Abstract
Specialized literature shows that internationalization, innovation, and entrepreneurship have positive effects on economic growth. Moreover, there is a positive relationship between them. In addition, female entrepreneurship is a key contributor to economic growth, not only by its creation of wealth and employment, but by the diversification of entrepreneurial activity. Nevertheless, evidence shows that female entrepreneurs are less likely to export and to participate in research and technology. The goal of this chapter is to contribute to the knowledge of entrepreneurial behavior, separating by gender. Special attention will be given to the gender-related differences in innovation and internationalization of entrepreneurs. To achieve this goal, we use a dataset of 42 countries from 5 continents that participated in Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in 2008. This study is an original large-scale empirical study about gender and entrepreneurial performance, focused on innovation and internationalization.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
United States, Russia, Egypt, South Africa, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Hungary, Italy, UK, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Korea, Turkey, India, Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Latvia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Jamaica and Israel.
- 2.
GEM is an international research project born in 1999 to study and measure entrepreneurship in a wide sample of countries. In 2008, 42 countries shared the project. A minimum of 2,000 interviews have to be done in each one of the participating countries. The poll is made up of 330 questions.
- 3.
GEM defines “entrepreneur” as every adult person (between 18 and 64 years old) that (1) is starting a business or an enterprise of which he or she is going to share a part or the whole and/or (2) that is owner-manager of the whole or a part of a young business (until 42 moths of activity). This definition includes, then, self-employment (Bosma et al. 2008). If businesses have more than 42 months it is considered that they are consolidated.
- 4.
Excepting cases such as Slovenia and Hungary, where female presence in transforming sector is higher than this of consumer oriented sectors, due to the country general productive specialization.
- 5.
A business is innovative if its product or service is new in its own market; it is not necessary that it be new in the World market (Galindo and Escot 1998). In this work, we have employed as proxy variable of product innovation, the GEM questionnaire item “TEA: how many (potential) customers consider product new/unfamiliar?”, restricting the answer to the option “some customers.”
- 6.
In order to measure this variable, we have chosen the item “TEA: Market expansion mode” option “No expansion market” in the GEM questionnaire.
- 7.
GEM considers that TEA opportunity is the measure of the quantity of entrepreneurs that start their business to take advantage of a business opportunity, even if they have other employment opportunities. On the other hand, TEA necessity is the measurement of the entrepreneurs’ quantity that have decided to start as business because the labor options didn’t adapt to the personal or familiar conditions
- 8.
We have measured the degree of internationalization by the item “TEA: Export intensity,” option weight of activity dedicated to export between 100 and 75% of the GEM questionnaire.
- 9.
We have employed the item “Sees good opportunities for starting a business in the next 6 months” in GEM questionnaire as proxy of “expectations.”
References
Abramovitz M (1986) Catching-up, forging ahead and falling behind. J of Econ Hist 46 (2): 385–406
Abramovitz M (1989) Thinking about growth and other essays on economic growth and welfare. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Acs Z J, Anselin L, Varga A (2002) Patents and innovations counts as measures of regional production of new knowledge. Res Policy 31: 1069–4085
Acs Z, Audretsch D, Feldman M, (1994) R&D spillovers and recipient firm size. Rev of Econ and Statis 76: 336–340
Allen I E, Elam, A, Langowitz N, Dean M (2007) Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: Report on Females and Entrepreneurship. http://www.gemconsortium.org.
