In most countries around the world, women owned businesses form an important and significant part of the overall entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is fundamental for the prosperity of a country and for that reason there are constant efforts in order to create a favourable and equal business condition. The knowledge about entrepreneurship is continuously increasing and has, among other things, resulted in perceptions of who is an entrepreneur, what constitutes growth, and strategies for how gender equality in entrepreneurship should be promoted. The increased knowledge, and the specific strategies and targeted measures designed to increase women's share in the business world seem, however, not to have resulted in a more equal entrepreneurship. The purpose of the present study is to identify and analyze factors that are considered to affect start-up and growth decisions of women and men, and, to propose a conceptual model that shows how gender-linked beliefs (i.e. fallacies) about entrepreneurship growth and support systems can be obstacles for gender equality in entrepreneurship. Respondents in the thesis are entrepreneurs, women and men, in the county of Jämtland. The results from the five papers in the thesis show that women and men have a high passion and a strong self-efficacy to start businesses but that women's passion is negatively affected because of a higher risk perception. Another important result is that growth can be considered from a qualitative perspective where growth involves both a quest for survival and personal development. Women entrepreneurs do want employment growth but the condition for that is that they need access to a fair support system already in the previous lifecycle phases. The results further show that the current support system comprises a narrow definition of growth and that gender questions do not seem to have had an impact when allocating government funds. Together, the above results help to dispel some of the existing conceptions of reality. The thesis concludes: Women, as well as men, possess the passion and the self-efficacy to start and growth a business, but women are not perceived as potential growth entrepreneurs, and therefore they only receive a fraction of the total business support. This leads to a higher risk perception which cancels out the influence of passion on women’s start-up decision. Previous strategies for business equality in Sweden do not seem to have been successful. Instead strategies must be reshaped and based on a conception of reality where both women and men are considered growth entrepreneurs.
Keywords: entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurs, risk, passion, self-efficacy, gender equality, business life cycle, business support system.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate women-owned businesses from a life cycle perspective and with a qualitative growth approach. Building on previous research that has identified qualitative growth platforms, this paper takes into account the time aspect and investigates perceived barriers and support needs inside different qualitative growth platforms. Design/methodology/approach – The study took place in Sweden and is based on 191 women entrepreneurs in a first survey and 101 women entrepreneurs in a follow-up questionnaire three years later. Toanswer the research questions, descriptive frequency analysis and logistic regression analysis techniques have been used. Findings – The motivation of growth changes throughout the life cycle, and women entrepreneurs move between different qualitative growth platforms when required building blocks of previous platforms have been established and secured. In this transfer of growth ambition, a significant correlation between business age and intrinsic growth aspiration was identified. Initially, growth is extrinsically motivated and later on in the life cycle, it is intrinsically motivated. In the late life cycle, the motivation is extrinsically motivated again. The results discern barriers to growth that hinder movement from extrinsic to intrinsic business platforms, and the author argues that the transfer of growth ambition from one growing platform to another requires different types of advice and support from the surrounding community. Research limitations/implications – By broadening the view of growth to include both a quantitative and qualitative approach, it is possible to identify a widespread growth ambition in women-owned businesses which experience various barriers and supportive needs. Business programs that encourage exchange of experience among entrepreneurs in various growth platforms might be a way to overcome the perceived barriers. As women's businesses only receive a low proportion of the government funding, they are prevented from developing their growth ambitions. To ensure that all forms of growth are stimulated, different measures are required depending on which stage in their life cycle the women-owned businesses belong to. Originality/value – By considering business growth from a qualitative perspective, barriers and needs that the traditional approach may overlook can be highlighted. For example, growth aspiration in terms of more employees will not be considered until the previously, qualitative growth platforms are established and secured. The support system, however, is designed to only favor growth in terms of employment, which results in difficulties to qualify for financial support.
Previous results on growth in women’s businesses indicate that employment growth require time and that growth ambitions change over time. Time aspects has however only to a minor extent previously been studied despite the fact that it was required already twenty years ago. The aim of this paper is to explore growth from a longitudinal perspective. The results is based from data that have taken place at three different times during the period 2010 to 2016. The result shows that companies with a clear and specified future growth ambition is highly significant with the companies that actually have achieved growth.
In recent decades, the craft beer sector has grown rapidly, and it has been studied across the world through various lenses. In Norway and Sweden, the sector is a well-established complement to large-scale beer producers, but it has yet to be thoroughly studied. Previous studies show that the location of a brewery is important in terms of marketing and branding approaches, but also that craft brewers contribute to place development. The aim of this study is to explore how context affects the possibilities of craft breweries to contribute to local place development. The study results are built on a web-survey, answered by 201 craft beer brewers in Norway and Sweden. The findings show that brewers, especially those located in rural areas, struggle under tough conditions regarding profit margins, as well as troublesome and limiting legislation. Place is considered very important, but breweries in rural areas use place-connection to a higher extent. Tourism is important, especially for breweries located in rural areas, and changes in regulation could increase the importance even more. The results of this study show that there exist contextual differences which also have an impact on the extent to which the brewers can contribute to their local community.
