). Ultimately, what these studies show is an issue of how gender roles could influence the types of career deemed acceptable for women, further increasing gender differences (Griffiths et al., 2013 ; Kalafatoglu and Mendoza, 2017 ).

As the cluster analysis shows, entrepreneurial education is closely linked to culture and gender differences, which is considered a potential tool for increasing entrepreneurial intentions, bridging the gap between men and women. This occurs both in the consolidation phase of the company and in the start-up phase (Mazzarol et al., 1999 ; Rotefoss and Kolvereid, 2005 ). A country that promotes entrepreneurial educational initiatives, encourages women's participation in entrepreneurship and reduces the woman-man gap (Petridou et al., 2009 ).

Mand et al. ( 2018 ) showed that education influences the entrepreneurship levels of Indian women even in a stereotypically masculine sector such as electronics.

Other empirical evidence has highlighted the importance of entrepreneurial education in analyzing the mediating role of self-efficacy. For example, studies have shown that entrepreneurial education has a greater impact on the development of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (Wilson et al., 2007 ; Centindamar et al., 2012 ). Others have shown that high levels of entrepreneurial self-efficacy is related to a higher probability of developing a business activity (Krueger et al., 2000 ; De Clercq and Arenius, 2006 ). Wilson et al. ( 2007 ) analyzed the role of mediating self-efficacy on the relationship between gender and entrepreneurial intention of students and adults in adulthood. In both cases, entrepreneurial self-efficacy partially mediated this relationship.

Along these factors, the literature analysis has also allowed us to identify the role of the surrounding environment, focusing mainly on the family (Cluster 4, in yellow). Our analysis showed the crucial and positive role of family members, especially when external support systems are limited (Chang et al., 2009 , 2012 ), both as a source of economic support, especially at the start of a business (Shen et al., 2017 ; Cardella et al., 2020 ), and on the motherhood issue (Jennings and McDougald, 2007 ), providing moral and psychological support to women who have to reconcile family responsibilities with the desire for professional development.

A field of study in which the gap between men and women seems to be significantly reduced is that related to social entrepreneurship (cluster 5, in purple). It is an extremely recent field of research (the first article dates from 2009), and as expected, according to our analysis it is one of the clusters with the least number of publications.

In general, women seem motivated toward social goals, unlike men whose attitudes push toward more economic and material issues (Dorado and Ventresca, 2013 ). As the literature shows (Themudo, 2009 ; Hechevarría et al., 2012 ) social enterprises are more suited to the social role of women.

For example, Van Ryzin et al. ( 2009 ) suggests that women are more likely to be social entrepreneurs than men, since this type of company seems to share their objectives, more oriented to the attention and support of the community. In addition, according to Teasdale et al. ( 2011 ), more than 90% of women occupy management positions in voluntary organizations or the third sector. This is reflected in Kuschel and Lepeley ( 2016 ) stating that women entrepreneurs in the technology industry tend to start businesses with romantic partners, in a process of co-preneurship.

These results are in line with more recent studies that have demonstrated the importance of social entrepreneurship, especially for women who undertake in a poorly developed country (Kyalo and Kiganane, 2014 ; Nicolás and Rubio, 2016 ).

Women are motivated to choose an entrepreneurial career for different reasons than men. In general, men appreciate good pay, job security and promotion opportunities, while women prefer opportunities to use their initiative and flexible hours (Zou, 2015 ). The greater motivational desire among women to achieve a better balance between work and family life, leaving aside the desire for economic wealth (Thébaud, 2015 ), could explain the importance of social entrepreneurship as a possible career option.

For example, Muntean and Ozkazanc-Pan ( 2016 ) suggested that social enterprises can help foster reconciliation policies, such as flexible time or parental leave, which act as a motivating factor, encouraging women's career advancement.

In summary, research suggests that the intrinsic characteristics of social entrepreneurship (e.g., collaboration and mutual assistance) may be more suited to women's needs, their way of working (high quality relationships) and respect for women's priorities (like reconciliation and equal opportunities).

Additionally, as Rembulan et al. ( 2016 ) have shown, women entrepreneurs, compared to women who work as employees, have very low levels of conflict regarding time management and family care.

Lastly, cluster 6 (in light blue) includes feminist theories that attempt to explain gender discrimination in entrepreneurship as a result of stereotypes and prejudices, which deserves a discussion of its own. The articles have revealed a shift in a focus from liberal feminism, centered on a collectivist conception of women and inspired by gender equality as a political factor, to liberal post-feminism, which uses more individualistic and identity-focused vision, in which single women must compete in the national market and contribute to the economic growth of the country through self-employment (Berglund et al., 2018 ). In particular, the liberal feminist theory (Fischer et al., 1993 ), analyzed supports the need for social reform to give women the same opportunities that are reserved for men (for example, access to resources and social networks, education, previous experience in business). Liberal post-feminism, instead, takes into account many different views of the world. These differences do not imply that women are less effective in business than men, but only that they could adopt different approaches that could be as effective as the more traditional approaches adopted by men (Watson and Robinson, 2003 ). The problem would lie in the lack of acceptance by the social network and community, however, despite the great efforts made in this regard, both views have significant shortcomings. For example, no perspective considers the different cultural values that can convey different attitudes, expectations, and behaviors not only between men and women, but also between different nations.

Although it is widely accepted that entrepreneurship gives additional value to the economy of a nation and a shift in business, the understanding between entrepreneurship and development is still far from complete (Kelley et al., 2017 ). Recognizing, therefore, the factors and peculiarities that also influence the field of female entrepreneurship seems a challenge and a call to which the entire community is expected to answer at different levels. This could help academics and policy makers gain useful knowledge and facilitate the conditions of women in business. Parallel to what was stated in Holmquist and Sundin ( 2002 ), beyond the different points of view, it would be desirable to consider the issue from a holistic perspective, focusing on the strengths of each one for a vision as unitary and convincing as possible in the analysis of female entrepreneurship.

Conclusions

The objective of this systematic analysis was to investigate the scientific literature on the relationship between entrepreneurship and women. To this end, we analyzed a total of 2,848 articles selected from the Scopus database (Scimago Research Group). Based on the results obtained, some conclusions can be drawn.

As the analysis shows, it is a relatively current area of research (the first article was published in 1950) which over the years has shown constant interest from academics, with a greater development of articles in the last 20 years.

Furthermore, it is a research field that shows a multidisciplinary character that mainly affects the area of business and management, but also social and gender studies, Economics, Political Sciences, Technology and Innovation.

In addition, in the last decade, “front research” has shown a change of interest in the scientific community, moving from the study of economic and political issues to the analysis of the useful factors that allow to bridge the male-female gap.

In general, it was possible to isolate 6 research line that characterize the current field. The topic that has received the most attention from academics and, therefore, a greater number of studies is related to the importance of the family as support for women entrepreneurs, particularly with regard to maternity management (cluster 4), closely related to cluster 1 that highlights the barriers that characterizes women's access to the entrepreneurial sector.

On the other hand, the group that according to our analysis has the least number of articles published relates to feminist theories (cluster 6), followed by cluster 5, about to the relationship between social entrepreneurship and female entrepreneurship. The latter could be explained probably because it is an extremely recent research field (the first article dates from 2009), but in constant evolution. As noted in recent studies, social entrepreneurship is a very interesting field of analysis, since the gap between women and men is greatly reduced because the roles and stereotypes that influence women's behavior lead to identify better with the values present in social enterprises (Nicolás and Rubio, 2016 ).

Although this work covers a large number of publications, some limitations must be pointed out. First, it may be important to use other databases to expand the body of literature and highlight the differences and similarities with the analysis presented by us. It may also be of interest to use different bibliometric indicators to continue studying the research fields.

For this study, we used cluster analysis to delineate the boundaries of scientific literature through VosViewer 1.6.10 software. It is a tool that, although it has received a broad consensus from researchers (Martínez-López et al., 2018 ), presents some limitations, since it provides a limited number of relationships that, based on similarities and co-occurrence techniques, only take into account the frequency of the keywords considered. This could represent a limitation if the search field is excessively fragmented. For example, a total of 4,455 keywords emerged from our analysis, and the field was reduced to 44 keywords, establishing a co-ocurrence of 10. This indicates that it is an extremely varied field of study in which academics have adopted different points of view.

From this study, some suggestions for future research can also be outlined.

First, the vast majority of women's business studies have been carried out in western and developed countries. It would be appropriate for academics to deepen this issue in developing areas in order to test the theories already used, analyze the dynamics that are created in these different geographical areas, as well shed light on the social and cultural challenges women face in these contexts. Additionally, this aspect was also recently confirmed by Rashid and Ratten ( 2020 ), who in their systematic review of female entrepreneurship in emerging economies, found only a total of 76 published articles.

Future studies should also reflect on the fact that more and more women participate in the growth of their businesses, going beyond the initial phase, which concerns simple entrepreneurial intention. The articles that are part of this systematic analysis did not take into account the difference between intention and behavior. It would be advisable to focus more on this difference, emphasizing whether women who are in a later stage face the same specific challenges as in the early stages. Entrepreneurship is more than the simple act of starting a business, since it also represents the will and desire to manage an existing company (see the case of family businesses). Therefore, it would be desirable, especially with reference to women, to reflect on the barriers they face to grow their businesses, in terms of work/family balance issues, choice of professional sector and identification of opportunities and development of human and social capital. In this sense, a great importance for women derives not only from access to financial resources, but also from intangible resources (human and social capital) that constitute the key to business success in general, and specifically in women. Studies in this area, however, seem limited. A careful reflection on women entrepreneurs, both in developed and developing economies, could help to better understand how to exploit these resources.

Furthermore, it could be a further reason for reflection, analyzing the problem of immigrant women entrepreneurs, the motivations that push them to start entrepreneurial activities, the social consequences of their entrepreneurial behavior and how the whole process is conditioned by their belonging to the female gender.

From a purely methodological point of view, we expect the use of diversified, quantitative, qualitative or mixed approaches, since this may offer greater potential to analyze different nuances and peculiarities that may be important to deepen on the female issues in entrepreneurship. Similarly, the increasing availability of large data sets allows us to understand possible disadvantages among different groups of female entrepreneurs (Fairlie and Robb, 2008 ). The comparisons between different female groups in social, cultural and socio-family abstractions, with difficult access to human and intangible resources and financial resources, remain important fields of analysis and exploration.

Finally, there is a need for greater efforts by academics to critically reflect and strengthen current theories on entrepreneurship, which should be useful for the development of more solidified theories that take into account culture and institutional practices and how they relate with gender issues (Wilson and Tagg, 2010 ).

We believe that the results of this systematic analysis are a starting point for contributing to an ever clearer systematization of the scientific literature, which, given the very varied nature of the research topic, has some limits which are not always easy to define. In our analysis, we have adopted a holistic point of view to give voice to the different theoretical contributions that have tried to explain the many facets of the research lines. The synthesis of topics of recent interest among scholars has produced numerous topical clusters and a change of interest, over the years, from a study aimed at economic issues to an analysis that deepens the factors that contribute to reducing woman-man gap.

We interpret it in the sense that scholars have started to take an interest in female entrepreneurship as an independent construct and not simply as a counterpart to the male one, applying already existing models concerning male entrepreneurship. This also represents a useful starting point for political systems and further strengthens our conclusions.

In light of the results found in our study, we can affirm that the work done gives us the opportunity to have a broader vision of gender and women's entrepreneurship, not only considering the motivations, objectives, measures of success and the different contexts, in which their ventures are managed and developed, but also taking into account the heterogeneity of female entrepreneurs in general.

The researchers recognize that women's entrepreneurship is very varied and rich in nuances, hence the commitment that must exist in researchers to commit to this complexity and, at the same time, strength. Women entrepreneurs are not a homogeneous group, and therefore we must recognize gender identities, which are rarely considered in the entrepreneurship literature. This is especially important when it comes to, for example, programs and policies to support female entrepreneurship. We cannot do “one size fits all” training. In other words, female entrepreneurs are not minors, subordinates, they simply do entrepreneurship differently and in this process make significant and valuable contributions to the global economy. A better understanding of this diversity of female entrepreneurship will surely contribute new ideas for research on entrepreneurship in general.

Our research also opens up new questions that will need to be addressed in future research. For example: (a) How do different contexts (organizational, family environments, high technology, etc.) and cultural environments impact on women's business management? How do women entrepreneurs undertake in such contexts? (b) How can theories outside of entrepreneurship/small business fields shed light on women's entrepreneurship and its management strategies? (c) How should women's entrepreneurship best be conceptualized to better understand the diversity, strategic management and growth dimensions of business creation? With new theoretical and methodological approaches and perspectives, we can address these questions.

Data Availability Statement

Author contributions.

All three authors participated in the analysis and drafting of this document. Specifically, GC has selected and analyzed all the articles present in Scopus. BH-S provided interesting details on the subject. JS-G examined the methodology used and the final draft of the document. The authors decided to approve the final work and take full responsibility for the originality of the research.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We thank the Chair of Entrepreneurs University of Salamanca for supporting the research.

Funding. This research was funded by the Board of Education of the Junta de Castilla y León (ref J424), Spain.

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Original research article, overcoming gender gaps in entrepreneurship education and training.

• College of Management, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand

Entrepreneurship education and training are essential for female entrepreneurs who juggle family expectations, personal life, and new ventures at the same time. Indeed, generic entrepreneurship training may fail to promote understanding in gender literacy and its relationship with creating and managing business entities. To help address gender gaps, this article explores gender issues in the training process for female entrepreneurs, the researcher collected primary data from 28 trainers through personal interviews and secondary data from the 43 training evaluation forms from trainees who participated in the national entrepreneurship training programs in Thailand. The researcher identifies three themes that are related to gender gaps and effectiveness in the entrepreneurship training context. They include (1) gender mainstreaming, (2) gender-sensitive training approaches, and (3) the adoption of proper technology and innovation for female entrepreneurs. Secondary data also confirm that female entrepreneurs in this study address the need for professional development that promotes them to engage in gender competencies, technology, and innovation for new ventures. The opportunity for professional development can be limited by family and social commitments. Engaging with experienced female entrepreneurs and business role models can promote understanding in the three areas among female entrepreneurs. This article outlines a novel approach in synergizing gender issues, training, and entrepreneurship skills. It concludes with some explanations of the relative efficacy of entrepreneurship training that reduces gender gaps for female entrepreneurs.

