Entrepreneurship, gender gap and developing economies: the case of post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This empirical study examines the extent to which risk aversion and entrepreneurial ability influence an individual's decision to enter into entrepreneurship. Precisely, it delineates the gender gap in self-employment, nascent and high growth entrepreneurship. In doing so, it utilises the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor South Africa databases containing 19,469 usable cases sampled between 2009 and 2014. The study adopts a quantitative approach and it applies an estimator in the form of a probit model and a non-linear decomposition technique to test established hypotheses.The results indicate that lower levels of knowledge and skills among women explain a substantial part of the gender gap. Thus, the gender gap in nascent and high growth entrepreneurship would be reduced if women had similar characteristics as men. Also, their entry rates into self-employment would be high and there would be no gender difference. This shifts the emphasis from the significance of risk aversion for local entrepreneurship to accentuate the importance of entrepreneurial-specific skills required to successfully engage in entrepreneurship.

Women’s entrepreneurial subjectivity under scrutiny: Expert knowledge on gender and entrepreneurship

“…Further, entrepreneurship is portrayed as a space for the creation of economic value(Marlow, 2020). This gender gap is often analyzed in terms of lost productivity for the economy(Cuberes & Teignier, 2018) or as a potential niche in which to stimulate productivity with the right intervention on women's incentives and behaviors(Nyakudya et al (2018).Many of these studies feature a business and/or psychological perspective, and usually approach the topic from a comparative viewpoint, promoted by many international organizations, such as the OECD, ILO, IMF and foundations like the EVS (European Values Survey), with a view to quantifying gender gaps in entrepreneurship. EU institutions, on the other hand, have enacted several research networks and expert groups to encourage reflection on the problematic nature of female entrepreneurship.…”

A review of and future research agenda on women entrepreneurship in Africa

“…Other studies established a link between women's lack of adequate abilities and gender gap in enterprising (Nyakudya et al, 2018), female's human capital and their success in entrepreneurship (Adom and Asare-Yeboa, 2016;Baranik et al, 2018), university level education and increasing likelihood of women enterprising (Eijdenberg and van Montfort, 2017), and less or no education and involvement in necessity entrepreneurship, and low enterprise performance (Adom, 2015;Anambane and Adom, 2018). Highly educated women entrepreneurs, on the other hand, were shown to be opportunity-driven and achieve increased performance and income (Adom, 2015).…”

“…In total 63 (60%) papers dealt with management theme by its own and/or in a combination with other dimensions of the framework (see Appendix). Silent issues, however far and in between, covered in the reviewed Africa women's studies included education, prior experience and entrepreneurial competencies on business success/growth (Adom, 2015;Adom and Asare-Yeboa, 2016;Nyakudya et al, 2018;Irene, 2017;Peters et al, 2014); relationship between cognitive adaptability and entrepreneurial intentions (Botha and Bignotti, 2017;Wu et al, 2019); and entrepreneurial motivations and traits (Bignotti and le Roux, 2018;Mersha and Sriram, 2019;Uzuegbunam and Uzuegbunam, 2018).…”

Empreendedorismo feminino no setor de serviços: análise da capacidade de resiliência em tempos da covid-19

“…A literatura explica que essas percepções e vivências diante das adversidades, tendem a influenciar diretamente a confiança das mulheres empreendedoras, aumentando as possibilidades de desistência do negócio, como também podem gerar redução de investimentos e possíveis contratações futuras, a sentirem-se menos confiantes em suas habilidades empreendedoras e maior medo do fracasso (Cabrera & Mauricio, 2017;Nyakudya, Simba & Herrington, 2018;Bandeira, Amorim & Oliveira, 2020;Castro & Zermeño, 2020) Os elementos de análise da subcategoria 'estratégias' fazem referências a busca de alternativas para continuar com o trabalho remoto, não perdendo lucratividade para manter o negócio ativo. Em momentos de crise, especialmente, da COVID-19, as empreendedoras foram compelidas a buscar estratégias de negócio diante do fechamento total dos estabelecimentos comerciais.…”