Armignon C, Acs Z J (2002) The determinants of regional variation in new firms formation. Reg Studies 36: 33–45
Audretsch D (1995) Innovation and Industry Evolution. Cambridge, MIT Press
Audretsch D (2005) The emergence of entrepreneurial economics, In: Vinig R C W, Van Der Voort (eds) Res Tech Innov Manage Policy 9:37–54
Audretsch D, Keilbach M, Lehman E (2006) Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth. Oxford, Oxford University Press
Audretsch D, Stephan PE, (1999) Knowledge spillovers in biotechnology: sources and incentives. J Evol Econ 9: 97–107
Baumol W (1986) Productivity growth, convergence and welfare: Comment. Am Econ Rev, 78: 1138–54
Bird B, Brush C (2002) A gendered perspective on organizational creation. Entrepre Theory and Pract 26 (3): 41–65
Bosma N, Acs, ZJ, Autio E, Coduras A, and Levie J (2008) Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: 2008 Executive Report. London Business School, London
Buttner EH, Rosen B (1988) Bank loan officers' perceptions of the characteristics of men, women and successful entrepreneurs. J of Bus Venturing, 3(83): 249–258
Carrasco I, Castaño MS (2009) Social capital, entrepreneurial capital and economic growth. In: Elling LR (ed) Social Development. Nova Publishers, New York
Carter S (2000) Gender and enterprise. In Carter S, Jones-Evans D (eds) Enterprise and Small Business: Principles, Practice and Policy. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education: 253–270
Carter N, Gartner W, Shaver K, Gatewood E (2003) The career reasons of nascent entrepreneurs. J Bus Venturing 18: 13–29
Carter N, Williams M, Reynolds P (1997) Discontinuance among new firms in retail: the influence of initial resources, strategy and gender. J BusVenturing 12: 125–145
Chaganti R, Parasuramen S (1996) A study of the impacts of gender on business performance and management patterns in small businesses. Entrepren Theory Pract 21(2): 73–75
Coleman S (2002) Constraints faced by females small business owners: evidence from data. J Develop Entrepren 17 (2): 151–174
Coleman S, Robb A (2009) A comparison of new firm financing by gender: Evidence from the Kauffman Firm Survey data. Small Bus Econ 33: 397–411
Delmar F (2003) Women entrepreneurship: Assessing data availability and future needs. Workshop on Improving Statistics on SMEs and Entrepreneurhip. OECD, Paris: 17–19
Delmar F, Holmquist C (2004) Women’s Entrepreneurship: Issues and Policies. 2nd OECD Conference of Ministers Responsible for Smal and Medium-Sized Entreprises (SMEs). Promoting entrepreneurship and innovative SMEs in a Global economy: Towards a more responsible and inclusive globalisation. Istanbul, Turkey 3–5 June 2004
Etzkowitz H (2007) The “Athena Paradox:” Bridging the gender gap in science. J Tech Manage Innov 2 (1): 1–3
Etzkowitz H, Kemelgor C (2001) Gender inequality in science: A universal condition?. Minerva 39 (2): 239–257
Etzkowitz H, Leydesdorff L (2000) The dynamics of innovation: from national Systems and “Mode 2” to a triple helix of university-industry-government relations. Res Policy 29 (2): 313–303
European Commission (2009) She Figures 2009. Statistics and Indicators on Gender Equality in Science. http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document library/pdf 06/She figures_2009_en.pdf
Fairlie RW, Robb AM (2009) Gender differences in business performance: evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners survey. Small Bus Econ 33: 375–395
Fischer E, Reuber A, Dyke L (1993) A theoretical overview and extension of research on sex, gender and entrepreneurship. J Bus Venturing 8: 151–168
Freel M (2000) External linkages and product innovation in small manufacturing firms. Entrepren Reg Develop 12: 245–266
Freel MS, Harrison RT (2006) Innovation and cooperation in the small firm sector: Evidence from northern Britain. Reg Stud 40 (4): 289–305
Galindo MA, Escot L (1998) The technological catchup effects on the convergence hypothesis of the growth models. Research Studies Series, University of York, Research Study 116
Galindo MA, Méndez MT (2008). Emprendedores y objetivos de política económica. Inf Comer Esp 841: 29–40
GEM (2008):GEM: Dataset. http://www.gemconsortium.org/
Griliches Z (1979) Issues in assessing the contribution of R&D to productivity growth. Bell J Econ 10 (10): 92–116
Griliches Z (1990) Patent statistics as economic indicators: a survey. J of Econ Lit 28 (4): 92–116
Grondin D, Schaefer N (1995) Differences in the export activities of female and male-owned SME enterprises. Women Manage Rev 10 (8): 4–10
