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Gender, Entrepreneurship, and Firm Performance: Recent Research and Considerations of Context

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Handbook on Well-Being of Working Women

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

Abstract

Conventional wisdom asserts that women-owned firms underperform firms owned by men. Studies reveal, however, that women and men do not differ in measures of firm survival or profitability when we control for factors such as industry, firm size, and firm age. Gender differences persist, however, in measures of firm size and growth. Recent research suggests that this continued discrepancy is due to gender differences in resource attributes combined with differences in motivations, goals, and attitudes. Thus, the performance of women-owned firms needs to be viewed within the context of the goals and objectives that women establish for their firms as well as where they are in their life cycle.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The 5 Cs of credit include (1) the character or reputation of the borrower, (2) her capacity to repay the loan, (3) her available capital, (4) collateral that can be pledged to secure the loan, and (5) the conditions of the loan including the loan amount and interest rate (http://www.investopedia.com).

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  1. Barney School of Business, University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT, USA

    Susan Coleman

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  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

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Coleman, S. (2016). Gender, Entrepreneurship, and Firm Performance: Recent Research and Considerations of 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_22

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