Susan Marlow

All Credit to Men? Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Gender

Availability of, and access to finance is a critical element to the start–up and consequent performance of any enterprise. Hence, any barriers or impediments to accessing appropriate levels or sources of funding will have an enduring and negative impact upon the performance of affected firms. Although findings have been somewhat inconsistent, there is support for the notion that women entrepreneurs entering self–employment are disadvantaged by their gender. This argument is evaluated through a theoretical analysis of gender using the example of accessing both formal and informal sources of business funding to illustrate how this concept impacts upon women in self–employment.

Exploring the dynamics of gender, feminism and entrepreneurship: advancing debate to escape a dead end?

Contrary to the neo-liberal thesis that entrepreneuring is an open and accessible endeavour where personal effort alone determines reward and status, it has been demonstrated that there is a persistent, but occluded, gender bias within the entrepreneurial discourse. Accordingly, women are positioned as lacking and incomplete men; however, despite calls to employ feminist theory as an analytical frame to demonstrate the reproduction of such subordination, there is scant evidence this has emerged. Within this article, we respond to this call by demonstrating how post structural feminist analysis reveals the gendered assumptions informing entrepreneurship theory that embed prevailing hetero-normative assumptions. These assumptions limit the epistemological scope of contemporary research which positions women as failed or reluctant entrepreneurial subjects; as such, in the absence of feminist theorizing these analyses remain descriptive rather than explanatory. Accordingly, the current entrepreneurial research agenda is in danger of reaching an epistemological dead end in the absence of a reflexive critical perspective to inform the idea of who can be and what might be an entrepreneur. Finally, we draw upon these arguments to reflect upon current approaches to theorizing within the broader field of entrepreneurial enquiry.

Gender and entrepreneurship

Purpose – Women‐owned businesses are frequently described as under‐performing in that the majority remain small and marginal. The authors dispute this description; within this paper, it is argued that such performance profiles reflect the constrained performance of most small firms. The assertion that women owned firms under‐perform reflects a gendered bias within the entrepreneurial discourse where femininity and deficit are deemed coterminous. In addition, women‐owned firms are expected to under‐perform given expectations of female weakness in the context of male normativity and superiority. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to critically evaluate the association between gender and business performance suggesting that this critique has implications for the broader development of our understanding of entrepreneuring behaviours.Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual research note which explores the notion of performance and under‐performance in the context of gender.Findings – It is argued...

Accounting for change: professional status, gender disadvantage and self‐employment

Research investigating female self‐employment has often highlighted gender‐based differences in the performance of women‐owned firms. Some studies have linked the under‐performance of women‐owned firms to the lower levels of capitalisation used at business inception, associating this with disadvantages accrued in waged work and occupational segregation more generally. Drawing on this association, there has been a tendency to treat self‐employed women as an undifferentiated group, failing to recognise heterogeneity therein. Considers the impact of the possession of professional qualifications on self‐employment and to what degree they might have the potential to mobilise substantial business capital. The discussion explores the influence of gender in the work and career experiences of women and whether the advantages accrued from professional status might challenge gender disadvantage within self‐employment. Results are presented from an exploratory study of male‐owned and female‐owned accountants in independent practice, which suggest that gender disadvantage persists, even within the context of professional practice.

Building Futures or Stealing Secrets? Entrepreneurial Cooperation and Conflict within Business Incubators

Business incubator units are an effective support mechanism for new entrepreneurial firms in that they provide basic facilities, office space, administrative staff and expert managers during the volatile start-up and growth process. This enables entrepreneurs to reduce operating costs and focus their attention upon product development.There are also many intangible benefits to incubator placement such as enhanced firm credibility, access to established business networks and the opportunity to share the challenges of entrepreneurship with peers. From this study of such a unit in the Republic of Ireland however, it became apparent that as the firms grew and sought to enhance credibility and protect market share, disadvantages emerged regarding incubator placement. Firm proximity created tensions concerning privacy, the protection of intellectual property and competitive strategies. It was also evident that as the firms became more mature, the need to develop independent, secure internal systems could be impeded by the ready availability of support and advice from the incubator management team.

