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The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between low-wealth business founders in the USA and external startup funding. Specifically, the authors test whether a founders’ low personal net worth is correlated with a lower probability of acquiring funding from outside sources during the business creation process.

The authors use a double-hurdle Cragg model to jointly estimate: first, the decision to acquire external financing; and second, the amount received. The sample is the US-based Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics II (PSED II). The PSED II tracks business founders attempting to start ventures from 2005 to 2012.

Receipt of outside financing during business formation is largely determined by the business founder’s personal finances (controlling for human capital, venture type and industry, and whether money was sought in the first place). A higher household net worth results in larger amounts of external funding received. Low-wealth business founders, therefore, are less likely to get external funds, and they receive lower amounts when they do. The disparity between low-and high-wealth business founders is more pronounced for formal, monitored sources of external financing such as bank loans.

Because the study eliminates survivor bias by using a nationally representative sample of business founders who are in the venture creation process, the findings apply to both successful business founders and those who disengaged during the business creation process. The authors offer insights into the sources and amounts of external funds acquired by individuals across all levels of wealth. The authors accomplish this by disaggregating business founders into wealth quintiles. The study demonstrates the importance of personal wealth as a factor in acquiring external startup financing compared to human capital, industry, or personal characteristics.

If the ability to acquire external funding is significantly constrained, the quality of the opportunity and the skill of the business founder may be less a determinant of success at creating a new business as prior studies have suggested. Consequently, entrepreneurship (as measured by business formation) as a path toward upward, socioeconomic mobility will be afforded only to those individuals with sufficient financial endowments at the outset.

Unlike prior studies, the data used are not subject to survivor bias or an underrepresentation of self-employment. The statistical model jointly estimates acquisition of financing and the amount received. This resolves selection and censoring problems. Finally, the dependent variables directly measure liquidity constraints in the context of business formation, that is, before a new venture is created. Prior research contexts have typically studied existing businesses, and are therefore not true examinations of conditions affecting business creation.

Drawing on the multiplicity of context approach, this study investigates whether female entrepreneurs are more likely than male entrepreneurs to create environmentally oriented organizations. This study aims to examine how context, measured by gender socialization stereotypes and post-materialism, differentially affects the kinds of organizations entrepreneurs choose to create.

To test the hypotheses, this study utilizes Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from 2009 (n = 17,364) for nascent entrepreneurs, baby businesses owners and established business owners in 47 counties. This study also utilizes the World Values Surveys to measure gender ideologies and post-materialist cultural values at the country level. To test the hypotheses, a logistic multi-level model is estimated to identify the drivers of environmental venturing. Data are nested by countries, and this allows random intercepts by countries with a variance components covariance structure.

Findings indicate that female entrepreneurs are more likely to engage in ecological venturing. Societies with high levels of post-materialist national values are significantly more likely to affect female entrepreneurs to engage in environmental ventures when compared to male entrepreneurs. Moreover, traditional gender socialization stereotypes decrease the probability of engaging in environmental entrepreneurship. Likewise, female entrepreneurs in societies with strong stereotypes regarding gender socialization will more likely engage in environmental entrepreneurship than male entrepreneurs.

The present study uses a gender analysis approach to investigate empirical differences in environmental entrepreneurial activity based on biological sex. However, this research assumes that gender is the driver behind variations in ecopreneurship emphasis between the engagement of males and females in venturing activity. The findings suggest that female entrepreneurs pursuing ecological ventures are more strongly influenced by contextual factors, when compared to male entrepreneurs. Future research can build upon these findings by applying a more nuanced view of gender via constructivist approaches.

This study is one of the few to investigate ecologically oriented ventures with large-scale empirical data by utilizing a 47-country data set. As a result, it begins to open the black box of environmental entrepreneurship by investigating the role of gender, seeking to understand if men and women entrepreneurs equally engage in environmental venturing. And it responds to calls that request more research at the intersection of gender and context in terms of environmental entrepreneurship.

