An Exploratory Study on the Gender-Based Differences in Entrepreneurial Intention and Its Antecedents amongst Students of a South African University of Technology

Abstract

Although the prevailing gender-linked fissures in entrepreneurial activity are shrinking in African economies, a disturbing feature of the contemporary business start-up environment is that women persistently are less willing to engage in entrepreneurship compared to men. In addition, women focus more on low technology and service-oriented business activities, which yield relatively lower financial value than other economic sectors. Given the subtle but entrenched gender vulnerabilities and biases that constantly accompany student career decisions, the primary objective of this research was to establish whether gender influences students’ intention to participate in entrepreneurship. Guided by a quantitative approach and survey research design, the study used a self-administered questionnaire to gather data from 130 undergraduate students, randomly selected from an entrepreneurship education class at a South African university of technology. The study applied the Mann-Whitney technique, a non-parametric test, to ascertain the existence of any significant gender-grounded disparities in the mean scores for entrepreneurial intention and its antecedents. The results confirmed the existence of significant differences in entrepreneurial intention, perceived behavioural control and attitude towards entrepreneurship among students, with males scoring higher than females in these constructs. These findings emphasise the need for gender-sensitive approaches to devising and implementing entrepreneurship development and support measures among potential entrepreneurs.

A systematic review of women’s entrepreneurship in the sports industry: has anything changed?

“…Instead of finding higher entrepreneurial intentions in the business school, in which entrepreneurship education is more central, the study found that the students of the sports school had a greater tendency to start a business. The same is true in other industries, in which some studies have reported that male students have greater entrepreneurial intentions and seem to be more confident than women (Zarate-Hoyos and Larios-Meono, 2015; Bretones and Radrigan, 2018;Gavurova et al, 2018;Ndofirepi et al, 2018). However, it is not only female students who present lower levels of entrepreneurial intention but also students of both genders with no previous business experience (Hu and Ye, 2017).…”

“…Universities have an important formative role in addressing the gender equity issue, specifically through their mission of knowledge transfer and development of work tools, toward stimulating women’s self-confidence so that they would be encouraged to develop entrepreneurial initiatives (Zarate-Hoyos and Larios-Meono, 2015; Torres and Garcia, 2017; Bretones and Radrigan, 2018). Therefore, the continuous study of how higher education organizations are encouraging female entrepreneurship is necessary (Gavurova et al , 2018; Ndofirepi et al , 2018).…”

Are There Gender Differences in Sustainable Entrepreneurship Indicators Amongst SMEs in South Africa? Application of MANOVA

“…In South Africa where there is better exposure in terms of female liberation as against many other African countries in terms of gender disparity, studies have revealed that environmental and social factors in form of domestic responsibility of women, put them at a disadvantage over their male business adventurists as far as business ownership is concerned (Motilewa &Onakoya 2015 andVenter &Urban 2015). Ndofirepi et al (2018) further attributed social and environmental factors in form of education and skill acquisition to ownership and entrepreneurship participation in South Africa to tertiary institutions where it was affirmed that males are more willing to participate and own businesses than the female students. The result of the applied Mann-Whitney approach further advocated for social-driven policy that will encourage female participation and ownership for better and gender equality of business enterprises in South Africa.…”

The impact of entrepreneurship education on attitude, subjective norm and self-efficacy among undergraduates

“…Entrepreneurship education molds entrepreneurial behavior and has been an essential factor for entrepreneurship development over the last decade (Bae et al, 2014). Entrepreneurship education able to enrich the proper psychological disposition includes subjective norms that produce an impact on entrepreneurial behavior (Ndofirepi et al, 2018). Individual attributes, family involvement, entrepreneurial education could affect the students' intention to become entrepreneurs positively and significantly (Mustapha and Selvaraju, 2015).…”