Introduction

It is evident that entrepreneurship activities contribute to a sustainable economy and gender gap reduction ( Galloway and Brown, 2002 ). The 2020/2021 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report confirms that entrepreneurial activities and entrepreneurship education can “promote aspiration in life and career as well as the outlook for future business sustainability for women” worldwide. Unfortunately, new businesses and ventures are more likely to be created by men than women ( Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2020 ). This issue can be related to limited access to resources to establish new ventures among women. Indeed, it is important for all governments to reduce gender gaps among men and women when it comes to the promotion of business and entrepreneurship opportunities. It is reported by the UN Women (2020a) that the promotion of entrepreneurial mindset through education and training can contribute to gender equity in the participation in entrepreneurship activities among women. Indeed, it is more to do with the creation of “mindset”—the psychological and behavioral traits (e.g., creative thinking, problem-solving, opportunity-seeking, and risk assessment) typically associated with the entrepreneurial character ( Binks et al., 2006 ; OECD, 2019 ). This is reflected in the contemporary entrepreneurship training programs that incorporate creative, technical, and soft skills that help female entrepreneurs remain in the equitable business system (i.e., Binks et al., 2006 ; Gundry et al., 2014 ).

In most parts of the world, including Southeast Asia, female entrepreneurs face challenges in starting and growing their businesses, because of gender and cultural-based barriers ( Bekh, 2014 ; OECD, 2019 ). A report on female entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) (2015) refers to certain structural problems that prevail to reduce gender gaps in entrepreneurial activities. They may include expectation and gender-based roles for women, matrimonial and inheritance laws and/or cultural practices, poor access to resources, limited mobility among women, lack of political voice and representation in society, and an unequal share of family and household responsibilities ( Jones and Iredale, 2010 ). When compared with their male counterparts, women entrepreneurs are in a less competitive position to accessing national and international markets, resources and support, and education and training. Most governments therefore promote entrepreneurship education and training as strategies to mitigate and reduce equality ( Balestra, 2018 ).

A study by Wang et al. (2013) confirms that entrepreneurial activities make significant contributions to economic growth and poverty reduction for and among women, not only in developing countries but also in high-income countries. This can be directly related to the fact that entrepreneurial activities can create new jobs for female entrepreneurs, their family, and friends. Besides boosting employment, women entrepreneurship also supports the diversification of business, stimulating innovation and diversification in management, production, and marketing practices, as well as in products and services. Women offer a variety of management, organizational, and business options.

Barriers for women to establish a new business remain in the modern economy. A gender belief system can have an impact on how men and women operate a business or the industry choice of female entrepreneurs. Sociocultural and educational factors toward women, that is, access to entrepreneurship education and training, may dictate that some industries or professions are more appropriate for female entrepreneurs than others. This point is related to the fact that gender segregation can influence women’s opportunities for training, education, and career choices. The result of such attitudes is that specific sector can be oversaturated with female-operated ventures, whereas access to other markets is limited to women entrepreneurs, and thus female entrepreneurial activity in those spheres remains modes ( Ugrinova, 2016 ). Thus, certain industries are seen as “appropriate” for female entrepreneurs because of socially constructed roles (i.e., food, art). On the other hand, technology-intensive markets (i.e., manufacturing, construction) remain primarily reserved for male entrepreneurs. Therefore, gender issues remain problematic in the preparation for skill development among female entrepreneurs.

To ensure that training activities and content match the needs and experiences of women entrepreneurs, research is essential to support the design of entrepreneurship training programs, as well as development and curricula ( Jones and Iredale, 2010 ). In order to understand how to promote effective and relevant entrepreneurship education and training for female entrepreneurs and to reduce gender inequality, this article focuses on the following research questions:

1. When it comes to entrepreneurship education and training, which aspects support gender equality for female entrepreneurs?

2. To what extent can female entrepreneurs develop entrepreneurial skills through informal learning and training?

Literature Review

Gender issues and the entrepreneurship activities.

Gender disparities among men and women in higher education and technical and vocational education and training are not novel. Indeed, it is confirmed that gender stereotypes, as well as socially constructed roles based on gender, can promote gender disparities in education and training ( Kollmayer et al., 2020 ). Gender disparities can subsequently influence the ability to promote women’s empowerment through entrepreneurship education and training. This issue has been confirmed by Diogo et al. (2021) , who conclude that, in most organizations, the gender balance decreases with the power of the governing body that may be dominated by men. In terms of professional development and training, women entrepreneurs will face additional challenges in participating in the program, undermining their ability to contribute to inclusive and sustainable growth ( UN Women, 2020a ).

Reports in this area (i.e., Brush and Green, 2016 ; Acz et al., 2017 ; UN Women, 2020b ) agree that improving gender disparities in education and training will improve condition of living, socioeconomic status, and political participation among women. When it comes to funding for entrepreneurial activities, the UN Women (2020a) suggested that one approach to empower women is to identify ways for women to be trained and educated, to generate and maintain their own income in the long run. Interestingly. Babbit et al. (2015) conclude that when there is no threat of economic or income loss to an individual’s social structure, for example, poverty, then family and social ties are stable, and this has also been shown to have a strong influence in a decision to engage in entrepreneurship activities and training among female entrepreneurs.

Previous studies in gender and entrepreneurship in the global context (i.e., UN Women, 2020a ; Sabarwal and Terrell, 2009 ) focus on the inequality among men and women when it comes to business opportunities. Examining cases from Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia, Sabarwal and Terrell (2009) found that female entrepreneurs held smaller scales of operation, while gender performance gaps diminished when individual and environmental characteristics were taken into consideration.

Within Southeast Asian countries, Klasen et al. (2011) identify conditions of desperate poverty among women in Thailand and Vietnam (for various reasons such as drought, political issues, disease, and sudden death) as causes of social disintegration, which in turn leads to a desire to improve the family’s financial situation. When they engage more in entrepreneurial activities (including education and training), it is likely that they can potentially overcome problems related to poverty much quickly. A study by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2020) also confirms that engaging in activities such as learning new technology to explore business opportunities, business innovation, and improving social media skills can improve the quality of life among women from countries in Southeast Asia.

The relationship between entrepreneurship activities and various social and educational conditions can also influence women’s engagement in learning and training activities. Issues such as ethnic backgrounds, digital literacy, family roles, and business intention can be strongly related to women entrepreneurs and their participation in a new venture ( Brush et al., 2018 ). Knowlton et al. (2015) also reported three factors affecting gender blind spots in entrepreneurship activities. They include (1) entrepreneurial identity, (2) lack of awareness of support and empowerment programs for female entrepreneurs, and (3) gendered occupational norms.

The literature in this area shows that women’s “double burden” (work and family obligations) and other social obligations may lead them to experience more isolation than men entrepreneurs when it comes to participating in various entrepreneurial activities. Apart from social obligations, Balestra (2018) refers to the role of socioeconomic gradients, relative deprivation, and racial discrimination that may contribute to gender inequality in participation in entrepreneurship activities and access to education and training for women.

Gender and Entrepreneurship Learning

Masculinization of the entrepreneurship training program in many countries has been linked to poor participation among women ( Alsubaie and Jones, 2017 ), as well as a poorer program outcome for women in entrepreneurship education and training programs when compared with men ( World Bank, 2015 ). From the gender perspective, feminist praxis can be adopted to explain the relationship between gender and entrepreneurial training ( Freire, 1997 ; Evans, 2016 ). In this circumstance, we define praxis as “processes by which theory and practice become closely intertwined with one another” ( Evans, 2016 ). Feminist praxis is a deeper knowledge of how the “intellectual and political” become mutually constituted in the pursuit of gender equality, social justice, and change ( Evans, 2016 ). Institutions also play an important role in this matter. As Mackay et al. (2010) and O’Connor (2020) agree that gender relations are cross-cutting, they play out in different levels, forms, and types of social institutions. Education and training involve various support and access to resources for women to participate in entrepreneurship training. Indeed, access to these resources, and the power they create, has a gender bias ( Mackay et al., 2010 ) that can potentially impede women to progress in entrepreneurial activities.

This engaged approach acknowledges the political implications of intellectual activities to conceptualize entrepreneurship training. The efforts to theorize and investigate entrepreneurship training activities are viewed through the lens of gender, with the goal of gender equality, when feminist praxis is integrated into studies in education and training ( Evans, 2016 ). In addition, previous studies in gender and entrepreneurial activities ( UN Women, 2020b ) agree that when we incorporate gender issues into the training for entrepreneurs, it must not be perceived as the program that portrays individual women as “victims” of their gendered ascriptions, such as being accepted as a woman but rejected in recognition as great entrepreneurs. This kind of mindset in itself can create gender segregation among men and women in the training program.

As such, calls for the integration of gender equality into education and training activities are not uncommon. It reflects an intellectual recognition of the ways in which gender is an organizing principle in entrepreneurship education and training as well as a political perspective that recognizes women’s marginalization from theory and research in the field. Indeed, there must be some vigilance to ensure that gender differences are not exaggerated to the point that they emphasize and reproduce a harmful gendered inequality and hierarchy ( UN Women, 2020a ).

To explore the gender perspectives of stakeholders in the entrepreneurship training program, the researcher adopted a qualitative research approach. It helps the researcher to understand the perspectives and life and work experiences of the trainers and trainees involved in the professional development and training, curriculum design, and implementation of the programs. Furthermore, this approach enables greater understanding of thought ( Hennink et al., 2011 ), offers visions to different gender problems, and helps in developing concepts or descriptions of experiences among stakeholders in the training programs.

Key Informants

The researcher collected primary data from 28 trainers who have at least 3 years of experience in the curriculum design, teaching, and evaluation for female entrepreneurs in the nonformal education context. Table 1 displays details of each key informant in the study. Seventy-one percent of key informants in this study are female. Thirteen of them directly involved in the curriculum design. All of them are experienced trainers and educators who provide training for entrepreneurs in the new venture, business, and entrepreneurship training courses/areas. They include topics such as developing business plans, marketing, entrepreneurial financing, and logistics, as well as topics designed to enhance entrepreneurial skills from a gender perspective (such as gender equality, cultural barriers, design thinking for female entrepreneurs, and balancing household and business tasks). Only one key informant engages in research and development.

TABLE 1 . Details of participants/key informants.

Data Collection

The researcher contacted the department of informal and nonformal education and asked for their support to select experienced teachers/trainers in the entrepreneurship education section. The research framework and questions were codesigned by staff from the department, academic members from the entrepreneurship and innovation department, and experienced entrepreneurs.

The researcher conducted semistructured personal interviews with all participants, in order to gain in-depth experiences and stories. Prior to the interview, the researcher informed all participants of project objectives and sample questions. Our key informants represent a diverse group of teachers and trainers for female entrepreneurs in different regions in Thailand. The researcher also developed a short interview protocol asking key informants to discuss their experiences working with male and female entrepreneurs, barriers in learning and teaching, and ways to promote gender equality in skill development among male and female entrepreneurs. Interviews ranged the length from 30 min to 1 h. All interviews were conducted in Thai and subsequently translated into English for the analysis and report. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants involved in the study. Details of the participants are presented in Table 1 .

The researcher asked the trainers to describe their experiences on working with female entrepreneurs, what they found most challenging, and what should be promoted in the future. As the researcher also engaged in the training of the trainers, rapport was built through the training program with the trainers who participated in this study. By the end of the data analysis, all participants received a summary of key findings. They were encouraged to provide feedback to the researcher. At the end, 14 of them submitted extra feedback to the researcher.

In order to obtain the holistic views on gender and training for female entrepreneurs, secondary data were also collected from the evaluations and feedback from female entrepreneurs who attended the training projects. There were 43 sets of evaluation forms that the researcher could get access to for this research project. The data were obtained through the support from the department of nonformal education. Female entrepreneurs from whom we used their feedback for the program were informed about the process with agreement for us to use the data. We focus on their feedback regarding how to improve entrepreneurial learning and skills for future female entrepreneurs who will engage in similar training activities. Table 2 provides a detailed summary of the data collected and its roles in the research process.

TABLE 2 . Description of data.

Data Analysis

The research protocol evolved to touch upon various dimensions of training and learning among female entrepreneurs. Given that the presentation of the social and economic contexts is of central importance to qualitative research ( Hennink et al., 2011 ), the researcher created broad categories on gender and training aiming to connect, link, and integrate categories from the data. During the data analysis process for primary data, the researcher focused on extracting meaning from the interview transcriptions and the researcher’s note. In so doing, this process helps the researcher to capture stories and narratives from the informants.

A codebook was developed to evaluate the attributes of the participants as well as issues from the secondary data from the female entrepreneurs who participated in the training program. When the researcher concluded the key themes from the data, all participants were contacted to participate in the presentation of the findings. Then, the researcher asked for comments regarding the interpretation of the data as well as the way the stories are told by the researcher in this study. Feedback from participants was subsequently implemented in the final report of this study. They are related to the summary of key themes, written language and how to simplify the language, and suggestions for future research.

Secondary data were analyzed using a framework from Johnston (2014) . In the first step, the researcher outlined all variables related to gender issues under the recommendation section in the survey. Literature and themes from the first step were adopted to identify similarities and differences between primary and secondary data, and then the researcher created defined patterns of the data from the secondary data for the conclusion.

This research project is research in humans, which includes identifiable human material and identifiable data. Therefore, the project requires ethical approval. Data were collected in accordance with the code of conduct of research. This study was approved by the ethical committee from Mahidol University.

Theme 1: Gender Mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming in the training process was frequently highlighted by all participants in this study. They mentioned (1) the efforts to examine gender mainstreaming, (2) improved processes of training policy formulation, and (3) implementation from a gender perspective. This process focuses on how to address and correct existing and emerging disparities between men and women in the entrepreneurship training programs. The perceived values of entrepreneurship are strongly related to gender. The training program without proper gender understanding and sensitivity can lead to misperception and gender inequality. Most trainers whom we interviewed addressed certain aspects of gender sensitivity that seem to work for them.

“I pay attention to gender differences, not just men or women but all, both in creating syllabus, program and in-class learning activities.” (Trainer, 9)

“I specifically select articles and cases that take gender-sensitive approach into the courses readings and assigning some group tasks that demand from students to think about gender aspects in the entrepreneurial process.” (Trainer, 12)

Gender-sensitive teaching is thus more inclusive while stimulating critical thinking. All participants in this study agree that it is important to equip all entrepreneurs in the training program with a basic understanding of gender and its impacts upon and throughout the entrepreneurial process. Some of them also address that certain information on how socially constructed gender norms affect the daily lives of female entrepreneurs should be included in the training program.

