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Introduction: A Gender-Sensitive Analysis of Entrepreneurs’ Work-Life Balance

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Work-Life Balance and Women's Entrepreneurship

Part of the book series: Contributions to Management Science ((MANAGEMENT SC.))

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Abstract

This chapter discusses self-employment as a potential answer to many workplace problems, particularly to balancing work and family roles. Subsequently, the state of the art of research on women’s entrepreneurship and work-life balance is briefly described and the resulting research needs are highlighted. Building on this, the objective, research approach and structure of this work are presented.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Author’s own formatting.

  2. 2.

    This thesis uses a broad definition of entrepreneurship to include all forms of self-employment and uses the terms ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘self-employment’ interchangeably.

  3. 3.

    See Chap. 3 for exceptions.

  4. 4.

    Author’s own formatting.

  5. 5.

    The specific meanings of the terms ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ will be explored in Sect. 2.1.1.1.

  6. 6.

    De Bruin et al. (2006, p. 586), referencing Hurley (1991).

  7. 7.

    Brush et al. (2009, p. 9), referencing Schumpeter (1934), Kirzner (1985), Shane (2003), Penrose (1959), Bruno and Tyebjee (1982) and Aldrich (1999).

  8. 8.

    Author’s own formatting.

  9. 9.

    Author’s own formatting.

  10. 10.

    Author’s own formatting.

  11. 11.

    Author’s own formatting.

  12. 12.

    Author’s own formatting.

  13. 13.

    Creswell (2014, p. 6) highlights the following four philosophical worldviews that are widely discussed in the literature: postpositivism, constructivism, transformative and pragmatism.

  14. 14.

    Author’s own formatting.

  15. 15.

    See Sect. 4.1 for the definition of the term ‘expert’ that underlies this thesis. Exemplary experts in the field of women’s entrepreneurship are start-up advisors, representatives of entrepreneurial networks and researchers with focus on women’s entrepreneurship.

  16. 16.

    Crotty (1998, p. 3) defines the term methods as follows: “the techniques or procedures used to gather and analyze data related to some research question or hypothesis.”

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  1. Institute for Management, University of Koblenz-Landau, Koblenz, Germany

    Claire Sophie Zerwas

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Zerwas, C.S. (2019). Introduction: A Gender-Sensitive Analysis of Entrepreneurs’ Work-Life Balance. In: Work-Life Balance and Women's Entrepreneurship. Contributions to Management Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29804-3_1

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