717Availability of, and access to finance is a critical element to the start-up and consequent performance of any enterprise. Hence, any barriers or impediments to accessing appropriate levels or sources of funding will have an enduring and negative impact upon the performance of affected firms. Although findings have been somewhat inconsistent, there is support for the notion that women entrepreneurs entering self-employment are disadvantaged by their gender. This argument is evaluated through a theoretical analysis of gender using the example of accessing both formal and informal sources of business funding to illustrate how this concept impacts upon women in self-employment.

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Sue Marlow and Dean Patton are with Leicester Business School, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. The authors would like to thank Adam Strange of Warwick Business School for his assistance in preparation of this paper.

This article explores the potential of university technology business incubators to enhance the absorptive capacity of new technology-based firms. The research pursues three critical themes: it employs the absorptive capacity construct to analyse and evaluate the potential of incubation to strengthen the business model of new technology firms. It then explores the interaction between founders and incubator directors, mentors and business advisers to assess how this might enhance absorptive capacity. Finally, it indicates how such interactions can facilitate the transition from potential to realised absorptive capacity. The article interrogates the incubation process by using the absorptive capacity framework to evaluate how it might strengthen the business model of new technology firms. The qualitative findings suggest that where founders, advisers, mentors and incubator directors engage collaboratively to create an iterative dialogue which informs the development of a viable business model, the process by which potential absorptive capacity can be fully realised is substantially strengthened.

The extant literature highlights that environmental conditions, during the creation phase, imprint on a startup's survival and growth. However, there are few studies that explore the composite nature of a founding team's capabilities and networks, developed within this phase, and the contribution made to future performance. This paper uses the distinctive context of university spin-offs, where early stage ventures are fostered by institutional interventions, to analyse the influence that the capabilities and networks of a founding team, at incorporation, have upon the future performance of the spin-off. Based on data from 181 university spin-offs, this paper empirically demonstrates that the entrepreneurial capabilities of a founding team, augmented during the 'creation' phase, have a positive influence on the performance of a spin-off during the 'growth' phase, and that the networks of a founding team indirectly affect a spin-off's performance through the enhancement of a team's entrepreneurial capabilities.