Entrepreneurship in Bosnia and Herzegovina: focus on gender

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to investigate gender differences in entrepreneurship development. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative study consisted of an on-line questionnaire administered to a random sample of 206 owner-manager CEOs across Bosnia and Herzegovina. Various statistical tools were used in the analysis. Findings Empirical results revealed significant differences in entrepreneurial performance between women and men. It was found that gender significantly affects entrepreneurial activities in firms with regards to innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking. Overall, female respondents scored better in entrepreneurial dimensions than did males. Practical implications The state should support female entrepreneurship in the long term; aspirations exist, and this study’s results reveal this potential. Furthermore, it is recommended that women take a part in entrepreneurship development – a key to economic development. Also, it is suggested that education in entrepreneurship should be at a higher level than is currently the case. Originality/value This paper is the first empirical study that examines gender issues in entrepreneurship in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The study draws practical implications for current business owners, CEOs and potential entrepreneurs of either gender. This research removes stereotypes about female aspirations, competencies and skills in creating new start-ups and ventures, which in the long term will contribute to the economic development.

College Students’ Entrepreneurial Mindset: Educational Experiences Override Gender and Major

“…This finding is consistent with formal studies in which male participants scored higher on other entrepreneurship-related variables, such as entrepreneurial orientation [113,114], intention [79,112], and attitude [112]. However, some inconsistent results on the gender difference also exist [115,116]. The gender difference found in the current study raises the old but persistent question, "Is it innate or socially constructed?"…”

Entrepreneurial intention of students in Bosnia and Herzegovina: what type of support matters?

“…Since SEM is more sensitive to sample size than other multivariate approaches, this is important to acknowledge, even if Hair et al (2014) noted that MLE (maximum likelihood estimationused in this study) provides valid and stable results with sample sizes as small as 50 (p. 573). Also, considering that the development of entrepreneurship is slow and largely neglected by policymakers in B&H (Palalic et al, 2017), the interpretation of the hypotheses related to informal and regulatory support should be interpreted in accordance with the research context and the level of entrepreneurship development. It seems that a more developed entrepreneurial environment better predicts the entrepreneurial intention in contrast to countries where the level of entrepreneurship is low (e.g., Goyanes (2015) vs. Omar and Kebangsaan (2017) findings).…”

“…According to The Global Entrepreneurship Index for 2018, B&H ranks 95th (out of 137 countries) and is the worst ranked European country ( Acs, Szerb, & Lloyd, 2018). B&H is a specific context given that entrepreneurship development has been neglected and has been very slow (Palalic, Ramadani, & Dana, 2017), and "it appears that policy-makers overlooked the fact that steps to revitalise a transitional economy include entrepreneurship development" (Palalic et al, 2017).…”

Gender effect of entrepreneurial orientation on dairy farming career resilience in Kenya

“…Whereby, men are socialized to be aggressive, task-oriented and assertive whereas women are socialized to be emotional, tender and communal (Leonidas et al, 2017). In entrepreneurship male and female entrepreneurs differ in both business structure and in individual goals (Palalic et al, 2017). Entrepreneurs identify opportunities, evaluate and turn them into viable businesses.…”