Influences of Gendered Institutions on Women’s Entry into Entrepreneurship

June 30, 2013 Editor 0

Abstract

Purpose – Research and theory indicate that macro-level variables can influence the effects of individual-level factors on the economic behavior of women; however, this has rarely been examined with regard to women’s entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship has thus far been examined from a gender-neutral perspective. We address this gap by deriving predictions using a sociological model of gender stratification and examining the effects of gendered institutions on women’s entry into entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approach – Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data set comprising of 185,639 individuals (women) across 53 countries for years 2001-2008 combined with data from the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI), we examined the direct as well as cross-level moderation effects of societal-level gendered institutions on the probability of women’s entry into entrepreneurship. Findings – Results indicated that (1) individual-centric attitudes are salient predictors of women’s entry into entrepreneurship, (2) gendered institutions exercise direct as well as moderating effects on women’s entry, suggesting that in theory and research, individual factors affecting women’s entrepreneurship should be considered within the larger cultural context. Specifically, societal-level economic participation and opportunity and the level of educational attainment of women were significant predictors of the likelihood of women entering into entrepreneurship. Both these moderate positively women’s self-efficacy and the former moderates negatively women’s fear of failure.Research limitations/implications – The findings provide additional evidence for the gender stratification theory of women’s economic activity. Future research should examine alternative operationalizations of the variables as well as effects of additional gendered institutions. The study uses dummy variables for individuals’ attitudes posing another limitation of this study.Practical implications – Results suggest that changes may be needed in entrepreneurship development policies in countries where cultural values create barriers for women’s entrepreneurship.Originality/value – This multi-level analysis is derived from a theoretical framework and helps account for the rates of entrepreneurial activity found among women across many countries.

The methodological is pretty novel as it engages relatively new mult-level techniques to examine the cross-level direct as well as interaction effects of country-level gendered institutions on the probability of entry into entrepreneurship by women
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Categories: Feature Articles

Tags: examine, gendered institutions on the probability, institutions on women's entry into entrepreneurship