In recent years, the study of women entrepreneurship has experienced great growth, gaining a broad consensus among academics and contributing above all to understanding all those factors that explain the difficulty of women in undertaking an entrepreneurial career. This document tries to contribute to the field of study, thanks to a systematic analysis through the publications present in the topic. For this purpose, 2,848 peer-reviewed articles were analyzed, published between 1950 and 2019, using the Scopus database (SCImago Research Group). Through the use of a series of bibliometric indicators it was possible to define the current state of research on the international scene. The analysis revealed that it is a multidisciplinary field of study and that has started to expand further since 2006, culminating in 2019, which makes it become a current and valid object of study. The analysis of the clusters allowed to isolate 6 different lines of research in which emerged, on the one hand, the importance of entrepreneurial education, social entrepreneurship and the socio-cultural context of reference (e.g., culture, family, and institutional support) as tools to overcome the gender gap, on the other, the importance that women entrepreneurship assumes in the economic growth of the country (especially in developing economies), promoting social inclusion and combating poverty and discrimination. The study presents an important contribution to reflect on current policies and to outline future lines of investigation.

Background: The 2019 coronavirus disease epidemic (Covid-19) is a public health emergency of international concern and poses a challenge to the labor market. The pandemic has a devastating and disproportionate effect on young workers, their interest in entrepreneurship, and their mental health. Research is needed to develop evidence-based strategies to improve coping and reduce adverse psychological problems. The objective of this study was to analyze the impact that Covid-19 pandemic perception and psychological need satisfaction have on university students and their self-employment intention. In addition, we also analyzed the role of moderation played by psychological aspects. These psychological factors (i.e., Optimism and Proactiveness) can also improve young people’s mental health and well-being. Methods: An explorative study (online survey) was conducted in March 2020 934 university students from Latin America. Regression analysis models were built to examine the relationships between Covid-19 pandemic perception, personality variables, and entrepreneurial intention. Mediation models, through the bootstrapping method, were performed to analyze the mediating role of proactiveness and optimism. Results: Results indicate that students’ perception of Covid-19 and psychological need satisfaction are associated with entrepreneurial intention. Additionally, the present study argues that proactiveness and optimism mediate these relationships. Conclusions: This study identifies psychological factors associated with a lower level of Covid-19 impact and that can be used for psychological interventions that result in an improvement in the mental health of these vulnerable groups during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

In recent years, research on the family role and entrepreneurship has increased noticeably, consolidating itself as a valid and current subject of study. This paper presents a systematic analysis of academic research, applying bibliometric indicators, and cluster analysis, which define the state of research about the relationship between family role and entrepreneurship. For this purpose, using three well-accepted databases among the research community: Scopus, Web of Science, Business Source, a total of 92 articles were selected and analyzed, published between 1989 and 2019 (until March). A cluster analysis shows five main areas of literature development: (1) cultural dimension and geneder issue; (2) family business and succession; (3) parental role models and entrepreneurial intentions; (4) entrepreneurship and self-employment; (5) family support and women entrepreneurs. Findings also show how this is a relatively recent field of study, with a multidisciplinary character.

Social entrepreneurship (SE) is an emerging research field that has received much scholarly attention in recent years. Given the global scope of this attention, this review explores the existing scientific literature on social entrepreneurship to contribute to a systematization of the research field. Based on the publications in Web of Science and Scopus, a total of 1425 scientific articles were analyzed. We used the bibliometric method to describe the evolution of social entrepreneurship research (e.g., evaluation by years, authors, scientific journal articles, and countries in the SE literature that have had the greatest impact in terms of production). In addition, we used the mapping of knowledge networks through the citations and co-citations analysis to identify schools of thought. A keyword co-occurrence analysis was performed to detect key research topics over the years. The results show that, although the research is still in a nascent phase, it has a multidisciplinary character. Furthermore, social entrepreneurship appears to be a concept closely linked to three schools of thought: commercial entrepreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship, and social innovation. The keywords analysis allowed us to isolate the constructs that the literature has considered antecedents (e.g., socio-psychological factors) and accelerators (e.g., education, network, culture, and gender) to the development of social entrepreneurial intention. We will further discuss the ways researchers can explore this research field and contribute to the global literature.

