Title: Gender and the structuring of the entrepreneurial venture: an effectuation approach

Authors: Maria Laura Frigotto; Nives Della Valle

Addresses: Department of Economics and Management, University of Trento, Via Inama, 5-38122 Trento, Italy ' School of Social Sciences, University of Trento, via Verdi 26, 38122 Trento, Italy

Abstract: This study adds to the entrepreneurship literature by addressing the role of gender in entrepreneurial decisions. We adopt effectuation as an alternative framework and method to the typical experimental laboratory methods and investigate whether the contrasting evidence on the gender-entrepreneurial decision relationship is due to the methodological and conceptual limits of the traditional models of decision making. We find that men rely on the effectuation framework more than women and that diverse stored information mediates gender differences in adopting effectual criteria. We do not find that women adopt the effectual 'affordable loss' decisional criterion more than men despite their stronger perception for negative consequences and worst-case scenarios. The study also contributes to the effectuation literature by introducing the use of effectuation as an analytical framework for research on a peculiar category of decisions, i.e., decisions under ignorance.

Keywords: venture; gender; entrepreneurship; effectuation; decision making; ignorance; entrepreneurial risk; novice entrepreneurs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2018.093918

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 2018 Vol.10 No.4, pp.412 - 434

Received: 07 May 2015
Accepted: 21 Apr 2016
Published online: 09 Aug 2018 *

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