Slavica Singer

Gender Patterns of Businesses with Growth Potential in Croatia

The literature review presented in the chapter confirms that researchers’ interest is more focused on why and how businesses are created, and much less why and how they grow. There is a shortage of empirical evidence of growth influencers, as well as evidence about the intensity and patterns of the interaction between internal factors and entrepreneurship ecosystem in the process of growing a venture. The authors identify this gap and combine different angles (theory of firm growth, entrepreneurship, inclusion, macroeconomic aspects of using resources) with a gender aspect (inclusion), in exploring why and how businesses grow. Using this angle and aggregated Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data from the 2003–2013 period, the chapter presents several gender patterns of businesses with growth potential (innovative products, innovative technology, and competitiveness) in Croatia.