“I can see the energy among female trainees when we started talking about how to manage time and resources as a mother, a daughter, and a business owner. Most of them could draw a strong pattern of relationship among those factors by the end of the training course.” (Trainer,15)

All participants agree that a gender-sensitive approach to teaching provides equal opportunity to both female and male teaching staff, attracts entrepreneurs of different genders, and is inclusive for LGBTIQ+ entrepreneurs.

“We introduce our program with a discussion on how men and women are expected in family. They were shocked to realize how limited their business opportunities can be because of social factors.” (Trainer, 2)

“In my lesson on access to finance, I realize we do not discuss barriers for female entrepreneurs to gain such access. Discussion on this issue and motivating them (trainees) to explore more information to further design strategies to support female entrepreneurs work very well in my program.” (Trainer, 3)

Gender equity in this case (entrepreneurial education and training) refers to fairness in the distribution of resources for training and education to support women to establish business and benefits for both male and female entrepreneurs in the training program. There is a pattern of relationship between gender mainstreaming and training for business establishment among entrepreneurs. It is reported that demographic traits, such as gender, religious background, age, level of education, association with ethnic groups, and experience in employment, can influence the decision to embark on business activities among female entrepreneurs.

“It makes a difference when I know backgrounds of the participants when we prepare to discuss how gender can be related to entrepreneurial activities.” (Trainer, 15)

“I worked with female entrepreneurs from Southern Thailand before and I have learned to implement the so-called Southern values into my training. In fact, it helps them to feel at ease in the program.” (Trainer, 11)

Gender mainstreaming and financial issues for female entrepreneurs were discussed as an important issue to synergize gender mainstreaming into the training program. Issues regarding how finance disaggregates expenditures in terms of women and men, boys and girls were discussed in some programs. In a broad perspective, it is suggested that the trainers will need to explain how much money and resources are spent on women and how much is spent on men, patterns of spending between men and women, and gender-based finance. The purpose is to determine the impact of existing expenditures between female and male entrepreneurs as well as to review gender-related allocations of resources and opportunities.

Balancing equality and equity in financial literacy and gender budget for business for female entrepreneurs sometimes does mean equal funds; at other times, it means more funds must be allocated to the needs of female or male entrepreneurs. Gender budget training relies on understanding on differences between male and female entrepreneurs on how to operate the business successfully.

“Gender mainstreaming in the finance part is important. I always ask all my trainees to define the relationship between finance and spending patterns between men and women. This kind of activity is important for them” (Trainer, 4)

The majority of the trainers who provide training programs in the areas that are perceived as “feminine” skills, such as language, hospitality and tourism, and cooking, refer to the lack of male students, instructors, and learning and teaching materials that may suit the “macho paradigm” at their institution. They all agree that when the young female entrepreneurs in these areas enroll in such courses or programs, the majority chose to drop out because of the nature of these professions in the gender perception of the public.

“My concern is the lack of male participation when or if we brought gender issues as a foundation for training in home economics and finance. I tried different methods of training. You know, demonstration, online but (paused) the boys were not interested in the issue.” (Trainer, 9)

The vast majority of the participants (72%) also confirm that when they include some experienced entrepreneurs or business owners who act as role models for other female entrepreneurs, students in the program seem to be able to actively engage in the program. They all agree that activities such as study visits, online training with business owners, and virtual case study analysis can stimulate female entrepreneurs to engage with other students. They suggested that, in order to engage female entrepreneurs with other participants and trainers, there should also be outreach programs that support both trainers and trainees to engage with business when the training is completed.

The final point related to gender mainstreaming is that all trainers in this study agree that gender issues should not be delivered as an isolated subject or unit in the training program. When the trainers include gender issues in different units, it helps trainees, in particular female entrepreneurs, to learn beyond the notion of gender as a socially constructed phenomenon in the social context. Some trainers also address that trainees who identify themselves as LGBTIQ+ also value the quality of the training program when gender issues are integrated into learning topics such as entrepreneurial finance, technology management for entrepreneurs, and business law.

“Two of our trainees who call themselves LGBT praise our training program because we work with them and their friends on the impact of gender on seeking financial and nonfinancial resources.” (Trainer, 5)

“I remember one of my trainees from the previous group came to me and thank me for addressing gender issues and discussing its impacts on business development since she was feeling that point when she came out to the public while running a team of 50 workers in her business.” (Trainer, 19)

It is important that the process of assessing and taking into account the implications for women and men of any planned action including contents, concepts, and programs must be included. This aspect will mitigate inadequate understanding of the linkages between gender perspectives in entrepreneurship training and skills development.

Theme 2: Gender and Training Approach

When female entrepreneurs in this study described their experiences in the program, they unanimously praised the trainers’ efforts to get them to participate and “feel a feeling of belonging.” This point is pivotal among female entrepreneurs who aim to improve their key entrepreneurial skills. They suggested that the right approach to train entrepreneurs is to know them and listen to them. It is suggested that entrepreneurial training program managers and/or trainers should gather key information from female entrepreneurs who may expect different skill sets from their male counterparts. Information such as learning expectations, life, and work experiences, family, and business network, and expected outcomes will help the trainers to design programs that promote correct approaches in gender inclusiveness and training.

“I collected and used information such as trainee’s experiences and their formal education background to design my training curriculum and activities every term.” (Trainer, 26)

The most common training methods for female entrepreneurs among participants in this study include lectures, business and experiences sharing, case studies, and coaching by experienced female entrepreneurs. Each approach comes with strengths and weaknesses from the training and gender perspectives. For instance, lectures can be helpful for female entrepreneurs who need explanation in areas such as communicating the business plan for financial support, or gender in the supply chain cycle.

“I gave lectures to the class in areas that focus on information and listen back to them at the end of the session. I found it is effective when we work in a big training session where trainees come from diverse backgrounds and may feel reluctant to engage at the early stage.” (Trainer, 28)

“I suggest the trainer conduct need analysis and understand our nature. I teach culinary skills for entrepreneurs, and I need new communication methods to teach my students who operate small shops or restaurants.” (Trainer,16)

“My background is teaching English as a second language, so I don’t need to repeat what I have already known in this training program. I felt I wasted the first day listening to certain communication issues.” (Trainer, 9)

It is not unusual for the training of entrepreneurial skills to include situated-learning scenarios in which learners are often involved. Participants in this study feel that this strategy is beneficial to them as it allows them to connect to the training’s fundamental information.

“I adopted a situation that helps female entrepreneurs to consider reasons to support effective communication at the growth stage. Situations related to market and how to promote the new venture from their experiences.” (Trainer, 11)

When we attempted to identify the relationship among variables such as outcomes from the training program, learning and teaching strategies, and trainee’s expectations from the program, we found that 17 participants focus on the training approach that promotes creativity, locus of control, and risk-taking concept. The participants agree that male and female entrepreneurs may need different approaches when they learn or try to create a new venture.

“When I introduce business pitching to the trainees, most female trainees will need to focus upon demonstration, perhaps more than their male counterparts. When I adopted the use of media, it seems to work better for male entrepreneurs.” (Trainer, 5)

As all trainers in this project prioritize technical skills, such as communication, business planning, finance, and digital communication, in the training program, they agreed that when they integrate generic learning to various teaching methods such as online/face-to-face lectures with experiential learning, it can help female entrepreneurs to engage naturally in interpersonal relationships. Development of positive thinking, improvement in interpersonal relationships, proper motivation of people, and organizational development are some of the important benefits of transactional analysis, as a technique of training for female entrepreneurs.

We found from the feedback that the cocreation of a community of inquiry among trainers and female entrepreneurs can benefit both trainees and trainers. More importantly, experienced entrepreneurs are likely to engage in the training program if they can bring their experiences and stories to the training activities.

The participants suggested that skills and gender can be improved when the training approach and gender aspects are synchronized into key themes. Words used by female entrepreneurs in this study to identify the community and their sense of belonging include “communal team,” “bonding,” “rapport,” “trust,” and “directness.” Data from the program evaluation move into the similar pattern that community of inquiry can reinforce the depth learning in gender-related issues among female entrepreneurs in this study. They also referred to “informal learning,” “conversation,” “demonstration,” “experiential discussions” when describing work-focused training for female entrepreneurs.

Theme 3: Gender and Technology

It is evident that technology plays a pivotal role among female entrepreneurs in this project. At the very basic level, trainers in the program agree that technology, including social media, can help female entrepreneurs network and motivate each other before and after the training program. Apart from that, we also learn that social norms and context are important factors in the degree of technology awareness, access, and acceptance among female entrepreneurs who attended the programs.

From the interviews, we also learn that female entrepreneurs participating in this program raised an issue regarding constraints in digital literacy. In fact, they addressed that they are constrained by the lack of digital resources, lack of financial resources, and fear of online safety when they started to use simple technology such as e-bidding, or e-payment for business. Given that supports for entrepreneurial training are embedded in gendered entrepreneurship-related institutional systems, female entrepreneurs attending this workshop may still feel inadequate to fully adopt the technology.

In fact, the participants confirmed that almost all trainees are familiar with basic online training and technology such as mobile phone applications, online platforms, and electronic databases. In many cases, trainers are familiar with the use of different learning methods and incorporating learning technology to help female entrepreneurs prepare themselves prior to participating in the training. We also learn that training in the nonformal context, with certain online as new learning technology, can provide flexibility to women seeking to advance professionally, socially, and academically.

“Prior to the training, all-female entrepreneurs joined our exclusive Facebook page. We started our informal learning from there. I also encourage them to do frequent online training on e-payment for entrepreneurs.” (Trainer, 13)

New technology and media, including e-platform, crowdfund portal, and Kahoot, play a pivotal role in the nonformal entrepreneurial training. When the trainers design how to integrate technology to support female entrepreneurs, they need to explore the backgrounds and experiences of the participants. It is unlikely for all participants to have similar backgrounds and experiences in adopting technology into their business. Hence, the foundation course is also designed as a set of learning experiences for all participants.

It was suggested by the trainers that women entrepreneurs must be able to learn, acquire, and adopt new information and communication technology (ICT) skills and technologies, which they may subsequently use in a variety of business activities. Ten key informants in this study proposed that the government should provide technology that supports the creation of new businesses and start-ups among women entrepreneurs. When we asked what competencies that technology can help female entrepreneurs to create and run a business, the participants mentioned marketing and customer relationship, communication technologies, data for decision, and basic finance.

“My students always ask for training that they can use technology for financial transaction and e-payment.” (Trainer, 15)

“I think the business platform is the way to go for modern business. We will need to provide skills for our female trainees to create the new Lazada or Shopee.” (Trainer, 2)

When the program includes technology that supports women to recognize, understand, and gain access to resources for new business creation, it is confirmed among participants in this study that they can observe confidence among female entrepreneurs to deeply engage with stakeholders such as innovators, technologists, or experienced business owners by the end of the training program.

“I observe changes among female entrepreneurs from day one and I realize they have gained so much confidence in technology and data for business. They know where to seek help from the experts.” (Trainer, 15)

Supports from the government are addressed as a key factor to reduce gender gaps in technology and innovation for female entrepreneurs. This may include grants contributions for technology adoption (e.g., training, research, costs and materials, participation at conferences).

“Our department also seeks financial support from the central government to support new training for women such as platform design and design thinking.” (Trainer, 12)

We also learned that increasing awareness about the value of ICTs is another step to change ICT adoption behavior. For example, gender-inclusive, user-friendly diagnostics and curricula may motivate women to investigate ICTs that align with their business expectations. Gender-inclusive entrepreneurship training for trainers, clients, and policymakers may help to reflect on gendered assumptions about ICTs.

Similar to the trainer’s views, female entrepreneurs in this study suggested that technology training for entrepreneurs can reduce gender gaps between male and female entrepreneurs. Some of them described several types of personal support to help them deal with technical confusions in certain technologies such as simulations, e-discussion, and data analysis.

The keywords they identify as the roles of technology for gender equality among entrepreneurs include “technology accesses,” “women and market information,” “online discussion for women,” “online mentors,” and “ICT facilities for women.” They refer to supports that focus on adaptive feedback as well as directions on how to adapt such technologies among female entrepreneurs.

It is obvious that the adoption of technology in the training process can promote not only access to opportunities in training but also ongoing professional development for female entrepreneurs who may be limited to fully participate in the training program because of family and social commitments.

This study has important implications for the providers of entrepreneurial education. This study confirms the view that gender plays various roles in the training for entrepreneurs who may or may not see the fact that gender and inequality in entrepreneurial education remain an important issue. Despite their years of experience as business owner, female entrepreneurs may not feel the urge to challenge the business world on roles of female entrepreneurs who need proper skill development schemes.

Although gender issues in the entrepreneurial process can be intrinsically learned through various approaches, it is important for those who design the training program to prioritize gender-related issues ( Orser et al., 2019 ). Techniques that can positively promote female entrepreneurs to comprehend the relationship among gender issues, entrepreneurship, and business operations and strategies include experiential learning, the case study through female role models, and debate or ongoing discussion among female entrepreneurs. Gender mainstreaming throughout the program is strongly encouraged by the trainers in this study. Bringing female perspectives into the design will promote ongoing engagement among female entrepreneurs.

We also learn that it is important to promote training activities that are self-directed and informal in nature and learning approaches for female entrepreneurs. As reported by Welter and Smallbone (2003) that, because of human capital gaps, women-owned micro and small enterprises in transition economies are more likely to underperform as compared with men-owned businesses. This study further discusses Welter and Smallbone’s arguments (2003) by identifying the lack of gender inclusion since the early stage of venture creation. It is indeed suggested that gender issues and their relationship with entrepreneurship skills must be addressed among entrepreneurs and those who promote entrepreneurship activities (i.e., financial institutions, national or local innovation agencies, and education and training agencies).

In so doing, trainers must foster a culture of flexibility in the formal and informal contexts; value flexibility, experimentation, and learning are practiced and valued. It is also suggested in this study that gender sensitivity should be a part of training activities. Training approach that engages female and male entrepreneurs to work on gender issues will enhance their understanding of gender issues. Gender-sensitive training can promote success in the informal entrepreneurial training for women entrepreneurs in this study.

