Perceptual factors explaining the gender gap in entrepreneurial propensity: A replication and extension

Closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship: The importance of skill variety

“…There is a broad consensus about the existence of a gender gap in entrepreneurial career choice [1,26,27]. Research showed that men differ from women in that they often report, on average, stronger entrepreneurial intentions and also a higher likelihood of early-stage entrepreneurship activity [1,19,28].…”

“…What do we know about the drivers behind the gender gap in entrepreneurship? The gap is widely acknowledged as a multi-causal phenomenon [1,8,19]. The most discussed mediating factors explaining the gender gap are social capital [3,29], financial capital [6,7,30] and human capital [5,31].…”

“…Educational skill variety explains approximately 8%, while work skill variety explains 20% of the gender gap. The gender gap is a multi-causal phenomenon (1). Future research could thus include a broader set of gender typical explanatory variables from social and financial capital.…”

“…Research found a (historically) persisting gender gap in entrepreneurial intentions and activities, with males showing a somewhat higher likelihood of forming entrepreneurial intentions, and entrepreneurial activity respectively [1,2]. Several explanations have been brought forward to explain this gap.…”

“…Our paper builds on this line of research and investigates whether and to what extent gender differences in entrepreneurial skill variety indeed exist and open up early in vocational development, thereby laying the foundations for the gender gap in entrepreneurial intentions in adulthood. We focus on two interrelated research questions: (1) To what degree does skill variety provide an explanation as a mediator for the gender gap in entrepreneurial intentions? 2) How does the mediating effect of skill variety in the relationship between gender and entrepreneurial intention change over the educational trajectory?…”