This paper aims to examine the interplay among forms of entrepreneurship and the gendered entrepreneurial divide. Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and the World Values Survey (WVS), the authors investigate the likelihood that females will venture in the commercial entrepreneurial ventures versus social entrepreneurial ventures. The authors draw on the theoretical concept of hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity to explain gender variance in the organizational forms of commercial and social entrepreneurship. Specifically, the authors investigate whether pursuing an opportunity in a society that highly values ideologies of hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity impacts the probability of venturing in either of these kinds of organizations.

To test the hypotheses, the authors use GEM data from 2009 (n = 14,399) for nascent entrepreneurs and baby businesses owners in 55 counties. They also use the WVS to measure the ideologies of hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity at the country level. The authors estimate a logistic multilevel model to identify the drivers of social venturing over commercial venturing. Data are nested by countries, and the authors allow random intercepts by countries with a variance components covariance structure.

The findings demonstrate that there is a divide in entrepreneurial activity, as women entrepreneurs are more likely to start social ventures than commercial ventures. They also find that hegemonic masculinity decreases the incidence of social entrepreneurship, whereas emphasized femininity increases the incidence of social entrepreneurship. Moreover, the authors find evidence that women in societies with a strong view on hegemonic masculinity are less likely to pursue social organizational forms than male entrepreneurs are. Furthermore, in societies with strong views of emphasized femininity, the probability increases that female founders will pursue social organizational forms. The findings highlight the considerable impact of the gender ideologies on entrepreneurship.

Although the authors use the terms “gender” and “sex” in this paper interchangeably, they recognize that these two terms are not equivalent. For the purposes of this manuscript, the authors use a gender analysis approach activity based on biological sex to investigate empirical differences in entrepreneurial. The findings suggest that women ultimately, and unintentionally, are consenting to the practices and norms that reiterate the masculinity of entrepreneurship. In this way, the patriarchal ideologies of hegemonic masculinity and masculinization of entrepreneurship ultimately leave women unable to fully take up the identity of “woman” alongside that of “entrepreneur”. Future research can build upon our findings by applying a more nuanced view of gender via constructivist approaches.

The findings empirically demonstrate the gendered nature of entrepreneurial activity, leading to specific stereotypical female social organizational forms and male commercial organizational forms. Furthermore, the authors are able to provide theoretical explanations based on hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity to understand why social entrepreneurship appeals to women.

This study explores the relationship between economic freedom and gender ideologies on the allocation of women’s opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship across countries. Opportunity entrepreneurship is typically understood as one’s best option for work, whereas necessity entrepreneurship describes the choice as driven by no better option for work. Specifically, we examine how economic freedom (i.e. each country’s policies that facilitate voluntary exchange) and gender ideologies (i.e. each country’s propensity for gendered separate spheres) affect the distribution of women’s opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship across countries.

We construct our sample by matching data from the following country-level sources: the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s Adult Population Survey (APS), the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom Index (EFI), the European/World Value Survey’s Integrated Values Survey (IVS) gender equality index, and other covariates from the IVS, Varieties of Democracy (V-dem) World Bank (WB) databases. Our final sample consists of 729 observations from 109 countries between 2006 and 2018. Entrepreneurial activity motivations are measured by the ratio of the percentage of women’s opportunity-driven total nascent and early-stage entrepreneurship to the percentage of female necessity-driven total nascent and early-stage entrepreneurship at the country level. Due to a first-order autoregressive process and heteroskedastic cross-sectional dependence in our panel, we estimate a fixed-effect regression with robust standard errors clustered by country.

After controlling for multiple macro-level factors, we find two interesting findings. First, economic freedom positively affects the ratio of women’s opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship. We find that the size of government, sound money, and business and credit regulations play the most important role in shaping the distribution of contextual motivations over time and between countries. However, this effect appears to benefit efficiency and innovation economies more than factor economies in our sub-sample analysis. Second, gender ideologies of political equality positively affect the ratio of women’s opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship, and this effect is most pronounced for efficiency economies.