Technology is also an important element for female entrepreneurs who may need access to various innovations and channels (i.e., finance, market, suppliers, customers, knowledge). Providing proper gender-based training for women entrepreneurs is essential as no business can be done successfully without proper technology competencies. More importantly, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, various technologies must be integrated into the business from sourcing to customer relations. If the training program aims to close the gender gap in the adoption of technology among trainees, the inclusion of innovation and technology as key to empowering women entrepreneurs must be codeveloped among the program designers, trainers, and trainees.

When compared with previous studies (i.e., Balestra, 2018 ; Hennessy, 2003 ), this article confirms the important roles of socioeconomic gradients and gender sensitivity as the contributing factors to gender inequality in participation in entrepreneurship training activities.

Putting the feminist view into the study, this study addresses that power, institutions, and gender relations are interconnected in various dimensions. Gender relations and masculinity and femininity norms are related when it comes to the design of entrepreneurial activities and learning, by naturalizing and institutionalizing specific arrangements, resources, and power for female entrepreneurs.

Theoretical Implications

In terms of contributions to theory, this study presents the fact in line with those of Marxist-feminist perspectives on work and social institutions ( Hennessy 2003 ). The inclusiveness of women in the entrepreneurship training and other processes has been raised by participants in this study as a fair go for gender equality. As this study identifies various actions taken by the state (trainers who are state workers), it contributes to understanding on power structure by the state that can directly promote and influence gender equality through the mechanism of entrepreneurship training. It is therefore suggested that the structure of gender relations in entrepreneurship training can be improved by the attempt to incorporate gender aspects into various elements of the entrepreneurship training program.

Findings from this article also extend the gender schema theory. It argues that understanding the “gender gap” in entrepreneurship activities, including training, requires a focus on institutional and structural barriers women entrepreneurs face. This article reorients scholarship in the subject of entrepreneurship and gender through praxis or engaged practice, while also providing approaches to improve gender equality in entrepreneurial training. The theory suggests that women may be expected to be close to a certain set of gender information, which they then encode and organize into networks of mental associations. It allows them to make sense of their worlds and themselves such as being more human-centric for female entrepreneurs. This article argues that the gender schema or cognitive structures that represent information about masculinity–femininity in the training can be improved through the mechanism of training approach that engages gender mainstreaming and the implementation of innovation that equalizes men and women during the training scheme.

Practical and Social Implications

This article offers suggestions that provide practical implications for those in entrepreneurship training and education. Synergizing gender aspects with the inclusive learning design of the entrepreneurship training programs will reduce gender gaps. It is obvious that inclusion of live stories, work experiences, and backgrounds of all trainees for female entrepreneurs can be developed through the training that promotes experiencing, supporting them to reflect upon the new skills among women, and thinking and acting as an entrepreneur, not a woman.

The combined pedagogy of experiential learning through venture start-up, real-life learning with other women, the narration of business and personal experience, simulation, and apprenticeship can promote equitable training for female entrepreneurs in the long run.

Limitations

As this article focuses on the perspectives of female entrepreneurs, secondary data for this article are exclusive data from female entrepreneurs who attended the training programs, as suggested by the department of nonformal education. The lack of male perspectives on the training process and gender issues may contribute to the limited views on gender equality in the training programs.

It is also possible that in this study we collected primary data directly from the trainers, without including primary data from the entrepreneurs, business community, and the department of education that designed the training programs for the entire nation. Future research should expand views on gender barriers in the training programs for entrepreneurs by examining views from various stakeholders.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusion of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by The Ethics Committee on Human Subjects, Mahidol University. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors, and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: gender equality, Thailand, entrepreneurship education, feminist theories, SDG #4, SDG #10, SDG #5

Citation: Pimpa N (2021) Overcoming Gender Gaps in Entrepreneurship Education and Training. Front. Educ. 6:774876. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2021.774876

Received: 13 September 2021; Accepted: 24 November 2021; Published: 21 December 2021.

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Copyright © 2021 Pimpa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Nattavud Pimpa, [email protected]

This article is part of the Research Topic

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: The Response from Educational Research

Women entrepreneurship: research review and future directions

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• Published: 10 October 2016
• Volume 6 , article number  12 , ( 2016 )

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Studies on women entrepreneurship have witnessed a rapid growth over the past 30 years. The field is in an adolescence stage with a considerable number of journal articles, literature reviews and books being published on women entrepreneurs. The objective of this study is twofold. First is to examine the number of papers published on women entrepreneurship in 12 established entrepreneurship journals from 1900 to 2016. Second is to assess the growth of the field by specifically reviewing literature reviews published from 1980s till 2016 and put forward future research directions. Our review findings suggest that there is still a long way to go in terms of building a strong theoretical base for research on women entrepreneurship. The lens of feminist theories can be applied in conjunction with the existing entrepreneurship theories to advance the field. Methodologically, past research is dominated by the positivist paradigm and there is a need to embrace innovative methods to build explanations using a constructionist approach. Further, studies are mostly restricted within national boundaries primarily being conducted in developed economies. There is a need to build transnational networks and foster professional communities to enable the growth of the field.

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Introduction

Till the 1990s, mainstream academic journals and leading newspapers in the US perceived women owned firms as only small lifestyle businesses or sole proprietorship firms (Baker et al. 1997 ). The male-centered business model was considered as the natural model of doing business. However, research on women entrepreneurs’ reveals that entrepreneurship is a gendered phenomenon and entrepreneurial activities can be rooted in families (Jennings and Brush 2013 ).

Emerging literature suggests that women can play a significant role in the larger entrepreneurship phenomenon and economic development (Sarfaraz et al., 2014 ). As a result, there is an insistent need to investigate various dimensions of women entrepreneurship. The existing theoretical concepts need to be expanded to better explain the uniqueness of women entrepreneurship as a subject of research inquiry.

Addressing the need to build a better understanding, this paper attempts to present an overview of the field and highlight future research directions. In particular, this paper has two broad objectives. The first objective is to highlight the mainstream entrepreneurship journals and explore the number of papers published on women entrepreneurship in these journals till date. The second objective of the paper is to review the growth of the field and present an analysis of the literature review papers published on women entrepreneurship till 2016.

The paper is organized as follows. First, we discuss the growth and chronological history of the field of women entrepreneurship. Then, we discuss the research review approach followed in the paper and present the findings from our search using e-databases. Next, we present a summary and analysis of the literature review papers published from the 1980s till 2016. Finally, we discuss directions for future research and conclude the paper.

Women entrepreneurship: chronological history of the field

The literature on mainstream entrepreneurship primarily focusing on the male entrepreneur emerged in the 1930s. The late 1970s witnessed the emergence of an explicit sub-domain of women entrepreneurship (Jennings and Brush, 2013 ). This section outlines the chronological history of development of the literature on women/female entrepreneurship. Table  3 presents a summary of the key historical milestones in this sub-domain.

In 1976, Schwartz published the first academic paper on female entrepreneurship in the Journal of Contemporary Business and the first policy report in this area titled “The bottom line: Unequal enterprise in America” was released in 1979 in Washington DC. Hisrich and O’Brien ( 1981 ) made the first academic conference presentation on women entrepreneurs at the Babson College Conference on Entrepreneurship in 1981. The first academic book on female entrepreneurs was published in 1985 (Goffee and Scase, 1985 ).

Initial research on entrepreneurship assumed that male and female entrepreneurs were generally the same and there was no specific need for a separate investigation (Bruni et al. 2004 ). As a result, the sub-domain of women entrepreneurship did not develop as a significant area until the late 1990s to early 2000s (Jennings and Brush, 2013 ) with the launch of two dedicated conferences. First, a policy oriented Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Conference on women entrepreneurs in small and medium sized enterprises was held in 1998. Second, an academic conference Diana International was held in 2003.

It was not until 2009 that a niche journal titled the International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship was launched. Eventually, leading journals in the mainstream Entrepreneurship area recognized the growing need for research in this area. The journal of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice published a special issue on women entrepreneurship in 2006 and 2007 (de Bruin et al. 2006 ) and then again in 2012 (Hughes et al., 2012 ).

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM, http://www.gemconsortium.org/ ) also published a special report on women and entrepreneurship in 2006 followed by subsequent reports in 2010, 2012 and 2015. In 2015, Global Entrepreneurship Development Institute published the Female Entrepreneurship Index report that analyzed conditions for fostering women entrepreneurship in 77 countries. As per the report, the top ten countries for female entrepreneurs in 2015 were- United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Denmark, Netherlands, France, Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Norway (Terjesen and Lloyd, 2015 ).

Review method

We considered e-databases like EBSCO, ProQuest and Google Scholar as the main source for articles. The first objective of this paper was to identify and analyze the leading research journals in the broader area of entrepreneurship with a focus on women entrepreneurship papers. This analysis would help us reflect on the progress of the field and act as a potential source of published research reviews on women entrepreneurship.

McDonald et al. ( 2015 ) reviewed the research methods used in entrepreneurship from the year 1985 to 2013 and identified six top entrepreneurship journals. These include three top US journals (Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, and Journal of Small Business Management) and two top European journals (International Small Business Journal, and Entrepreneurship and Regional Development) having impact factors ranging from 1.33 to 2.97. We extend this list and add six more entrepreneurship journals from the Harzing journal quality list (Harzing, 2016 ). The Harzing list is a compilation of journal rankings from various sources like the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) Journal Rankings List, WU Wien Journal Rating, HEC Paris Ranking List, Association of Professors of Business in German speaking countries ranking list and others.

Altogether, we consider 12 established entrepreneurship journals having journal quality rankings ranging from A*, A, B and C (Harzing, 2016 ). Next, an advanced search for articles on women entrepreneurship was conducted with a combination of keywords “women” or “gender” in the paper title using the e-database EBSCO. We carried out 12 separate searches individually for each of the shortlisted entrepreneurship journal. The scope of the search included journal papers that were available online in EBSCO till May 2016.

Table  1 and Fig.  1 summarize our search results. Table  2 lists all the selected entrepreneurship journals along with the total number of 185 papers published on women entrepreneurs. Amongst the mainstream entrepreneurship journals, we find that the Journal of Small Business Management published the first paper in 1973, which was followed by the Journal of Business Venturing in 1988. Total number of papers published in the mainstream journals from 1900s till 2016 was 185 with the Journal of Small Business Management having the maximum number of papers. Interestingly, we find two mainstream entrepreneurship journals having no papers on women entrepreneurship. These two journals are Economics of Innovation and New Technology and the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research.

Papers on Women Entrepreneurs in established Entrepreneurship Journals

Figure  1 graphically illustrates the number of papers published in the 1900s and 2000–2016 in the 10 journals. The two journals mentioned earlier that had no papers on women entrepreneurship were dropped from this graph. We found a total of 138 papers published during the 2000 to 2016 time period. This clearly illustrates a substantial increase from a total number of 46 papers published during the 1900s. Except for two journals, namely the Journal of Business Venturing and the Journal of Small Business Management we see that the increase in publication trend is clearly visible in Fig.  1 . During the 2000–2016, the Journal of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice published the maximum number of papers (total 28) followed by Small Business Economics publishing 25 papers, Journal of Small Business Management publishing 22 papers and the Journal of Business Venturing publishing 13 papers. It is advisable to note that the journal list in Table  2 is only indicative of the existing established entrepreneurship journals and scholars seeking potential publication outlets can also consider other upcoming journals or interdisciplinary journals that are open to publishing research on women entrepreneurship.

Next, a second round of search was conducted for literature review articles published on women entrepreneurship in management and social science journals. We used a combination of keywords “female” or “women” or “gender” and “entrepreneur” and “review” or “literature” in the paper title using e-databases like EBSCO, ProQuest and Google Scholar. Only relevant review articles were shortlisted for our analysis after reading the abstracts. We also selected a comprehensive review article by Jennings and Brush ( 2013 ) published in The Academy of Management Annals as our foundational review paper. This paper helped us in identifying few more review articles that did not get covered in our search in paper titles. In all, we found 19 relevant literature review articles on women entrepreneurship published from 1986 till May 2016. These are discussed in detail under the Reviews section that follows.

An increase in the number of papers on women entrepreneurs resulted in publications of literature reviews to comprehend the state of the field. Table  3 presents a summary of the literature reviews published in research journals from 1986 to May 2016. There were two review papers published in the 1980s, five reviews in 1990s and twelve review papers in 2000s (up to 2016). These are covered in detail in the following sub-sections.

1980s reviews

Bowen and Hisrich published the first review paper on women entrepreneurs in 1986. They find only piecemeal studies on male and female entrepreneurs till the 1980s. These studies did not examine causal factors, which are likely to encourage a person to choose an entrepreneurial career. Further, they report that very less was known about female than male entrepreneurs. Using the lens of career theory Bowen and Hisrich ( 1986 ) proposed a career model including determinants of women’s entrepreneurial behavior. This first research review attempted to develop insights in this area and encourage women entrepreneurs in non-traditional industries.

The second review published by Birley ( 1989 ) studied whether female entrepreneurs were different from male entrepreneurs. The major difference between female entrepreneurs and male entrepreneurs was in their market-entry choices. Birley reports that nearly all the studies examined were descriptions of basic backgrounds and characteristics. There was a need to examine subtle factors like cultural conditioning and experiences. She proposes that the differences between men and women entrepreneurs are to be observed in a situational and cultural context. Till 1980s, the role of women in most western economies was seen as that of a wife and a mother. Women drew heavily upon home front for ideas and lacked basic commercial networks. As a result, the market entry choices of women differed. The review paper proposes that the advent of women founded businesses was one of the reflections of a changing society. In future the profile of women entrepreneurs are likely to match changing situations and become closer to that of male entrepreneurs.

1990s reviews

In 1990, the third published review by Moore ( 1990 ) suggests that focused studies on female entrepreneurship were a relatively new phenomenon in the late 1980s. The field was in an initial stage of paradigm development. She reviewed 21 studies on female entrepreneurship and reports that these studies were fragmented and unrelated in nature. These studies provided descriptions of only a small section of the larger population of female entrepreneurs. Further, these studies borrowed theoretical concepts from other areas that were not valid for the women entrepreneurship domain. Moore suggests that there is a need to establish a statistical research base and develop typologies, models and theories in this area.

