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The purpose of this short report is to provide a summary of the inaugural webinar session of the Women's Enterprise Committee (WEC), International Council for Small Business (ICSB).

In a live webinar from Babson College, Professors Brush, Duffy and Kelley discussed key findings from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2010 Women's Report.

An important finding was that there are over 40 percent more men than women entrepreneurs in all but one of the 59 countries studied. Women entrepreneurs are also more likely than men to engage in entrepreneurship due to necessity.

It is recognised that further studies are required to determine the reasons behind the differences in male‐female entrepreneurship participation rates globally.

It would appear that considerable scope exists to develop the entrepreneurial potential of women across the globe.

The GEM Women's Report is the most comprehensive study ever conducted on women's entrepreneurial activity internationally, and the webinar offered researchers an opportunity to engage directly with the report authors.

Research on corporate entrepreneurship (CE) has grown rapidly over the past decade (for reviews, see Dess et al., 2003). This interest in CE stems from rising international competition, requiring companies to learn new skills and develop new competencies (Eisemhardt & Santos, 2003). These competencies enable companies to compete in new market arenas both at home and internationally, creating value for shareholders (McGrath, MacMillan & Venkataraman, 1995). With more and more companies focusing on international expansion, recent research on CE has focused on examining international issues. Though most past research is comparative in nature, some has investigated companies’ international expansion as a forum within which CE activities unfold (Zahra & Garvis, 2000).

Arguably, one of the most unexpected findings of the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics has been the discovery of higher levels of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) than expected. One entrepreneur in seven is starting a business for or with their current employers. Given the current numbers for independent start-ups, that rate translates into 150,000 corporate entrepreneurship efforts annually in the USA. Another way to think of it is that in terms of firms with employees, corporate entrepreneurial ventures represent one-quarter of new start-ups each year. Those efforts also potentially represent a disproportionate percentage of surviving efforts, because corporate entrepreneurial projects tend to have superior initial access to financial, human and organizational resources than the vast majority of independently started firms.

The aim of this study was to determine what facilitators and impediments to regional and global entrepreneurship exist, as identified by the 145 industry contacts globally surveyed, and if education stood out as a critical factor.

An electronic, open‐ended survey was conducted; responses were categorized into three groups of factors – i.e. economic, social and personal – and analyzed accordingly by region and job function of respondent.

The survey revealed many similarities among responses, regardless of country of origin; although education was not the most frequently cited factor critical for successful entrepreneurship, it did rate highly in comparison to others.

Larger studies are needed to corroborate the findings of this initial study, particularly in some regional categories. The open‐ended question format required some subjective interpretation by the researchers; future surveys utilizing an objective answer format would be recommended.

The amount of consensus indicates that if entrepreneurs, academics, and others collaborated and pooled their knowledge and resources, some of the critical barriers to success could be overcome. The field could benefit by future research focusing on identifying specific collaboration strategies among regions or countries leading to the growth of entrepreneurial ventures and economic development.

Surveying experts regarding the facilitators and impediments to entrepreneurship (both regionally and globally) will help to bridge the gulf between theory and practical solutions to drive economic development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of entrepreneurial intention. Specifically, the study investigated the extent to which personality traits or situational factors influenced entrepreneurial intention and whether the relationship among the predictor variables and the intention to become entrepreneurs differed between men and women.

Data were collected using a questionnaire-based survey of 393 students at a reputable international educational institution in Thailand. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis and analysis of variance were employed to test the hypotheses.

A total of eight independent variables were tested for their effect on entrepreneurial intention. Three of the personality traits, including need for achievement, risk-taking tendency, job security, were found to have a significant effect on intention for entrepreneurship. However, environment for starting a business and educational programme were found to be suppressor variables. Personality factors had a greater degree of effect on entrepreneurial intention than situational factors. With respect to gender differences, for women, job autonomy and job security were significant predictors while for men, need for achievement and risk-taking tendency contributed to entrepreneurial intention.

The study investigated whether personality factors or situational factors were the main drivers of entrepreneurial intention and to what extent gender differences exist in the determinants of entrepreneurial intention. Few studies have been based on a sample of respondents of such diversity in terms of nationality. The present study included respondents from 12 different nationalities in Asia.

Ecosystems supporting innovation are being created in many developing countries. Russia is no exception. An examination of the status of the emerging ecosystem in Russia is presented here with indications of its strengths and weaknesses. Six major categories are studied and rated in a relative system of comparison between Russia and various emerging markets as well as the United States. The rating for each category employs several factors which sum to provide a view of the overall standing of the country in areas of market, capital, people, culture, infrastructure and regulations.

Enterprise and entrepreneurship education (EEE) is seen as a major contributor to economic growth and development in the post-2008 environment we term the “New Era”. The role of EEE in enabling graduates to develop entrepreneurial intentions and career plans is therefore of major importance. The paper explores how EEE can influence postgraduate entrepreneurship and career initiation in the context of the New Era economy at an international level.

The paper explores the learning experiences of a group of 60 postgraduate international students who completed an Entrepreneurship programme at the University of Lincoln which included the development of personal learning narratives and career plans. The students were exposed to the opportunity-centred entrepreneurship approach and the “Entrepreneurial Effectiveness” model in the QAA (2012) guidelines. Their narratives were analysed to assess: prior career intentions, proposed career intentions resulting from the EEE programme, application of learning arising from the EEE programme and a survey of students was used to validate the narratives

EEE has a wider influence on personal development and career planning than simply the intention to create new ventures. The paper builds on a prior study of international postgraduate students’ orientation to entrepreneurship education in their expectations of the UK higher education, which confirmed that career development is a major motivator for international study in the UK (Rae and Woodier-Harris, 2012). The paper contributes new understanding of the relationships between EEE and graduate career intentions, especially at PG and international levels. The paper explores personal growth, confidence and identity development, formation of new career intentions and the application of learning. The international dimension is considerable and this is discussed.

The paper has implications for the marketing, design and delivery of EEE at international and HE institutional levels, as well as for the practices of educators in designing, validating and delivering programmes for entrepreneurial career development, at national and international levels.

The paper contributes new understanding to the role of EEE in postgraduate career initiation at international level in a period of significant and complex economic transformation.