Universities increasingly play an important role in entrepreneurship, which has contributed to gender equality in the business world. The aim of this study is to establish a causal model of entrepreneurial intentions and explore it by gender, based on the dimensions of the Theory of Planned Behavior, and how these are mediated by the individuals’ resilience and psychological well-being. The previous work experience was considered as one of the control variables, in order to analyze whether this influence the entrepreneurial intention. With a convenience sample of 644 Portuguese students, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used. For a better understanding, multivariate analyses were performed and each one was individually reported, and for appropriate comparisons by gender, the t-student test was used. The comparison of means, between genders, showed that there are differences only between perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, and entrepreneurial intention, with women scoring the highest values, and psychological well-being, with men scoring the higher. A serial mediation path was performed, and psychological resilience was found to mediate a significant effect between perceived behavioral control and intention in females, but not in males. It also mediates a significant effect between attitude and intention in females, but not in males. These results show that attitude is a determining factor for females to become entrepreneurs. Finally, after discussing the results, theoretical and practical contributions are analyzed, with regard to the field of entrepreneurship in Portugal, and alternatives are pointed out for a more entrepreneurial future, reinforcing the role of higher education institutions.

Social entrepreneurship (SE) enables business consolidation, combined with the production of positive impact and improvements in society. Aligned with 2030 Agenda for the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, it is important to clarify the role of social entrepreneurs, as they are making visible the impact of their creative ideas in several areas, from civic engagement to the environment, health and learning. The main purpose of this study is to specify a model of social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) and explore it by country, based on the dimensions of the Theory of Planned Behavior and how these are mediated by spirituality and optimism. With a convenience sample of 1476 Portuguese and Spanish students, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used. For a deeply understanding, variables within the model were compared by country using t-rest, and multivariate analysis was done by each one separately. The mean comparison between countries, demonstrated that there are differences only between perceived behavioral control (PBC), Spirituality, Optimism and SEI, with Portuguese students scoring the highest values, in all variables except Optimism. A mediation path was carried out, and Spirituality mediate a significant effect between the three TPB dimensions in Portuguese students, but not in students from Spain. Finally, after discussing the results, theoretical and practical contributions are analyzed, with regard to the field of SE in Portugal and Spain, and alternatives are pointed out for a more social and sustainable entrepreneurial future.

Motivation is an essential component in higher education. In this area, researchers have described three psychological needs that drive human behavior: Autonomy, competence, and relatedness. These three needs are central dimensions of Self-Determination Theory. Various measurement tools have been used to evaluate these dimensions. Despite the universality of these, the literature lacks validation of them in the Spanish university context. The present study aims to analyze the psychometric properties of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS) in this context. This scale was administered to a sample of 1075 Spanish university students. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded that the six-factor structure fitted the data. Results supported the reliability and validity of all the subscales. The obtained factor structure provided evidence in support of the comparability of the model between male and female students and different types of studies.

In this paper, the authors aim to analyze entrepreneurial intention and focus on sustainable entrepreneurial strategies, which consider the responsible use of resources while avoiding the strong exploitation of materials and workers, and which use a long-term approach. This consideration is important in the current era, especially when considering that the incorrect hypercompetitive approaches implemented among business organizations in recent years have caused many problems around the world both ecologically and socio-economically. In this research, the authors administered questionnaires to 743 university students. These questionnaires measured considerations of future consequences, considerations of immediate consequences, environmental awareness, personal norms for acting in a pro-environmental way, sustainable entrepreneurial attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and sustainable entrepreneurial intentions. When combining these independent, dependent, and moderating variables, it emerged that considerations of future consequences, considerations of immediate consequences, environmental awareness, and personal norms for acting in a pro-environmental way have a positive influence on sustainable entrepreneurial attitudes; the authors also considered the influence on the other variables, and it was determined that sustainable entrepreneurial attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control have a positive influence on sustainable entrepreneurial intentions. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), all of the proposed hypotheses were verified, with the exception of influence between entrepreneurial attitudes and sustainable entrepreneurial intentions.