The next review by Brush ( 1992 ) suggests that not only has the number of women business owners grown considerably over the past decade but also there has been an increase in the number of research studies on women business owners. She reports that research over the decade has shown some similarities and some differences between male and female business owners. Similarities have been reported on demographic features, some psychological traits and business skillset. Differences have been reported on educational background, occupation, motivation to start a business and approach to business creation and growth. She further suggests that the differences have not been fully explained in literature. Brush proposes an integrated perspective to explain gender-based differences, which is rooted in psychological and sociological theories. The integrated perspective suggests that women perceive their businesses as a cooperative network of relationships comprising of family, society and personal relationships. This view is different from the economic perspective of firm creation and is likely to offer explanations for differences between male and female entrepreneurs.

The fifth review (refer Table  3 ) by Fischer et al. ( 1993 ) also suggests that there is a need to build theoretical foundations in this area. They report that even though the research on women entrepreneurs has grown considerably there is still speculation on the differences between male and female entrepreneurs, which is largely atheoretical in nature. They use the perspectives of liberal feminism and social feminism to interpret the past research in this area. In addition to the review, the article also presents findings from a survey of 136 (including 11 women) manufacturing firm owners, 156 (including 29 women) retail firm owners, and 216 (including 20 women) service firm owners. Fischer et al. ( 1993 ) report no strong evidence for women-owned firms being impeded by the female owners’ lack of education or experience. From a policy perspective, this study suggests that access to apprenticeship in industry for women entrepreneurs can be beneficial as it is the best way to prepare for launching a business in a particular industry. Further, women entrepreneurs can also benefit by being exposed to business start-ups. They propose that the theories of liberal feminism and social feminism can be used to further understand undefined male and female socialization differences, which can possibly explain why men and women run their businesses in different yet equally effective ways.

The sixth review by Baker et al. ( 1997 ) reports a paradox- even though women business ownership has grown substantially in the US, the number of articles in newspapers (like New York Times and Wall Street Journal) and leading academic journals has declined. They report two dissenting voices including scholars and women advocacy groups. Scholars researching on sex and gender issues reason in favor of systematic empirical differences in male and female work behaviors. Women advocacy groups’ state that not only are women different but also women business owners possess unique advantages over men. Mainstream academic journals and media journalists perceived women owned firms as small lifestyle businesses or sole proprietorship firms. Baker et al. ( 1997 ) suggest that rising dissenting voices have been ignored by journalist and academic groups due to androcentrism, which assumes that the male-centered business model is the natural model or way of doing business. Baker et al.’s ( 1997 ) review finds small but significant gender differences in social behavior and leadership related studies that can offer interesting insights for understanding subtle characteristics of women business ownership behavior.

Mirchandani’s ( 1999 ) review of literature on female entrepreneurship uses the lens of feminist theory on gendered work. This review also tries to identify and provide explanations for similarities and differences between female and male entrepreneurs. The paper proposes that the field of women entrepreneurship can be advanced via deliberations on two topics. Firstly, scholars need to focus on the very construction of the female entrepreneur category, which lays greater emphasis on gender over other types of stratification. Secondly, there is a need to understand relationships between gender, occupation and organizational structure and their impact on female versus male entrepreneurs.

2000-2015 reviews

Research review by Gundry et al. ( 2002 ) suggests that the number of women owned enterprises and research studies on women entrepreneurship has grown steadily in the last two decades. The review summaries key topics, findings and offers directions for future research. Gundry et al. ( 2002 ) suggest that there is a need to study comparisons among sectors and understand the impact of factors like industry, family, culture and goal orientation in women founded enterprises. They also suggest that there is a need for research on women entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Ahl’s ( 2006 ) review article presents a critique using discourse analysis of 81 women entrepreneurship research articles that were published between 1982 and 2000. The review focuses mainly on articles from four leading entrepreneurship research journals namely (i) Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice (ii) Journal of Business Venturing (iii) The Journal of Small Business Management and (iv) Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. Ahl ( 2006 ) suggests that there is a need to expand the research object and move from an individualist focus of examining the female entrepreneur to include more factors and studies like contingency studies or comparative studies that include researchers from different countries. Contingency studies can examine external factors like legislation, social norms, family policy, economic policy, labor market structure, the degree of women entrepreneur’s participation, and others. Ahl ( 2006 ) also suggests that there is a need to make a shift in epistemological position from how gender is done (how women entrepreneurs construct their lives and businesses) to how social orders are gendered (examples include business legislations, policy, support systems, cultural norms, labor divisions). This paper offers new research directions that are not reproductions of women's subordination but offers a richer perspective on women entrepreneurship grounded in feminist theories.

The next article by de Bruin et al. ( 2006 ) is an introduction to Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice journal’s special issue on women entrepreneurship. It presents an overview of the sub-field and a review of the research articles submitted in response to the special issue’s call for papers. The journal received total 52 submissions from 132 authors in 21 countries. Finally 11 articles were published as special issues in two volumes of the journal. de Bruin et al. ( 2006 ) suggest that research on women entrepreneurship is still at an early childhood stage. They propose that there is a need to pursue more research that is connected to theory. This can help capture the heterogeneity in women entrepreneurship research. Further, they suggest that the field of entrepreneurship can advance by encouraging several scholarly communities to flourish that focus in depth on closely defined subject areas. And the area of women entrepreneurship can be one such scholarly community. de Bruin et al. ( 2006 ) also mention the Diana International Project that was initiated in 1999 to study women entrepreneurship in the US. The project now has participants from 20 countries and can be considered as a good example of developing focused professional communities in this area.

The next article, again, by de Bruin et al. ( 2007 ) is an introduction to the second volume of the special issue on women entrepreneurship. They present an analysis of the existing and future research themes in women entrepreneurship. Themes reported are financing the venture; networks or social capital; firm performance covering growth, growth strategies, and success; and individual characteristics like entrepreneurial orientation, self-efficacy, intentions, motivations and decision models. They highlight that very few authors had explicitly studied the entrepreneurial processes of women entrepreneurs. Further, there was paucity of research on environment for women entrepreneurship that may cover studies from different countries, regions (like rural or urban) and different business sectors. They also outline methodological issues and reason whether there is a need for a separate theory on women entrepreneurship. de Bruin et al. ( 2007 ) suggest that research on multiple levels involving multiple units of analysis is required to advance the field. They also suggest that the existing theoretical concepts need to be expanded to better explain the uniqueness of women entrepreneurship.

Brush et al. ( 2009 ) use an organizational framework to review the academic literature on women entrepreneurship. They propose a gender-aware framework for a holistic understanding of the phenomenon of women entrepreneurship. Founded on institutional theory, they build a framework around 3Ms (markets, money and management) and add two more constructs (motherhood and meso/macro environment) to construct a 5 M framework to study women entrepreneurship. They report that the variable Motherhood is a metaphor, which represents female entrepreneur’s household and family context. This can have a much larger impact especially in the case of female entrepreneurs as compared to male entrepreneurs. Going beyond the domain of markets, the meso/macro environment tries to capture influences of society, culture (macro), intermediate structures and institutions (meso).

The next review by Ahl and Nelson ( 2010 ) presents an analysis of the research trends on gender and entrepreneurship and offers recommendations for new directions. They suggest that there is a need to contrast empirical findings using male/female entrepreneurs as binary independent variables. More research is required on differences between male and female entrepreneur’s behavior in the context of social forces impacting them. They suggest that there is a need to re-frame the perspective on gender (differing from biological sex) in entrepreneurship research to include aspects of men, women, femininity or masculinity. They assert that a better dialogue can be achieved by using the word gender as a socially constructed phenomenon. In other words, scholars need to focus on understanding the distinguishing process of “doing entrepreneurship” in terms of “what women do” and “what men do”.

Sullivan and Meek ( 2012 ) review the literature from 1993–2010 on women entrepreneurship. They organize the literature review under a process model of entrepreneurship including pre-launch, launch and post-launch phases, which was initially proposed by Baron and Henry ( 2011 ). Sullivan and Meek ( 2012 ) extend this model and call it the process model of gender and entrepreneurship. They report that research on women entrepreneurship has increased in the last two decades but there is still a greater need for more studies in this area. They suggest that women are likely to face barriers to entry due to unequal access to assets or resources or education, and are likely to face differing societal attributions and expectations. To mitigate some of these concerns, women can be encouraged to pursue education in fields associated with highgrowth industries.

Ahl and Marlow ( 2012 ) argue that there exists an occluded gender bias within the entrepreneurship discourse. This is contrary to the neo-liberal views on entrepreneurship that propose only personal efforts as determinants of reward and status. They highlight that even though there have been calls to use feminist theories as analytical frames, there are scant evidences of such applications. They argue that there are gendered assumptions that limit epistemological scope of research in this area and positions women entrepreneurs as either failed or reluctant subjects. They propose that there is a need to build a reflexive critical perspective. This can help in evaluating the current theoretical approaches on women entrepreneurship within the broader ambit of entrepreneurship research.

The next article by Hughes et al. ( 2012 ) characterizes women entrepreneurship research as being on the brink of adolescence in 2012. This characterization is based on the visible growth indicators in the field like increasing number of conferences, journal special issue- call for papers and niche journals starting on this area (like the International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship). Further, there are examples of other publications like GEM reports, chapters and books being published in the area of women entrepreneurship. This paper is an introduction to the second special issue of the Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice journal on women entrepreneurship in the year 2012. It presents a critical review of the state of research and reviews the articles submitted to the journal’s call for papers. The special issue received total 40 submissions from 90 authors in 14 countries. The countries of submission included United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Canada, Germany, China, Netherlands, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan. The number of papers received was less than the first issue in 2006 and 2007. This could be due to presence niche journals on women entrepreneurship by 2012.

Hughes et al. ( 2012 ) report that there has been advancement in the type of questions being asked and the explanations being offered. They suggest that there is a need to be inclusive of diverse voices and apply a constructionist approach to answer traditional and non-traditional questions. They also indicate that most of the research collaborations in women entrepreneurship area are still restricted within national boundaries and future research needs building networks across transnational borders.

The next review paper by Jennings and Brush ( 2013 ) is a comprehensive review of the field that documents in detail development of research work on women entrepreneurship over 30 years. It presents an assessment of research contributions with reference to the larger context of entrepreneurship domain. It also discusses the challenges and opportunities for scholars studying the niche area of women entrepreneurship. Jennings and Brush ( 2013 ) use the lens of informed pluralism, which seeks to explore women entrepreneurship using extensions to and by general research on entrepreneurship. They further discuss that entrepreneurship is a gendered phenomenon and entrepreneurial activities can be rooted in families.

The next article by Goyal and Yadav ( 2014 ) is a review of challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in developing countries like India. They report that female entrepreneurs face challenges of higher magnitude as compared to their male counterparts. These challenges are unique and more complex for women living in developing countries. They find that women in developing countries struggle to gain access to finance, face socio-cultural biases and experience low self-esteem. They report that developing countries have institutional voids and low levels of entrepreneurial education. Goyal and Yadav ( 2014 ) suggest that there is a need to address these complex challenges in a comprehensive manner, which can assist research and policy work on women entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Henry et al. ( 2016 ) review the literature published on gender and entrepreneurship over a period of 30-years in 18 journals. They identify methodological trends in this area and discuss methodological innovations needed for future research. They find that there are large-scale empirical studies that primarily focus on comparisons between male and female entrepreneurs. There is often less information given on the industry sector or the sampling methods employed. They suggest that there is paucity of feminist critique and future scholars need to engage with post-structural feminist approaches. They suggest that there is a need to adopt innovative methods like in-depth qualitative approaches to study life histories, case studies or discourse analysis.

Directions for future research

Till the 1980s there were only piecemeal studies and very less was known explicitly about female entrepreneurs (Bowen and Hisrich, 1986). Initial studies were fragmented and unrelated in nature. These studies provided descriptions of only a small section of the larger population of female entrepreneurs (Moore, 1990 ). The role of women in most western economies was seen as that of a wife and a mother till the 1980s. As a result, women lacked basic commercial networks and their market entry choices differed (Birley, 1989). The advent of women founded businesses was considered as one of the reflections of a changing society.

Build theoretical explanations for gender based comparisons of business owners

In the 1990s, as the number of women business owners grew the number of research studies on women entrepreneurs also grew (Brush, 1992 ). Initial research was primarily focused on listing similarities and dissimilarities between male and female business owners. Differences were reported on educational background, occupation, motivation and method of business creation and growth. Researchers like Fischer et al. ( 1993 ) suggest that the differences reported in literature between male and female entrepreneurs were speculations and largely atheoretical in nature. There is a need to build more theoretical explanations and move beyond recording differences.

For example, Brush ( 1992 ) proposed an integrated perspective explaining gender related differences using psychological and sociological theories. This is different from the economic perspective of firm creation and assumes women entrepreneurs to perceive their businesses as cooperative networks of relationships involving family, society and personal relationships. Fischer et al. ( 1993 ) suggests using theories of liberal feminism and social feminism to understand undefined male and female socialization differences, which can help explain why men and women run their businesses in different yet equally effective ways.

Extend existing theories of entrepreneurship using a feminist perspective

There exists a debate in literature whether a new theory on women entrepreneurship is required. Many researchers suggest that the existing concepts of entrepreneurship itself can be used in conjunction with feminist theories to extend the theoretical foundation of the larger entrepreneurship field. In the past, many theoretical lenses have been used to examine the phenomenon of women entrepreneurship. For example, Bowen and Hisrich (1986) used career theory to propose a career model of women’s entrepreneurial behavior; Brush ( 1992 ) used psychological and sociological theories to explain gender-based differences; Brush et al. ( 2009 ) used institutional theory to propose gender as a social construct; and Sullivan and Meek ( 2012 ) used expectancy theory, regulatory focus theory and social cognitive theory to study entrepreneurial process model concepts. Ahl ( 2006 ) reports the use of many feminist theories like the liberal feminist theory, social feminist theory, psychoanalytical feminist theory, radical feminist theory, social constructionist and post-structural feminist theory. To advance our understanding of this field, there is also a need to make a shift in epistemological position from how gender is done to how social orders are gendered (Ahl, 200; Ahl and Nelson, 2010 ). Research efforts in this direction are likely to offer a richer perspective on women entrepreneurship. Scholars can use the existing concepts of entrepreneurship and ground them in feminist theories.

