Title: Profiling women business founders from opportunity and necessity orientations: a multinational assessment

Authors: Dafna Kariv

Addresses: The School of Business Administration, Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, The College of Management, Academic Studies, Rishon Lezion, Israel

Abstract: The aim of this study was to provide clearer insight into gender differences in entrepreneurial orientations – necessity/opportunity – and their effects on business success among business founders. Founders from 13 countries were sampled for this study. Results showed insignificant differences between the genders in opportunity orientations, suggesting that both genders embark on entrepreneurship due to the benefits they foresee from this course of action. Necessity orientations emerged for both genders as significantly and negatively affecting business success, and opportunity-driven factors were found to positively and significantly affect business success. Inclusion of human capital and family background moderated the negative effects of necessity orientations on business success for WF but did not significantly enhance the positive effect of the opportunity-driven orientations. We observed that the orientations crystallized in WF|s business success, and argue that these embody the filtered, culture-free orientations that should guide education, training and assistance for entrepreneurs.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; transition countries; emerging economies; growth performance; necessity; opportunity; entrepreneurship; women business founders; female entrepreneurs; gender differences; human capital; family background; education; training; entrepreneurial support; entrepreneurial orientation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTIS.2010.037414

International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems, 2010 Vol.1 No.1, pp.59 - 81

Published online: 06 Dec 2010 *

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