Grossman G, Helpman E (1991) Innovation and Growth in the Global Economy. MIT Press, Cambridge
Hadjimanolis A (2000) A resource-based view of innovativeness in small firms. Techno Anal Strateg Manage 12 (2): 263–281
Hill F, Leitch C, Harrison R (2006) Desperately seeking finance. The demand for finance by males-owned and –led business. Vent Cap 8 (2): 159–165
IMF (2001) International Monetary Fund Database. http//www.imf.org/external/data.htm
Kafouros MI, Buckley PJ, Sharp JA, Wang C (2008) The role of internationalization in explaining innovation performance. Technovation 28 (1–2): 63–74
Kalleberg AL, Leitch KT (1991) Gender and organizational performance: Determinants of small business survival and success. Acad of Manage J 34 (1): 136–161
Keeble D, Lawson C, Smith H, Moore B, Wilkinson F (1998) International processes, networking and Local embeddedness in technology-intensive small firms. Small Bus Econ 11(4):327–342
Kotabe M, Srinivasan SS, Aulakh PS (2002) Multinationality and firm performance: The moderating role of R&D and marketing capabilities. J Int Bus Stud 33 (1): 79–97
Langowitz N, Minniti M (2007) The entrepreneurial propensity of female. Entrepre Theory Prac31 (3): 341–364
Larraza M, Contín I, Bayona C (2007) Actividad emprendedora, innovación y desarrollo económico. Econ Ind 363: 119–128
Link AN, Scott JT (2005) Opening the Ivory Tower’s door: An analysis of the determinants of the formation of U.S. university spin-off companies. Res Policy 34 (7): 1106–1112
Markman GD, Gianiodis PT, Phan PH, Balkin, DB (2005) Innovation speed: Transferring university technology to market. Res Policy 34:1058–1075
Marlow S, Patton D (2005) All credit to men? Entrepreneurship, finance and gender. Entrepren, Theory Pract 29 (6): 717–735
Masey C, Lewis K (2003) New Zealand Women & Micro-finance. Mimeo. Downloadable at http://www.mwa.govt.nz/news-and-pubs/publications/work-and-enterprise/women-and-micro-financenz.pdf
Mayer H (2008) Segmentation and segregation patterns of women-owned high-tech firms in four metropolitan regions in the United States. Reg Stud 42: 1357–1383
Morrison AJ, Roth K, (1992) A taxonomy of business-level strategies in global industries. Strateg Manag J 13: 399–418
National Science Foundation, (2009) Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/figh-4.htm
Orser B, Spence M, Riding A, Carrington CA (2010) Gender and export propensity. Entrepren Theory Pract 34 (5): 934–958
Pittiglio R, Sica E, Villa S (2009) Innovation and internationalization: The case of Italy. J Technol Transf 34: 588–602
Reavley MA, Lituchy T, McClelland E (2005) Exporting success: a two country comparison of women entrepreneurs in international trade. Intern J Entrep Small Bus (2) 1: 57–78
Robb A, Coleman S (2010) Financing strategies of new technology-based firms: A comparison of women-and men-owned firms. J Technol Manage Innov 5 (1): 30–50
Romer PM (1990) Endogenous technological change. J Political Econ 98 (5): 71–102
Teece DJ (1996) Firm organisation, industrial structure and technological innovation. J Econ Behav Organ 31: 193–224
Vehviläinen M, Vuolanto P, Ylijoki O (2010) Gender equality in interface organizations between science, technology and innovation. J Technol Manage Innov 5 (1): 64–74
Verheul I, Thurik R (2001) Start-up capital: does gender matter?. Small Bus Econo 16 (4): 329–345
Verheul I, Uhlaner LM, Thurik AR (2005) Business accomplishments, gender and entrepreneurial self-image. J Bus Venturing 20 (4) 483–518
Verheul I, Van Stel A, Thurik R (2006) Explaining female and male entrepreneurship at the country level. Entrep Reg Develop 18: 151–183
Verheul I, Van Stel AJ (2007) Entrepreneurial Diversity and Economic Growth. Research Paper ERS-2007-070-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)
Welch CL, Welch DE, Hewerdine L (2008) Gender and export behaviour: Evidence from women-owned enterprises. J Bus Ethics 83: 113–126
Wennekers S, Thurik R (1999) Linking entrepreneurship and economic growth. Small Bus Econ 13 (1): 27–55
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nissan, E., Carrasco, I., Castaño, MS. (2012). Women Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Internationalization. In: Galindo, MA., Ribeiro, D. (eds) Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economics. International Studies in Entrepreneurship, vol 1000. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1293-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1293-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-1292-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-1293-9
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)