Study entrepreneurial processes of women founded business models

Women entrepreneurs comprise about a half of human resources in developing economies (World Bank, 2009 ). Despite an influx of women entering the field of entrepreneurship in developing countries (Gichuki et al., 2014 ), very few authors have explicitly examined the entrepreneurial processes of women founded businesses (de Bruin et al., 2007 ). In reality, women in developing countries are more likely to face complex barriers to entry and unequal access to resources and networks (Goyal and Yadav, 2014 ). Thus, there is a need to build an in-depth understanding of the business models of women founded firms from prelaunch to launch and post launch phases (Sullivan and Meek, 2012 ). Scholars can use the lens of process theories to understand the influence of gender in business models.

Expand the scope of research on women entrepreneurs: context and content

Our review findings suggest that there is a need to expand the scope of research on women entrepreneurs involving the context as well as the content of the research. de Bruin et al. ( 2007 ) report that the Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice journal’s special issue had generated interest on the topic in the researcher community and the special issue’s countries of submission included countries like United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Spain, Australia, China, France, India, Malaysia, Iran, Pakistan and Ghana. Despite the interest, we find that most of the literature on women entrepreneurship reports empirical studies primarily from the west. There are very few studies that explore this phenomenon in a developing economy context and there is a need for research on women entrepreneurs in developing countries (Gundry et al., 2002 ; Goyal and Yadav, 2014 ).

Further, the context can also be expanded in terms of the women entrepreneurship environment to study comparisons among class (upper, middle and lower), sectors (manufacturing, services and others), regions (urban and rural) and nations. Scholars can design studies to examine the impact of factors like industry, family, culture and goal orientation in women founded enterprises (Gundry et al., 2002 ). It would be interesting to observe sociocultural and economic class differences across nations with different cultural backgrounds.

Content-wise, there is a need to move beyond the individualist focus of the female entrepreneur and include more factors like contingency studies or comparative studies (Ahl, 2006 ). For instance, contingency studies can explore external factors like legislation, social norms, family policy, economic policy, labor market structures, and the degree of female business owner’s involvement. From a macro perspective, scholars can explore links between income class, educational attainment and women entrepreneurship. To foster entrepreneurship among young women, it would be useful to explore entrepreneurial intentions of young women from varied socioeconomic and class backgrounds in different cultural contexts.

Embrace innovative research methods to study women entrepreneurs

Review of literature reveals that most of the papers on women entrepreneurship fall under the positivist research paradigm. Many are empirical studies focusing on male and female entrepreneur comparisons, which provide less information on industry sectors or the sampling methods used (Henry et al. 2016 ). There is a need to adopt inductive methods of qualitative analysis that can help increase our understanding of entrepreneurship as a gendered phenomenon (Mirchandani, 1999 ) and advance theory in this area. For example, research methods like in-depth qualitative approaches can be used to investigate life histories, ethnographies and case studies or discourse analysis. Further, scholars can research the phenomenon of women entrepreneurship on multiple levels using multiple units of analysis (de Bruin et al., 2007 ).

The field of women entrepreneurship has come a long way since its emergence in the late 1970s. In this paper we report findings from 19 literature reviews on women entrepreneurship that were published between 1986 and 2016. We find that the initial studies on entrepreneurship primarily assumed male and female entrepreneurs to be the same and found no explicit need for a separate investigation. As a result, research on women entrepreneurship did not develop as a distinct domain until the late 1990s to early 2000s. This development witnessed the emergence of professional communities like the Diana International project, dedicated conferences and niche journals in this area. Mainstream entrepreneurship journals also acknowledged the need for research in this area and came out with special issues to advance the body of knowledge on women entrepreneurship.

Many studies in the past borrowed theoretical concepts from areas that were not valid for the women entrepreneurship domain. There is a need to be inclusive of diverse voices and consider constructionist approaches to explore traditional as well as non-traditional questions. Particularly, there is a need to use the lens of feminist theories to capture heterogeneity in women entrepreneurship research and extend existing entrepreneurial theories. There is also a need to study entrepreneurial processes of women founded business models and adopt innovativeness in research method choices.

Our review results can also be beneficial for startup managers and women entrepreneurs. In practice, aspiring women entrepreneurs can benefit by gaining access to apprenticeship in target industries. This experience can help them prepare better prior to launching their own business in that particular industry. Specifically, gaining exposure to a business start-up can be beneficial. Further, much of the collaborations in the women entrepreneurship area are still restricted within national boundaries and there is a need to build research as well as practice networks across transnational borders.

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Yadav, V., Unni, J. Women entrepreneurship: research review and future directions. J Glob Entrepr Res 6 , 12 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40497-016-0055-x

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Factors affecting women entrepreneurs’ success: a study of small- and medium-sized enterprises in emerging market of Pakistan

• Rizwan Ullah Khan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9633-3189 1 ,
• Yashar Salamzadeh 1 ,
• Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah 2 &
• Mazhar Hussain 2  

Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship volume  10 , Article number:  11 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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In the present era, women are recognized as successful entrepreneurs through their strong desire, qualities, and capabilities for robust economic development. Due to such an important contribution of women in economic development, we propose to investigate the factors which affect women entrepreneur’s success in Pakistan. Data were collected through structured questionnaires from 181 registered SMEs operating in Pakistan. A conceptual model is developed, while SPSS and AMOS software’s are used for analysis. The results indicate that the internal factors including the need for achievements, risk-taking, and self-confidence and external factors including economic factors and socio-cultural factors have a positive and significant influence on the success of women-owned enterprises. This research recommends Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), policymakers, and practitioners to encourage women entrepreneurs to run their businesses for the long term by providing a variety of incentives and supports related to those internal and external factors. Numerous studies have been conducted to test the different factors’ effects on women’s entrepreneurial success, but our study investigated some psychological, cultural, and religious factors that are still almost untouched especially in Pakistan. The current study also contributes to the existing literature through empirical shreds of evidence.

Introduction

Women’s entrepreneurship is a growing global phenomenon, attracting considerable research attention during the last few decades (Henry, Foss, & Ahl, 2016 ). Not only does it contribute to economies in terms of job creation and economic growth (Kelley, Bosma, & Amoros, 2010 ), it is also recognized as a source of increasing entrepreneurial diversity in a range of economic contexts (Verheul et al., 2006 ); as such, it offers a valuable focus for concerted scholarly research. However, despite the significant contribution of women entrepreneurship in Pakistani context, still, it faces numerous barriers and challenges, which can hinder them from entrepreneur’s success (Torres-Ortega, Errico, & Rong, 2015 ). On the other hand, women entrepreneurs have been ignored to be supported on starting their venture in many emerging economies (Roomi & Parrott, 2008a , 2008b ). Unfortunately, less attention has been given to women entrepreneurs in emerging economies despite their sustainable contributions toward GDP (Kelley et al., 2010 ) and poverty alleviation (Khan, 2014 ). Due to the complex interaction of socio-cultural factors, religious, and family structures (Roomi, 2013 ). The role of women in Pakistan’s traditional and masculine society has been the subject of debate. Women face discrimination and gender inequalities owing to gender-biased power relations based on inequality and prejudice (Roomi, Rehman, & Henry, 2018 ). This research is an attempt to discover factors influencing the performance of women entrepreneurs in this context.

Therefore, past studies scrutinized that family support, self-confidence and motivation (Azmi, 2017 ), risk-taking and motivation (Abd Rani & Hashim, 2017 ), and lack of business skills (Muhammad, McElwee, & Dana, 2017 ) plays a very important role in women employee performance. While, government policies, access to finance, culture, and regulation (Muhammad et al., 2017 ) significantly affect women-run enterprises’ success. As (Modarresi, Arasti, Talebi, & Farasatkhah, 2016 ) finding suggest that employee’s behaviors, culture, economic, and environmental factors significantly affect firm performance. Therefore, the current study examines internal and external factors effect on women firm performance because developing countries have different culture, religious, and cultural activities, which are significantly different from other religions (Khan, 2014 ); in addition, there is huge uncertainty in economic and government sectors which is a big challenge for women investors during investment decision (Plotnikov, Salamzadeh, Demiryurek, Kawamorita, & Urasova, 2019 ). Therefore, checking these internal and external factors are very crucial in women’s employee context because sometimes due to government policies or environmental factors, uncertainty can disturb employee behaviors such as motivation, confidence level which negatively affect women’s firm performance. While, definitely several past studies tested these factors in developed countries (Hasan & Almubarak, 2016 ; Abd Rani & Hashim, 2017 ) where women entrepreneurs have different supportive rules and regulations for launching their own business and running it. Thereby, Modarresi et al. ( 2016 ), demonstrates that both factors can significantly affect women entrepreneurial success in developing economies, underpinning through upper echelons theory (Fig. 1 ).

Women entrepreneur’s challenges. Source by Researcher

In addition, our study suggests several theoretical contributions. In women’s success contexts, many studies have been conducted in few decades but none of them has used upper echelons theory or has not covered all these internal and external factors in emerging economies (Lai, Lin, & Chen, 2017 ). Upper echelons theory was recognized by Hambrick & Mason, 1984 , which demonstrates that the influence of top management behavior personalities affect organizational performance. Here, the current study is conducted on emerging economies while previous studies tested in mixed economies of overall employee performance (Hasan & Almubarak, 2016 ; Plotnikov et al., 2019 ; Abd Rani & Hashim, 2017 ). Nevertheless, there is no single study to check women’s behaviors, attitudes, economic, and environmental factors effect on firm performance in an emerging economy.

Theoretical background

The main objective of the current study is to determine the effect of the different factors on women’s entrepreneurial success, underpinning through upper echelons theory. It is recognized by Hambrick & Mason, 1984 , which explains that the top employee behavior significantly affects organizational performance. In this study, women entrepreneur’s behaviors (self-confidence, risk-taking, and motivation) and external factors significantly affect firm performance. The theory explains that those top managers’ values, behavior, and external factors impact business success. Furthermore, Hambrick ( 2007 ) split the upper echelons theory into two parts. The first part explains the external factors (political, environmental, and financial), which influence the entrepreneurial success of the firm.

While the second part explains internal factors such as perceptions and experiences’ impact on top managers of the businesses. Past literature reveals that managers’ traits affect the women-owned business success (Herrmann & Nadkarni, 2014 ; Heyden, Fourné, Koene, Werkman, & Ansari, 2017 ). Therefore, we argue that these internal (need for achievement, risk-taking, and self-confidence) and external (economic and socio-cultural) factors are more likely to construct a positive link with business success, according to the upper echelon’s theory.

Several research studies have concluded that managers’ characteristics influence organizations’ strategic behaviors (Colbert et al., 2014 ; Herrmann & Nadkarni, 2014 ; Heyden et al., 2017 ). Thus, it is not surprising that managers with different personalities will prefer different strategic behaviors that will ultimately influence organizational outcomes. There is little doubt that change and innovation in organizations can be brought about by top managers; rather than bottom-line managers (Heyden et al., 2017 ). Nonetheless, theory development about top management psychological attributes and organization innovation is scarce (Tuncdogan et al., 2017 ). Hence, research in respect of the upper echelon’s theory is necessary for the current era.

The empirical study focuses on different internal and external factors, which have an impact on women's entrepreneurial success. Hence, define these internal and external factors in their literature as presented in Table 1 .

Women entrepreneurs in Pakistan

The status of women in Pakistan is not homogenous because of the interconnection of sexual orientation with different types of exclusion in society. Due to cultural norms, religious prescriptions, and practices identified for women, their status and role differ and sometimes is conflicting. These practices enormously restrict the accessibility of opportunities to women all through Pakistan.

Therefore, according to a global entrepreneurship monitor (GEM) (Qureshi, Kratzer & Mian 2011 ), Pakistan registered in “factors-driven” countries with an early stage total entrepreneurial activity (TEA) rate of 9.07%, at the bottom of the whole group. The early-stage TEA rate for women is 1.73, compared to 15.94 for men. The TEA rate for women is one of the lowest ones among all participating countries in the global entrepreneurship monitor survey (Qureshi, Kratzer & Mian 2011 ). However, besides all these challenges, the government of Pakistan has started some initiatives for female entrepreneurs and established a women business development center (WBDCs) Footnote 1 in 2012 under the SMEDA, to increase the awareness of women entrepreneurs regarding business start-ups. In addition, the government of Pakistan has started the first women bank Ltd. to help women to get access to loans easier Footnote 2 . During 2012, after great women community struggles, they launched Women Business Development Centers (WBDCs) in all big cities of Pakistan Footnote 3 .

In this cultural context, women’s participation in business activities creates a big problem with balancing the job and family (Rehman & Azam Roomi, 2012 ). Moreover, the question becomes more serious when we talk about Pakistan, where women roles, regulations, religious, and culture are different from other nations because Pakistan is a Muslim country, where culture and religion has a vital impact on women profile (Khan, 2014 ). Hence, the previous studies contribute that women are facing many challenges because of Islamic religious rules and cultural traditions. Similarly, a study conducted in the Iran context, which postulates that women in Islamic developing countries are facing cultural limitations and gender-related inequalities (Modarresi et al., 2016 ). In addition, Rehman and Azam Roomi ( 2012 ) showed that gender bias, lack of time, and family-related issues have a significant impact on women’s business success. Beside all these cultural and religious barriers in Pakistan, there are other problems related to gender as well; for example, women have not full access to the opportunities that men have easy access to (Roomi & Parrott, 2008a , 2008b ).

Azam Roomi and Harrison ( 2010 ) posit in their literature that;

Women in Islamic countries have barrios to become entrepreneurs. These barriers can be reduced by women having entrepreneurial competencies

Therefore, Modarresi et al. ( 2016 ) suggested that women who own businesses are encouraged through intrinsic motivation such as the need for achievement, self-confidence, and socio-cultural activities. While some previous studies also explain that women-owned businesses roles and regulation are significantly different from mixed-gender owned (Rey-Martí, Porcar, & Mas-Tur, 2015 ). Therefore, female entrepreneurs usually do not invest in a company as much as men, due to less self-confidence level and risk aversion.

Hypotheses development

Need for achievement and women entrepreneurs’ success.