This study offers one critical contribution to the entrepreneurship literature by demonstrating how economic freedom and gender ideologies shape the distribution of contextual motivation for women’s entrepreneurship cross-culturally. We answer calls to better understand the variation within women’s entrepreneurship instead of comparing women’s and men’s entrepreneurial activity. As a result, our study sheds light on how structural aspects of societies shape the allocation of women’s entrepreneurial motivations through their institutional arrangements.

Our study draws on gender role congruity theory to theorize and test an integrative conceptual model outlining how motives for entrepreneurial action explain the relationship between female entrepreneurship and innovation in nascent ventures.

To test our hypotheses, we employed structural equation modeling (SEM) in a sample of early-stage entrepreneurs (N = 533).

We found a positive relationship between nascent female entrepreneurs and innovation, and that this relationship is mediated by motives for recognition, respect, and autonomy.

By revealing a positive relationship between female entrepreneurship and innovation, our work provides a complementary perspective to the literature, which suggests that there are limits to innovation potential for female entrepreneurs. Further, we find that this relationship is explained by motives for recognition, respect, and autonomy, but not financial security. Finally, most empirical research focuses on the innovative outputs of established new ventures, while our work leverages a sample of early-stage entrepreneurs.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief history of the evolution of the Diana Project and the Diana International Research Conference. The authors examine the impact of the publications, conferences and research contributions and consider key factors in the success of this collaborative research organization. They discuss the ongoing legacy, suggesting ways to extend this into the future.

This paper uses an historical narrative and a citation analysis.

The Diana Project was founded by five women professors in 1999 with the purpose of investigating women’s access to growth capital. Following a series of academic articles, and numerous presentations, the first Diana International Conference was held in Stockholm, Sweden. At this convening, 20 scholars from 13 countries shared their knowledge of women’s entrepreneurship, venture creation and growth, culminating in the first volume of the Diana Book Series. Since then, 14 international conferences have been held, resulting in 10 special issues of top academic journals and 11 books. More than 600 scholars have attended or participated in Diana conferences or publications.

Contributions from the Diana International Conferences’ special issues of journals and books have advanced theory across topics, levels, geographies and methods. Articles emerging from Diana scholars are some of the top contributions about women’s entrepreneurship and gender to the field of entrepreneurship. Future research directions are included.

This analysis demonstrates the success of a unique woman-focused collaborative research initiative and identifies key success factors, suggesting how these might be expanded in the future.

To date, more than 600 scholars have participated in the Diana International Conferences or publications. Diana is the only community dedicated to rigorous and relevant research about gender and women’s entrepreneurship. Going forward, efforts to expand work on education for women’s entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurship faculty and careers, and women entrepreneurs, gender and policy will take place to extend this legacy.

The paper is unique in that it is the first to show the substantial legacy and impact of the Diana project since its inception in 1999. Further, it demonstrates how a feminist approach to entrepreneurial principles can yield insights about this unique research initiative and collaborative organization.

This study aims to evaluate the influence of institutions on the probability of becoming a social entrepreneur and the effect of this choice on individual economic well-being. The authors also analyze the effects of gender (male versus female entrepreneurism) and type (traditional versus social entrepreneurism).

Institutional economics framed the analysis, and hypotheses were tested using two-stage probit least squares models in a sample of 69,236 individuals from 57 countries during the 2010–2014 wave from the World Values Survey.

The results showed that, for most variables, institutions significantly explained the probability of becoming a social entrepreneur. The analyses also indicated that social entrepreneurship is highly associated with individual economic well-being.

This research brings insights into the discussion of the social and economic benefits of socially oriented entrepreneurs. Likewise, the modeling approach overcomes the interplay between entrepreneurship and economic outcomes, in which institutions become key factors.

