R. Sandra Schillo

Gender, leadership and venture capital: measuring women’s leadership in VC firm portfolios

Purpose This paper presents a new index summarizing Womens Leadership in Entrepreneurial Ventures (WLEV) in the context of Venture Capital (VC) firm portfolios. Gender representation among VC portfolio firms is a concern for academics, and increasingly for practitioners aiming to reap the benefits of gender diversity. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on Institutional Theory and Gender Role Congruity Theory, we present dimensions of womens involvement in leadership roles in VC funded companies. As previous research has not provided standard definitions, we clarify the relevant dimensions. In addition, we present an empirical analysis of 153 VC fund portfolios and demonstrate womens involvement across the three key dimensions forming the WLEV Index: involvement in leadership, management, and founding of portfolio companies. Findings We present a summary Womens Leadership in Entrepreneurial Ventures Index aligned with previous research. The Index has suitable characteristics for future research and in...

Do Gendered Social Institutions and Resources Promote Women Entrepreneurial Intentions

Women’s entrepreneurship has garnered substantial research interest over the years. The majority of the previous research investigates the nascent entrepreneurship rate, while fewer studies investigate entrepreneurial intentions. This study focuses on the relationship between womens entrepreneurial intentions and institutional and personal variables. This study uses data from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and Social Institutions and Gender Index databases and covers forty-three countries. Both factor analysis and linear regression methodologies are employed. The results show that if women have entrepreneurial skills, willingness to conquer the fear of failure, and social network to get contacted with other entrepreneurs, they are more likely to have entrepreneurial intentions. However, the more women have access to land, bank loans, and property other than land, the less likely they are to intend to become entrepreneurs. Also, social services for womens careers and fair entrepreneurial opportunities for women do not have significant impact on womens entrepreneurial intentions. The theoretical and empirical implications of the results are discussed.