Achievement is a hidden motivation force developed through the support of human main perception (McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1976 ). It is defined as the desire for success or achievement to excellence (Balogun, Balogun, & Onyencho, 2017 ) while Jayeoba, Sholesi, and Lawal ( 2013 ) defined it as a source of motivation for long-term entrepreneur’s success and an indication for improvement of the desire to get a great achievement in his life or business. Similarly, the willingness to achieve has characteristics such as difficult tasks, responsibility, and focus on success (Rauch & Frese, 2007 ). McClelland’s motivation theory (McClelland, 1988 ) suggested that human being has three sorts of achievement motivation needs, need for achievement, need for power, and need for affiliation. However, the need for achievement is essential for top managers to achieve their targets (Dewi, Bundu, & Tahmir, 2016 ).

Successful entrepreneurs have characteristics such as exploiting opportunities and quick investment decision-making compared to the high market uncertainty (Viinikainen et al., 2017 ). Nurwahida ( 2007 ) claimed that most successful women entrepreneurs have the characteristics of motivation and risk-taking while achievement is also one of the crucial attributes mentioned by Rasheed ( 2001 ). Past studies have investigated that those top women entrepreneurs who have high motivation, entrepreneurial intention, and managerial skills can improve their business success easier (Al Mamun & Ekpe, 2016 ). Moreover, the motivation for achieving objective behavior is supportive for top managers (Rasheed, 2001 ). Dolan, Peasgood, and White ( 2008 ) specified that motivation behavior is not just supporting the managers but at the same time, it plays a vital role as the backbone for achieving their targets.

There is some evidence that women entrepreneurs have a stronger impact on business success, especially in firms that represent relatively fixed personality traits such as motivation (Ehman et al., 2017 ). While Chuluunbaatar, Ottavia, and Kung ( 2011 ) explained that entrepreneurial orientation in the start-up stage affects social capital and personal characteristics, they also have revealed that these own characteristics include motivation and ability of risk-taking. These personal factors also have a positive impact on SMEs (Mahadalle & Kaplan, 2017 ; Ehman et al., 2017 ; Chuluunbaatar et al., 2011 ). Based on the past literature, we propose that women entrepreneurs’ success, who have high motivation and need for achievement, can have a significant and positive impact on their business success.

H1a: The need for achievement has a significant positive effect on women entrepreneurs’ success

Risk-taking and women entrepreneurs’ success

From an entrepreneur’s success story (Zhang & Cain, 2017 ), not everyone gets inspired but specifically, those who wish to start their own business, because they want to accept a higher level of risk (Bird, 1988 ; Chen, Greene, & Crick, 1998 ). Therefore, previous literature postulated that the risk-taking tendency among entrepreneurs is unfailing (MacCrimmon & Wehrung, 1990 ). Thereby, the constancy of this idea has confronted from time to time; there are some cross-debates, which believe that entrepreneurs can pose risk-taking capabilities at the same time (Palich & Bagby, 1995 ). Academic literature postulated that women CEOs in an uncertain situation could take the risk, which significantly affects firm performance and success (Wiklund & Shepherd 2005 ) because entrepreneurs highly inclined to take risks might receive compensation through higher expected profits (Danso, Adomako, Damoah, & Uddin, 2016 ).

Women entrepreneurship and risk are two concepts that are viewed as devoted to entrepreneurship literature. For example, women entrepreneurship mostly correlated with risk exposure, separating women entrepreneurship from employees and managers (Begley & Boyd, 1987 ). For this reason, the way a woman deals with risk is likely to influence the firm’s performance (Pattillo & Söderbom, 2000 ). Thereby, women entrepreneurs are encouraged to take investment in the turbulent market (Johnell et al., 1995 ), because female entrepreneurs have the validity to make decisions in the turbulence market (Gedajlovic, Lubatkin, & Schulze, 2004 ).

Given that, female CEOs are interested in participating in risky activities, while Zalata, Ntim, Aboud, and Gyapong ( 2019 ) scrutinized that women are more risk-taker, which significantly impact firm performance and success, especially in emerging economies (Zalata et al., 2019 ). As such, the level of risk-taking by the women entrepreneur is expected to have a positive impact on performance (Wang & Poutziouris, 2010 ; Zalata et al., 2019 ; Zhao, Seibert, & Lumpkin, 2010 ). Therefore, we postulate from previous literature that women entrepreneurs are more risk-taker oriented during the decision-making process; it, in turn, has some impacts on firm performance and business success.

H1b: Risk-taking has a significant and positive effect on women entrepreneurs’ success.

Self-confidence and women entrepreneurs’ success

Confidence in entrepreneurship literature is defined as the capability of entrepreneurial perception, which helps entrepreneurs to pursue their target with a strong belief on their way (Twibell et al., 2008 ). Self-confidence plays a critical role in entrepreneurship literature and it is believed that it helps entrepreneurs in their entrepreneurial activities (Oney & Oksuzoglu-Guven, 2015 ). While Hassan and Yusof ( 2015 ) noted that the self-confidence level of entrepreneurs is their basic thoughts on behalf of their businesses and their interest to face any unexpected failure in the future. Rieger ( 2012 ) suggested that entrepreneurs struggle for their objectives with high self-confidence. Abd Rani and Hashim ( 2017 ) showed that the women entrepreneurs, who have a high self-confidence level, could quickly gain a competitive advantage in emerging markets while facing different barriers that need to set an objective on or plan a better policy to reach business goals (Moloi & Nkhahle-Rapita, 2014 ). Similarly, researchers stated that women entrepreneurs, which have a high level of motivation, low anxiety level, and high self-confidence, could better gain a competitive advantage in turbulent markets (Balogun et al., 2017 ).

On the other hand, entrepreneurial intention is also affected by the self-confidence level and without these factors, it will be impossible to compete in the turbulent markets (Mehtap, Pellegrini, Caputo, & Welsh, 2017 ). Hence, past literature suggested that women naturally tend to show less intention toward entrepreneurial activities as compared to men, while their decision-making style is also affected by low self-confidence level (Díaz-García & Jiménez-Moreno, 2010 ). Besides all these issues as mentioned by Al-Dajani and Marlow ( 2010 ) due to cultural and religious boundaries in Islamic countries, women mostly get permission from their husband, brother, or father for starting up a new venture; these all can increase or decrease their self-confidence level.

Furthermore, Dabic, Daim, Bayraktaroglu, Novak, and Basic ( 2012 ) conducted a study comparing male and female entrepreneurs’ confidence level and found that male entrepreneurs have higher confidence compare to females. Hence, the results from previous literature suggested that women’s entrepreneurial intention and confidence positively influence their business success (Balogun et al., 2017 ; Mondal, Ghosh, & Das, 2013 ). Based on the above literature, the below hypothesis is developed:

H1c: Self-confidence has a significant and positive impact on women entrepreneurs’ success .

Economic factors and women entrepreneurs’ success

Economic factors refer to the arrangement of necessary data identified with internal company financing and external financial situation, which influences business success (Wube, 2010 ). Even though there is an agreement that women can scarcely get credit for their entrepreneurial ventures in many developing countries like Pakistan, the rate of women’s commitment to the economy in the private sector is strikingly contrasted with their male counterparts. In a large number of developing countries, women need to find solutions and gain easy access to finance for their startup businesses. While as mentioned by Afza and Amir Rashid ( 2009 ), women entrepreneurs are significantly affected by external factors such as political, financial, and social factors, almost in any sector. Furthermore, Saleem ( 2017 ) postulated that women entrepreneurs’ success was significantly affected by external factors such as the environment, government policies, and political issues in emerging economies.

In addition, political, economic, and environmental factors are an external factor and play a pivotal role in firms’ success. In women context, SMEs which have a lack of finance for developmental and other innovative strategies cannot gain and sustain a competitive advantage and manage the political, economic, and social issues themselves (Abdallah & Alnamri, 2015 ; Radzi, Nor, & Ali, 2017 ). Lindvert, Patel, and Wincent ( 2017 ) found that fluctuation in political and economic systems affects women entrepreneurs’ success. Hence, the external factors (e.g., financial and political factors) significantly increase or decrease business performance and success (Abdallah & Alnamri, 2015 ; Lindvert et al., 2017 ; Radzi et al., 2017 ; Saleem, 2017 ). Based on the above literature, we propose below hypothesis:

H1d. Economic factors have a significant and positive effect on women entrepreneurs’ success.

Socio-cultural factors and women entrepreneurs’ success

Socio-cultural factors include a blend of social and cultural factors that affect women entrepreneurs’ success. In Islamic countries, social and cultural norms on the one hand and family issues, on the other hand, are the most serious issues for women entrepreneurs (Poggesi, Mari, & De Vita, 2016 ). Hence, Roomi et al. ( 2018 ) suggest that women’s entrepreneurial career choices both revolve around and are shaped by a complex interplay of socio-cultural factors. In addition, socio-cultural factors determine the level of entrepreneurial activity in a specific time and place (Veciana, 1999 ). While Arasti, Zandi, and Talebi ( 2012 ) explained that social relationships have a crucial impact on women business’s performance and success. It empowers the business visionary to distinguish opportunities and resources better. Social networks affect entrepreneurs’ business start-up initiatives as it shows them a model for progress and gains support (Mehtap et al., 2017 ). Even the social bonds and networks with close relatives and life partner is a critical issue for women entrepreneurs’ success (Omwenga, Mukulu, & Kanali, 2013 ). Balakrishnan and Low ( 2016 ) postulated that social-cultural factors (religious, family, etc.) significantly affect women entrepreneurs’ decision-making and success in developing economies. Based on the above-mentioned literature, we propose this hypothesis (Fig. 2 ):

Conceptual framework

H1e. Socio-cultural factors has a significant and positive effect on women entrepreneurs’ success.

Methodology

Procedure and participants.

Data is collected from the SMEs sector operating in the emerging market of Pakistan (Islamabad, Lahore, and Rawalpindi). Only registered SMEs are targeted. The list of registered SMEs is taken from the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce, Lahore chamber of commerce, and Rawalpindi chamber of commerce, verified by Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), which is a governmental institute under the Ministry of industries and production, established in October 1998. The target population are women SMEs, definition in Pakistani context, those small enterprises which have more than 10 and less 250 employees SMEDA, 2018; Khan, Salamzadeh, Kawamorita, & Rethi, 2020 ), managed and controlled by women. We collected data from 3 April 2020 to 15 July 2020 through structured questionnaires from women entrepreneurs. There is a total of 323 women-owned small enterprises registered in these three big cities run and managed by women directors. For selection of sample, we used (Krejcie and Morgan, 1970 ) sample calculation table because we have total firm detail taken from SMEDA. For choosing the sample, we used simple random sampling technique because sampling random sampling techniques is widely used techniques in small enterprises (Healey, 2014 ). In random sampling techniques, every sample or enterprise has an equal chance (Kumar, 2008 ). For selection the total number of sample, Krejcie and Morgan, table, we distributed 323 questionnaires through email and Google doc. Approach to women entrepreneurs and finally, because of Covid-19, we cannot personally visit the enterprises due to governmental restriction of SOPs. Hence, after distribution, we received 197 questionnaires. From this number of questionnaires, 16 questionnaires had some missing values and therefore excluded from our final samples. Hence, a total of 79 responses from Rawalpindi, 54 from Islamabad, and 48 from Lahore are used in this research.

Measurement instrument

In the current study, we adapted the scales of main constructs from the previous literature and used confirmatory factor analysis for checking the reliability and validity of the main constructs.

Women entrepreneurs’ success

The women entrepreneurs’ success is dependent variable and it is measured through the nine-item questionnaire adapted from previous literature used by Maehr and Sjogren ( 1971 ) by crown back alpha more than 0.70.

Self-confidence

The self-confidence is an independent main construct that refers to the employee’s motivation and encourage toward the achievement. Self-confidence is measured through a six-item questionnaire adapted from the previous studies developed by Jones, Swain, and Cale ( 1991 ) with more than 0.70 crown back alpha.

• Need for achievement

Next, need for achievement is an independent main construct, which it refers to the employee’s struggling for achieve the main objective. In the current study, need for achievement measured through adapted previous studies using a five-item questionnaire developed by (Zeffane, 2013 ) having crown back alpha more than 0.70.

• Risk taking

Furthermore, risk-taking is a third independent main variable; it refers to the employee’s bold decision for gaining the external opportunity. In the current study, risk-taking is measured through 4 items adapted questionnaires from previous studies developed by Steensma and Corley ( 2001 ) having more than 0.70 crown back alpha.

• Economic factors

The fourth one is an economic factor, and in the current model, it plays a role as independent main construct. The economic factors refer to the different economical aspects that effect on the firm and economic stability. It is measured through adapted questionnaires from previous literature using a four-item developed by Wube ( 2010 ) having crown back alpha more than 0.70.

• Socio-cultural factors

The fifth one is a socio-cultural factor, and in the current model, it plays a role as independent main construct. The socio-cultural factor refers to the different external cultural which is related to an employee’s traits effect on firm’s and economics’ instability. It is measured through adapted questionnaires from previous literature using a four-item developed by Wube ( 2010 ) having crown back alpha more than 0.70.

Control variables

For the purpose to reduce spurious insights of this study, we used work status and women education level as control variables to check different factors effect on women’s entrepreneurial success. Because Huarng, Mas-Tur, and Yu’s ( 2012 ) finding postulate that women entrepreneurs status plays a significant role in firm performance while on the other side, educated women take good investment decisions that impact firm performance (Robinson, Blockson, & Robinson, 2007 ). Therefore, we suppose these two variables to control the firm performance.

Common bias method

Subsequently, collecting data through a single source (questionnaire), the common bias method (CBM) issue might happen (Podsakoff & Organ, 1986 ). Women cannot easily take decision, so that is why their every strategic decision are full of biases. Therefore, for checking CBM, we applied Harman’s one-factor using factor analysis by extraction method of “principal component analysis” in SPSS. Harman’s one-factor test results show that there are six factors, which have Eigenvalues more than 1, while their first factor is explaining 32.45% of the total variance. It indicates that there is no such a kind of common bias method problem in the data, as the first factor explains a great part of the total variance (Hair, Anderson, Babin, & Black, 2010 ; Podsakoff & Organ, 1986 ).