Este estudio evalúa la influencia de las instituciones en la probabilidad de convertirse en un emprendedor social y el efecto de esta elección en el bienestar económico individual. También se analizan los efectos del género (emprendimiento masculino versus femenino) y del tipo (emprendimiento tradicional versus social).

La economía institucional es el marco para el análisis e hipótesis, las cuales se evaluaron utilizando modelos probit de mínimos cuadrados de dos etapas (2SPLS) en una muestra de 69.236 personas de 57 países durante la ola 2010–2014 de la Encuesta Mundial de Valores.

Los resultados mostraron que, para la mayoría de las variables, las instituciones explicaron significativamente la probabilidad de convertirse en un emprendedor social. El análisis también indicaró que el emprendimiento social está altamente asociado con el bienestar económico individual.

Esta investigación aporta información sobre el debate alrededor de los beneficios sociales y económicos de los emprendedores con orientación social. Asimismo, el enfoque de modelización resuelve la interdependencia entre el emprendimiento y variables económicas, en la que las instituciones son factores claves.

Este estudo avalia a influência das instituições na probabilidade de se tornar um empreendedor social e o efeito desta escolha no bem-estar económico individual. Os efeitos do género (empreendedorismo masculino versus feminino) e do tipo (empreendedorismo tradicional versus social) também são analisados.

A economia institucional é a estrutura para a análise e hipóteses, que foram avaliadas usando modelos probit de mínimos quadrados em dois estágios (2SPLS) em uma amostra de 69.236 pessoas de 57 países durante a onda 2010–2014 dos Valores Mundiais Pesquisa.

Os resultados mostraram que, para a maioria das variáveis, as instituições explicaram significativamente a probabilidade de se tornar um empreendedor social. A análise também indicou que o empreendedorismo social está altamente associado ao bem-estar económico individual.

Esta investigação fornece informações sobre o debate em torno dos benefícios sociais e económicos dos empreendedores de orientação social. Da mesma forma, a abordagem de modelização resolve a interdependência entre o empreendedorismo e as variáveis económicas, nas quais as instituições são fatores-chave.

This paper aims to illustrate the main contributions of the context-gender discussion in entrepreneurship research and its main developments over time to identify promising future research avenues.

This paper builds on the author’s extensive knowledge of the context-gender debate and on several recent overviews and reviews of the debate. It is written as essay, introducing its main themes through a personal reflection and complemented by a selective review of research on gendered contexts and women’s entrepreneurship.

The context-gender discussion has moved forward. The first wave of context-gender studies contextualized gender, considering the impact of contexts on women’s entrepreneurship. Nowadays, studies are conducted on how contexts are gendered and how they are constructed in gendered ways through, for example, words, images, cognitions, as well as how women entrepreneurs can impact on and enact their contexts.

This paper contributes novel insights into contextualizing gender and gendering contexts. It is unique in suggesting that a perspective on gendering contexts will allow to explore the diversity of entrepreneurship and further develop theories related to contexts and gender.

The purpose of this paper is to share with up-and-coming young researchers some of the important lessons the author has learnt on his research journey.

In researching the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (and, in particular, female-controlled SMEs), the author was very careful to ensure, as far as practical, that appropriate control variables (such as age of business, industry and hours worked) were included in the research design.

There are two key findings that emerge from the research the author has been involved with over many years. First, the very high SME failure rate often referred to in the literature and popular press is a myth. Second, the belief that female-controlled SMEs underperform male-controlled SMEs is also a myth.

Based on the author’s research experience, there are three key points the author would like to share with the young researchers. First, do not be afraid to question what might appear to be a generally accepted fact. Second, do not jump to a quick and what might appear to be the most obvious conclusion. Third, be aware that unintended consequences can often be associated with quick conclusions drawn from research where there has not been adequate attention paid to a study’s methodology/limitations.

The results from the research the author has been involved with highlight the importance of incorporating key control variables when assessing, and comparing, the performances of female- and male-controlled SMEs.