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Handbook on Well-Being of Working Women pp 243–260Cite as

French Women Entrepreneurs’ Leadership Practices and Well-Being in a High-Growth Context

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Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life ((IHQL))

Abstract

Entrepreneurial track is a source of innovation for women’s leadership (Bel 2009). What about the women who have spent many years as the head of growth companies that they created or acquired? In order to measure up to what point these women defy the canon, we wanted to examine the managerial and strategic postures that they assume. We conducted interviews in 2012 with six women leaders of growth companies. We observed that these women’s leadership reveals not only strategically transgressive attitudes, but also a radical rupture with a system of thought that tends to define leadership as an institutionalizing dynamic. This challenging posture does not intend to create a new type of leadership, but it highlights a trend towards a more authentic, shared and distributed leadership. Moreover, this type of leadership contributes to the well-being of these women entrepreneurs and their teams at work.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Appendix 1.

  2. 2.

    For more details, consult www.women-equity.org

  3. 3.

    See Appendix 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SKEMA Business School, Paris La Défense, France

    Stephanie Chasserio & Corinne Poroli

  2. Novancia Business School, Paris, France

    Renaud Redien-Collot

Authors
  1. Stephanie Chasserio
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  2. Corinne Poroli
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  3. Renaud Redien-Collot
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Corinne Poroli .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management College of Business Administration, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA

    Mary L. Connerley

  2. Department of Management and Marketing School of Management, Rhode Island College, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    Jiyun Wu

Appendix 1: WEG Index Methodology

Appendix 1: WEG Index Methodology

The WEG (Women Equity Growth) Index developed the first database statistically documenting growth companies in France run by women. From this work, an annual Index of SME growth businesses run by women in France was released in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Teams are now preparing the 2013 Index.

The database stores the data of all French companies that have existed for at least 5 years, are subject to corporate tax, have achieved a revenue of more that four million euros in the 3 years preceding the filing year, and have filed a minimum of 3 years of accounts with the Registry.

During the analysis, the subsidiary companies, listed companies, certain legal forms (cooperatives, SEM, etc.), and franchised businesses are excluded. Companies with female direction are then selected (General Director, CEO, Manager), including more than 2,500 out of a total of 30,000. Sixty percent of these 2,500 companies have had strictly growing revenue over the preceding 3 years. These 2,500 companies are then ordered by rank in reflection of the average of the following five indicators: growth of revenue in the first year, average growth of revenue over the last 3 years, growth in value of revenue in the first year, profitability in the first year and average growth of gross operating profit over the past 3 years.

Finally, the 2012 Index, for example, chose the 50 most successful companies—nearly 1 billion euros cumulative revenue, an average profit of more than 18 million euros, a sales growth of nearly 30 % in the last financial year, and average annual growth of more than 22 % over 3 years, and a more than 32 % average growth of gross operating profit over 3 years.

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Chasserio, S., Poroli, C., Redien-Collot, R. (2016). French Women Entrepreneurs’ Leadership Practices and Well-Being in a High-Growth Context. In: Connerley, M., Wu, J. (eds) Handbook on Well-Being of Working Women. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9897-6_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9897-6_15

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