Analyzing the Influence of Gender Upon High‐Technology Venturing within the Context of Business Incubation

We explore the influence of sex role attribution and associated gendered ascriptions upon the entrepreneurial experiences of a female high–technology business owner operating within the context of business incubation. Our literature analysis and empirical evidence suggest that stereotypical gendered expectations surrounding incubated high–technology venturing reproduce masculine norms of entrepreneurial behavior. The adoption of a gendered perspective to explore the experience of business incubation responds to contemporary calls to embed feminist analyses within the entrepreneurial field of enquiry. Furthermore, we draw upon evidence from a detailed case study informed by a life history narrative to explore a female entrepreneurs experience of incubated high–technology entrepreneurship.

Minding the gap between employers and employees: the challenge for owner-managers of smaller manufacturing firms

The empirical evidence which underpins and illustrates labour management theory has been drawn from a range of case studies across industrial sectors sited, usually, within the corporate sector. This fails to recognise the importance of the smaller firm as an employer. At present, the study of the employment relationship is grounded within a segment of the economy that no longer employs the majority of private sector labour within the UK. To reflect contemporary change within modern developed economies, the manner in which labour is managed in smaller firms must be explored. This paper considers why smaller firms might be excluded from this debate and reviews some of the limited literature pertaining to managing the employment relationship in such firms. One area in particular is then focused upon in more depth, the manner in which labour compliance and control is addressed in smaller manufacturing firms. On the basis of empirical evidence drawn from a study of the impact of employment regulation on smaller manufacturing firms, it is suggested that there are blurred divisions between employers and employees. Through necessity or choice, when the owner of the firm also takes the role of co‐worker this can create shared social relationships and group working which is advantageous to the owner, but has implications for managing labour discipline.

Gender and entrepreneurial capital: implications for firm performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the interplay between gender, entrepreneurial capital and firm performance. Using matched sample data, the paper considers how gender shapes the possession of entrepreneurial capital and discusses the implications of capital variance for business performance.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology was designed to collect data about the entrepreneurial capital of small firm owners and the performance of their firms. A sample of 30 matched pairs of business owners (30 male, 30 female) was created. Data were collected in two stages involving a telephone survey followed by face to face semi‐structured interviews.Findings – The findings reveal an interplay between economic, human, social and symbolic capital and suggest that our understanding of the possession and impact of entrepreneurial capital on firm performance can be advanced by recognising the convertible nature of entrepreneurial capitals. The paper also draws attention to the impact which human ...

The Take-up of Business Growth Training Schemes by Ethnic Minority-owned: Small Firms in Britain

SUSAN MARLOW IS A SENIOR LECTURER in the Leicester Polytechnic Business School, England. A feature of the growth of the small business sector in Britain has been the emergence of the ethnic minority-owned enterprise but ethnic-owned firms do not appear to be benefiting from or even using professional advice. This research takes the example of a business development scheme sponsored by a government advice agency, using it as a test case to assess what level of interest exists in such programmes from minority group business owners. The evidence indicates that minority group entrepreneurs and white small firm owners with a substantial proportion of their employees from ethnic minorities have a genuine and considerable interest in developing their businesses through the use of formal business growth training and professional advice.

Impact of women’s home-based enterprise on family dynamics: Evidence from Jordan

Within developing and disadvantaged economies, women’s self-employment has been identified as a tool to assist in alleviating poverty and empowering individual women. To explore these arguments, this article considers the experiences of Palestinian women who operate home-based enterprises within conservative patriarchal families. Empirically, we drew upon a study of 43 home-based female embroiderers, all members of the ‘1967 displaced Palestinian community’ now living in Amman, Jordan. From the evidence, it emerges that although these women make a critical contribution to family incomes, their entrepreneurial activities are constructed around the preservation of the traditional family form such that while some degree of empowerment is attained, challenges to embedded patriarchy are limited.