Measurement model results

The current study uses AMOS for measurement model, validity, reliability, normality, and multi-collinearity for fruitful insights. Table 2 explains that data normality is assessed through the skewness and kurtosis; the results are in the acceptance rage ± 2, which explains that observed variables of this study are within the normal range (George & Mallery 2010 ; Khan & Ghufran, 2018 ). In addition, in the current study, we evaluate the Mardia’s coefficient using wed basd software “ https://webpower.psychstat.org/models/kurtosis” suggested by Cain, Zhang, and Yuan ( 2017 ) because we collected the data from women top managers, so it needs to check the deep normality. Hence, the results show that skewness and kurtosis values are 1369.008 and 3080.546 respectively with p value < 0.05, which is larger than Mardia’s coefficient (Mardia, 1970 ) (see Table 4 for more detail). Hence, on the base of Mardia’s results, we reject the null hypotheses because the data are not normally distributed. While, the current study shows that there is no multicollinearity problem in the model because the latent variables have a variance inflation factor (VIF) less than 3 (Hair et al., 2010 ) and tolerance value is greater than 0.10. Hence, it indicates that there is no multi-collinearity problem in the model as shown in Table 3 (Hair et al., 2010 ).

A confirmatory factor analysis contended through AMOS to check the model fitness, reliability, and validity as shown in Fig. 3 . All the items factor loading above the threshold level of 0.70 and significantly loaded ( p < 0.01) of all their respective items.

Confirmatory factor analysis

The convergent validity is identified by taking a square of all items errors in factor loading on a construct and then is divided to the sum of all factor loadings on the average number of items. The results in Table 5 explain that all constructs have convergent validity of more than 0.50 (Hair et al., 2010 ; Khan, 2019 ). Discriminant validity is calculated by taking the square root of AVE and results are shown in Table 4 . The discriminant validity results interpret that each value of the discriminant validity value is more than 0.70, which shows that all items are unique as required (Hair et al., 2010 ). In addition, composite reliability indicates the loaded internal stability of each construct. In Table 5 , the results are shown and it is clear that all constructs have reliability of more than 0.70, which is the accepted range as recommended by Nunnally and Bernstein ( 1994 ).

The first test of model fitness results was not good; therefore, we checked the model modification indices (MI) and the results indicate that there are some redundancy items in our model. Therefore, we removed problematic items and the second round of results shows a good model fit.

Thus, the model fit criteria achieved are shown in Table 6 . However, Barclay, Higgins, and Thompson ( 1995 ) suggested that we need to ensure the validity and reliability of the constructs before testing hypotheses in structural equation modeling. Table 6 shows a good model fit result according to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Correlation

In the current study, we used Pearson correlation by SPSS software for evaluating the correlations. The results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between self-confidence and women entrepreneurs’ success ( r = 0.39, p < 0.05). Furthermore, we found that the need for achievement has a significant positive correlation with women entrepreneurs’ success ( r = .30, p < .001) and similarly risk-taking also has a significant positive correlation with women entrepreneurs’ success ( r = 0.01, p < 0.43). While economic factors have a significant positive correlation with women entrepreneurs’ success ( r = 0.522, p < 0.001) and finally socio-cultural factors have a significant positive correlation with women entrepreneurs’ success ( r = 0 .41, p < 0.05) (Table 7 ).

Table 8 represents the multiple regression model, as the current model has no depending factors, which affects the model therefore the current relationship just reveals between predictor and response variables. Thereby, our results explain that the need for achievement has a positive and significant impact on the women entrepreneurs’ success (β = 0.25, p value > 0.05); it suggests that women managers having a strong motivation and intention to achieve his target in the Pakistani context. Therefore, it explains that women entrepreneurs’ success enhances 25% if there is a 1% increase in women entrepreneurs’ motivation to get their targets.

Moreover, our result reveals that risk-taking has a significant and positive impact on women entrepreneurs’ success (β = 0.29, p value > 0.00). It shows that if women entrepreneurs can take decisions (for example, financial or investment decisions) wisely having all the barriers in their minds, it can push their business toward success in the long term. Therefore, it means that for each 1% increase in taking a risky decision, a 29% increase in their business success will be expected.

In addition, self-confidence has a positive and significant relationship with women entrepreneurs’ success (β = 0.64, p value > 0.05). It shows that the women entrepreneurs, who have a high self-confidence level, take any uncertainty issue very easily without feeling any depression, so it can help during firm performance and success for the long-term. It means that for each 1% increase in self-confidence level, there will be a 64% increase in women entrepreneurs’ success.

In external factors, our results explain that economic factor has also a significant and positive impact on women entrepreneurs’ success (β = 0.24, p value > 0.05). It explains that if there is no uncertainty such as political, environmental, or financial in a business environment, then firms can achieve their targets smoothly, so we found that women entrepreneurs are significantly affected by these factors, because each 1% fluctuation in external factors, its effects on women entrepreneurs’ success will be 24%.

Similarly, socio-cultural factors also have a significant impact on women entrepreneurs’ success (β = 0.34, p value > 0.05); it postulates that women entrepreneurs have many socio-cultural factors in their business environment; they cannot achieve their targets because these factors significantly contribute on their success. Hence, the underline study explains that each 1% interchange in these factors in their business environment will result in a 34% impact on their success.

As R 2 = 0.191 in our research model, it indicates that 19% of the total variance in women entrepreneurs’ success can be using these internal and external factors such as the need for achievement, self-confidence, risk taking, economic factors, and socio-cultural factors.

Discussion and conclusion

Results of the current study reveal that internal factors including self-confidence, risk taking, and need for achievement, and external factors including economic and socio-cultural factors have a positive and significant impact on women entrepreneurs’ success in Pakistan. So, our findings support the previous studies results in both developed and developing economies such as Azmi ( 2017 ), Abd Rani and Hashim ( 2017 ), and Muhammad et al. ( 2017 ) suggested that women entrepreneurs internal behavior self-confidence and motivational force enhance the competitive advantage; these capabilities help them to become a successful women entrepreneur. On the other hand, some other researchers (Hasan & Almubarak, 2016 ; Muhammad et al., 2017 ) suggested that external factors also influence women entrepreneurs’ success. While, our study is different from developed economies finding because they (Bastian, Sidani, & El Amine, 2018 ; Laudano, Zollo, Ciappei, & Zampi, 2018 ) suggested that these factors cannot significantly enhance women entrepreneurs’ success.

The current study concluded that the “need for achievement” factor has a positive and significant impact on women entrepreneurs’ success. So, our findings are consistent with previous studies (Chuluunbaatar et al., 2011 ; Mahadalle & Kaplan, 2017 ; Ehman et al., 2017 ) who suggested that women entrepreneurs who have a high level of motivation can succeed during the business. Hence, our finding demonstrates that those women entrepreneurs, who have a high degree of motivation for working or starting a new venture, can easily success in his job. While Bastian, Sidani, & El Amine ( 2018 ), who conducted a study in the Middle East, suggested that motivation for gaining his objective can play a pivotal role in business success. So, on the base of aligning our results with previous studies, our H 1 is supported.

Next, our results postulate that risk-taking has a positive and significant impact on women entrepreneurs’ success. Therefore, our finding favors past literature (Meroño-Cerdán, López-Nicolás, & Molina-Castillo, 2018 ) who demonstrated that feeling hesitation during decision-making can affect the firm performance. In addition, Panno, Donati, Milioni, Chiesi, and Primi ( 2018 ) suggest that new ventures have many taking risk behaviors as compare to old firms. Therefore, our findings are aligned with previous studies that women entrepreneurs who feel risk-aversion will affect their SME’s performance and success (González, Guzmán, Pombo, & Trujillo, 2013 ; Panno et al., 2018 ).

Self-confidence is very essential for top managers during decision-making for the long and short term. Therefore, our findings postulate that self-confidence has a positive and significant influence on women entrepreneurs’ success in emerging economies. Because our finding is familiar with previous studies conducted in developed economies (Balogun et al., 2017 ; Mondal et al., 2013 ), which suggest that top management with high confidence can easily compete in the market and get success. While Oney and Oksuzoglu-Guven’s ( 2015 ) finding demonstrates that bold manager can easily take investment decision as compared to having low confidence. Therefore, on the basis of these arguments, we suggest that confidant women entrepreneurs can easily get success. However, we differentiate our study, as the context of it is an Islamic economy, where rules and regulations are different for women to achieve success in their business. Therefore, our study suggests that women entrepreneurs who work in an Islamic context and still take self-confidential decisions are having a great impact on their SMEs’ performance and success.

In the underline study, we argue that internal factors have a positive and significant impact on women entrepreneurs’ success, while external factors also have a positive influence on women entrepreneurs’ success. Thereby, our findings are consistent with previous studies, which are conducted in developed economies (Radzi et al., 2017 ) who suggest that finance plays a vital role in SME’s success. While Lindvert et al. ( 2017 ) suggested that political interference is very important for networking with customers and suppliers. Therefore, on the basis of this past literature, we posit that external factors are significantly contributing to women entrepreneur’s success in emerging economies. In addition, our findings suggest that socio-cultural factors have a positive and significant impact on women entrepreneurs’ success. Therefore, our results favor past studies (Arasti et al., 2012 ; Poggesi et al., 2016 ) who demonstrate that social and cultural factors have a positive and significant impact on women entrepreneurs’ success. While Roomi et al. ( 2018 ) suggest that in an Islamic country, women entrepreneurs face a lot of cultural conflicts related his business because in Islamic cultural, women are following their roles and regulation. Therefore, we posit in the underline study that these factors significantly affect the women entrepreneur’s success.

Contribution of the study

Theoretical contribution.

The underline study contributes to the existing literature in the field of women entrepreneurial success, internal factors (motivation, risk-taking, and self-confidence), and external factors (economic and socio-cultural). The main objective of the underline study is to examine the internal and external factors, which influence women’s entrepreneurial success. Our study finding acknowledges that several researchers investigate women entrepreneurial performance through different factors, but the current study evaluates the effect of the internal and external factors on women small and medium-sized enterprises in developing economies because more than 70% of SMEs are operationalized in developing economies. Therefore, their culture, religion, and regulation are different from a developed country. Therefore, our current study underpins through the “upper echelons theory” Hambrick & Mason, 1984 ; it explains that the top manager’s behaviors and external factors impact on business performance. Because in our model, motivation, risk-taking, and confidence are internal entrepreneurial behaviors and economic and social factors are external factors, which enhance the business performance in Pakistani small-medium enterprises.

Practical implications

The current study not only provides the implications to manager and owners of SMEs but also gives guidelines to policymakers and particularly support the institution such as SMEDA. Our findings demonstrate that women entrepreneurs need motivation and confidence to start their business by arranging the seminar, workshop, women incentives, or women entrepreneurial university. Because our results suggest that if women have motivation and confidence, it can enhance entrepreneurial performance. Therefore, we recommend to government and policymaker to arrange a seminar or women entrepreneurial university, which helps the women entrepreneurs to create courage and start a business. In addition, according to Hussain, Mahmood, and Scott ( 2019 ), out of 97 small business in Pakistan, only 5% are women entrepreneurs; so, we suggest to policymakers and government to give the education about the business and incentive to starts his own business because SMEs have 40% contribution in Pakistani GDP.

Limitation and future direction

There is no study without limitation, and ours has some limitations as well. The main limitation is related to our sampling, which has been done in three large cities, but future researchers can expand it to a national level to reach more comprehensive results with some considerations on geological and cultural differences. So, we recommend for future researchers to relate the current work with different Islamic countries (comparative study). The current finding suggests to the future researcher that uses a mixed-method approach among women entrepreneurs in developed countries. It is also suggested to consider more variables in future researches to get a bigger image of this research idea. Finally, yet importantly, testing any moderator such as literacy or financial literacy, which increases or decreases the relationship between these factors and women entrepreneurs’ success, is also suggested.

Availability of data and materials

We collected the data from small medium and enterprises of various cities of Pakistan. Please note that we can also avail of the do-files upon request.

https://www.pakistanpressfoundation.org/women-business-development-centre-inaugurated/

http://www.fwbl.com.pk/assets-products/business-loans-for-women/

https://smeda.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=236&catid=8&Itemid=101

Abbreviations

Small- and medium-sized enterprises

Small Medium Enterprises Development Authority

Gross domestic products

Global entrepreneurship monitor

Women Business Development Center

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We are very thankful to the Institute of Postgraduate Studies (IPS) of Universiti of Sains Malaysia to provide us a good study environment.

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Khan, R.U., Salamzadeh, Y., Shah, S.Z.A. et al. Factors affecting women entrepreneurs’ success: a study of small- and medium-sized enterprises in emerging market of Pakistan. J Innov Entrep 10 , 11 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13731-021-00145-9

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An exploration of the determinants that influenced female entrepreneurs who were born in the beginning of the 20th century

In this thesis the determinants that influenced women, born in the beginning of the 20th century to become self-employed are explored. In cooperation with ERGO, a research group within the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, 57 of the original participants of the Rotterdam Study were approached for this research. More than half of these women did not appear to be self-employed at any moment of their lives. This not only influenced this research, but may also influence the Rotterdam Study, which investigates the influence of human genes as a determinant on actual entrepreneurship. The constant comparative method of Glaser and Strauss (1967) is used for this research. Their method codes different events in such a way that they can be compared. The biographies were set up by using a narrative method constructed by Riessman (1993). My Results show that there were no significant differences between the participants and the results of previous studies. Most women possess more than half of the characteristics identified by previous studies. Even one woman possesses five of the six traits. Education is a trait which seemed to have a positive influence on actual entrepreneurship for six out of the seven women. Family background seemed to be the least influential determinant. Furthermore, I found that their main objective to start their own business is to be independent. They were able to find a balance between earning money and raising their children.

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Transformative Chronicles

This photo book is a tribute to the resilience and courage of the Afghan people in recent years. It features the stories of Afghans, who live in impoverished co...

Overview of support from government of Japan to UNDP Afgh...

Let the numbers tell the story by exploring the impact of Japan's contributions to Afghanistan's development through this concise and informative infographic. I...

UNDP and Japan transforming lives in Afghanistan | Englis...

As a longstanding partner, the government of Japan has stood alongside the Afghan people during their most crucial and challenging times. In the wake of recent ...

Interoperability of Financial Services Providers: Afghani...

Restarting Afghanistan’s digital payment system could make aid cheaper, faster and more transparent, as well as helping reach more women and the most marginalis...

AFGHANISTAN SOCIO-ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 2023

Our new report on Afghanistan’s economy demonstrates that without continuity for girls’ education and women’s ability to work, prospects for the country’s recov...