Commitment or Control? Human Resource Management Practices in Female and Male-Led Businesses

This paper investigates the commitment-orientation of HRM practices in female- and male-led firms. A distinction is made between emphasizing commitment or control in the design of HRM practices. To test for gender differences use is made of a sample of 555 Dutch firms. Contrary to what is generally believed it is found that – when controlled for relevant factors related to the business (e.g., firm size, age, sector) – HRM in female-led firms is more control-oriented than that in male-led firms. More specifically, female-led firms are more likely to be characterized by fixed and clearly defined tasks, centralized decision-making and direct supervision of the production process

Explaining the entrepreneurial activity rate of women: a macro-level perspective

The present study aims at explaining female entrepreneurship from a country perspective. Explanatory variables are derived from three streams of literature, including the literature on the determinants of entrepreneurship in general, on female labor force participation, and on female entrepreneurship. To test hypotheses we make use of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data, including total entrepreneurial activity rates (nascent entrepreneurs and owner/managers of new firms) for both women and men for 2002, as well as a range of other (economic, demographic, institutional and cultural) variables from standardized national statistics. We find that the factors determining female and male entrepreneurship at the macro-level are fairly similar

Overoptimism among Founders: The Role of Information and Motivation

This study empirically investigates factors that influence overoptimism across nascent entrepreneurs. We distinguish between two main groups of determinants (information, motivation) and three types of overoptimism (income, psychological burden, leisure time). Findings indicate that entrepreneurs who have relevant business information are more realistic and that entrepreneurs with a high level of general knowledge, acquired through education or previous (unrelated) entrepreneurial experience, are more overoptimistic. External advice and business planning do not appear to limit subsequent overoptimism. Entrepreneurs are less overoptimistic about the pecuniary or non-pecuniary benefits of self-employment when these benefits are closely related to the initial motivation for starting up the business

Gender Pay Differences in the European Union: Do Higher Wages Make Up For Discrimination?

This paper explores the role of social interactions at the work floor for understanding gender pay differences in the EU. Using data from the Fourth European Working Conditions Survey, we find that sex similarity of subordinate and supervisor decreases the pay disadvantage for women in non-managerial occupations, though working for a female boss is associated with a lower wage than working for a man. This may point at a ‘discrimination-for-pay’ effect. Female workers can avoid part of the discrimination against them by working for a woman and accepting lower pay. And when they face stronger discrimination in the situation of a male supervisor, they are ‘bribed’ by being offered a higher salary. Different results are obtained for managerial workers where sex similarity of worker and superior actually puts women at a further disadvantage. In addition to effects of vertical gender segregation, we examine whether wage formation is influenced by the proportion of women per sector (i.e., horizontal segregation), but find only weak support for the so-called social bias theory. Our main message is that while the traditional human capital model tends to study the wage formation process in isolation, gender pay differentials can also be seen as a social phenomenon, stemming from social interactions in labor markets

Start-Up Capital

Female and male entrepreneurs differ in the way they finance their businesses. This can be attributed to the type of business and the type of management and experience (indirect effect). Female start-ups may also experience other barriers based upon discriminatory effects (direct effect). Whether gender has an impact on size and composition of start-up capital, is the subject of the present paper. To test for these direct and indirect effects data of 2000 Dutch starting entrepreneurs, of whom approximately 500 are women, are used

Is there a (fe)male approach? Understanding gender differences in entrepreneurship

Ingrid Verheul (1975) graduated in Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1999. She started writing here PhD. thesis on female entrepreneurship in 2000. In addition to female entrepreneurship, her research interests include determinants of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. Her work has been published in several international scientific journals including Journal of Business Venturing, Small Business Economics, International Small Business Journal and International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education. She is co-editor of the book: “Entrepreneurship: Determinants and Policy in a European-US Comparison” published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2002. Today research and policy have been more and more fuelled by the idea that female entrepreneurs are important for economic progress. Not only do female entrepreneurs have an important contribution to employment creation and GDP, they also seem to have value through increasing entrepreneurial diversity. Together with the growing number of female entrepreneurs throughout the world in the last decades there has been an increase in the number of studies on female entrepreneurship. Because most of these studies focus upon female entrepreneurship in Anglo-Saxon countries, the understanding of the characteristics of female entrepreneurs and the existence of gender differences in other developed countries is limited. The present thesis investigates gender differences in entrepreneurship using (predominantly) data from the Netherlands. Different aspects of entrepreneurship are studied including the individual, the organization and the environment. A systematic distinction is made between direct and indirect gender effects on entrepreneurship to be able to disentangle ‘pure’ gender effects and effects of factors that are correlated with gender. Findings indicate that female and male entrepreneurs differ with respect to a range of aspects such as self-perception, time investments, start-up capital and HRM. Most of these differences can be attributed to indirect effects, although some evidence has been found for direct gender effects.The study of female entrepreneurship traditionally has been inspired by gender equality issues. Female entrepreneurs were assumed to experience gender-related discrimination and to experience more difficulties when starting up and running a business than their male counterparts. Today research and policy have been more and more fuelled by the idea that female entrepreneurs are important for economic progress. Even when issues such as barriers and obstacles to female entrepreneurs are raised in the gender and entrepreneurship debate, this is usually done from the perspective that female entrepreneurs are an untapped resource and have potential to contribute to a country's economic performance. Indeed, although gender equality is one of the arguments underlying the support for female entrepreneurs within the European Union, the argument that female entrepreneurs (have the potential to) contribute to economic performance continues to play a role here. In the report Good practices in the promotion of female entrepreneurship of the European Commission (2002, p.3) it is argued that women face a number of gender-specific barriers to starting up and running a business that have to be tackled as women are considered 'a latent source of economic growth and new jobs and should be encouraged'. Hence, the main argument to date for studying women's entrepreneurship is that female entrepreneurs are an engine of economic growth' (Ahl, 2002, p. 125). The basis for this argument is the acknowledgement that entrepreneurship (in general) is important for economic performance. The link between entrepreneurship and economic growth has been established by several scholars and is well documented (see Carree and Thurik, 2003, for an overview). Moreover, in its goal for Europe to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010 the Lisbon European Council (2000) emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation to be developed in particular by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Entrepreneurial Diversity and Economic Growth

Most studies investigating the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth treat entrepreneurs as a homogeneous group. This study investigates the impact of entrepreneurial diversity on national economic growth. Using data for 36 countries participating in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor we investigate whether the impact on growth depends on socio-demographic diversity in entrepreneurship (in terms of age, education and gender). We find that in less developed countries older and higher educated entrepreneurs are particularly important for stimulating economic growth, while for developed countries younger entrepreneurs are more important. Accordingly, policy should aim at stimulating particular groups of entrepreneurs, rather than just the number of entrepreneurs

Determinants of self-employment preference and realization among women and men in Europe and the United States

Female self-employment rates are consistently lower than those of men. This untapped female potential has drawn the attention of policy makers. In the present paper the determinants of selfemployment rates of both men and women are investigated in the context of a two-equation model explaining both actual self-employment and the preference for self-employment. A systematic distinction is made between different ways in which gender can exert influence on (preference for) self-employment, including moderation, mediation and direct effects. Using Flash Eurobarometer data of about 8,000 individuals from 29 countries (including the 15 old EU member states, 10 new EU member states and the United States) probit equations are estimated explaining the (preference for) self-employment. Next to gender, explanatory variables include age, education, social capital, risk attitude, locus of control and perceptions of the entrepreneurial environment. Findings show that at least part of the explanation of the lower female self-employment rate is caused by a lower preference for women to become self-employed. We do not find evidence for a moderating effect of gender on the relationship between self-employment and the preference for self-employment, indicating that other things equal women and men who have a preference to become self-employed do not differ with respect to the impact of this preference on its materialization. Entrepreneurship and its determinants in a cross-country setting

Explaining Preferences and Actual Involvement in Self-Employment: New Insights into the Role of Gender

This paper investigates why women’s self-employment rates are consistently lower than those of men. It has three focal points. It discriminates between the preference for self-employment and actual involvement in self-employment using a two (probit) equation model. It makes a systematic distinction between different ways in which gender influences the preference for and actual involvement in self-employment (mediation and moderation). It includes perceived ability as a potential driver of self-employment next to risk attitude, self-employed parents and other socio-demographic drivers. A representative data set of more than 8,000 individuals from 29 countries (25 EU member states, US, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) is used (the 2004 Flash Eurobarometer survey). The findings show that women’s lower preference for becoming self-employed plays an important role in explaining their lower involvement in self-employment and that a gender effect remains that may point at gender-based obstacles to entrepreneurship

Allocation and Productivity of Time in New Ventures of Female and Male Entrepreneurs

This paper investigates time allocation decisions in new ventures of female and male entrepreneurs using a model that distinguishes between effects of preferences and productivity on the number of working hours. Using data of 1,158 entrepreneurs we find that the preference for work time in new ventures relates to start-up motivation, propensity to take risk and availability of other income. Productivity of work time relates to human, financial and social capital endowments and the prevalence of outsourcing activities. This study also evaluates actual profit effects one year after start-up. We find that on average women invest less time in the business than men. This can be attributed to both a lower preference for work time (driven by risk aversion and availability of other income) and a lower productivity per hour worked (due to lower endowments of human, social and financial capital)