Purpose: In many regions, the potential of social entrepreneurship and social innovation are not fully used. The purpose of this study is to explore issues and challenges in the business advisory support offered to social entrepreneurs and, from this background, give suggestions on how the advisory process to social entrepreneurs could be modified to better gain society. Design/methodology/approach: Representatives from 15 business advisory organisations in Sweden were interviewed to examine how their support to social enterprises meets the needs of the companies, and to discover possible problems encountered regarding the business advice available to social enterprises. Using thematic analysis, six different overarching themes were identified that characterise issues and challenges in the business advisory support offered to social enterprises. Findings: The results show that many advisers lack experience in social entrepreneurship, yet they consider that social enterprises are not “genuine” entrepreneurs, and that they, therefore, refer them to advisers focussing on co-operative enterprises. Furthermore, the absence of sustainable business models, the lack of financial resources and the existence of municipal monopoly are identified by the advisers as challenges. Practical implications: This paper reveals an Achilles’ heel in the business advisory support offered to social enterprises, namely, the lack of experience and knowledge of social entrepreneurship amongst current business advisers, as well as a prioritisation of advice to more “commercial” entrepreneurs because of policy instruments and the expectations from the public funders of increased profitability and growth in the companies that receive advice. The mainstream business advisory service could play a key role by bringing together the various stakeholders in this shared value process. This would, however, require increased knowledge and new government policies and directives that ensure that social entrepreneurs are prioritised in the business advisory situation. Originality/value: This paper demonstrates that the current advisory system is not adapted to fit the needs of social enterprises. It also proposes the need to include participation and proximity in the business model design.
Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the growth of women's businesses from a qualitative perspective. The paper identifies strategic building blocks for defining a set of different growth platforms. Moreover, the paper investigates growth ambitions for women inside each identified "type" of growth platform and identifies critical motivation variables that can influence the decision to move from growing one business platform to growing another platform. Design/methodology/approach: The results are based on 191 women entrepreneurs. Data were analyzed by coding narrative statements from the survey into overarching themes for business platforms, descriptive frequency analysis and logistic regression analysis techniques. Findings: The paper discerned five different growth platforms and noticed intrinsic or extrinsic growth ambitions for platform growth. The extrinsic platforms are the most common, but all platforms can be characterized by equally high growth aspirations. Each of the identified platforms is associated with distinct and unique blocks that the women entrepreneurs try to put together and resolve in order to grow their companies. Women entrepreneurs move between the different platforms when the building blocks of previous platforms have been established and secured. Variables such as profits and ownership may explain such transfers of growth ambitions. Research limitations/implications: While acknowledging the qualitative growth of business platforms, the paper takes an approach that goes against the traditional view of quantitative growth. Originality/value: This study is a response to the lack of research on qualitative growth and women's entrepreneurship and suggests that the manifested qualitative growth can be in order to secure blocks on different business platforms.
Purpose – This paper aims to explore whether nascent women entrepreneurs perceive more risks than men, and to determine how higher risk perceptions might limit start-up decisions by mediating the potential influence of passion and self-efficacy. Design/methodology/approach – This study surveyed 103 participants in Sweden – both women and men – who, in the period 2008 through 2011, intended to start a business. ANOVA tests and binominal logistic regression models were conducted to test hypothesized framework. Findings – The authors found that nascent women entrepreneurs perceive more risk than nascent male entrepreneurs, that risk perceptions influence start-up decisions and that risk preferences partial out the otherwise identified influence of passion on start-up decisions. Research limitations/implications – The authors reveal a consequence of gender socialization and how it impacts the start-up decisions of nascent women entrepreneurs. Support systems should consider developing activities that change the public's perception of who is an entrepreneur and seek ways to balance risk perceptions between men and women. Originality/value – The authors argue here that risk perceptions play a prominent role in start-up decisions. Specifically, they consider that nascent women entrepreneurs perceive more risks than men, and that their view of risk partials out any potential influence of their perceived passion and self-efficacy on their start-up decision.
This research note demonstrates that self-efficacy is important for understanding why an attractive idea may lead an entrepreneur to develop passion. Drawing upon a survey of 103 respondents, we find that self-efficacy mediates the influence of pull entrepreneurship on founder passion suggesting that being pulled toward opportunities to start a business is not directly required for entrepreneurial passion to develop. Instead, pull entrepreneurship increases self-efficacy and assists the individual to develop the skills typical of an entrepreneur. This instills individual self-efficacy beliefs, which in turn are prerequisites for passion to grow. As such, this research uncovers a skill-based explanation of how founder passion develops.
We explore the role, influence and interaction with the support system for entrepreneurial initiatives in two non-core Nordic regions. The analyses are based on interviews 34 nature-based business owners about development their business and their experience with the support system and rural advisors in this process. Data from support system and business advisors were gathered through their websites, policy documents, 4 workshops and supplemental interviews. We found a complex picture of entrepreneur/firm (internal), environmental (external) and relational/supporting (system) factor combination promotes nature-based business establishments and employment. Several entrepreneurs asks for a more flexible support system and tailor made solutions. Firms that already have a high knowledge base and absorptive capacity seem also most efficient in getting the help they need. A dilemma is that those in most need for help don’t know how to ask for it, or do not have capacity to internalize new knowledge and resources offered. To make use of external support it critical that they find their match in a well-functioning support system adjusted to their needs. The support system must be aware of varying level of absorptive capacity in the entrepreneurial businesses. The various roles of intermediary /mentor roles/functions and the need for industry-specific knowledge seem pertinent.
Prior research has highlighted coopetition as a successful strategy for enterprise performance during a crisis; this has largely focused upon large firms therefore, limiting our knowledge of network coopetition in micro-enterprises. This article explores the impact of network coopetition on the robustness of micro-enterprises during COVID-19. A survey and interviews with craft food producers in Sweden were conducted; a measurement for firm robustness was created, indicating that 46% of respondents had successfully weathered the pandemic and were thus, considered robust. The findings show that micro-enterprises employing network coopetition as a strategy during the pandemic exhibited robustness. This article stresses the importance of micro-enterprises that broadly embrace network coopetition to withstand the negative effects of crises.
Gröna näringar ses som en bransch där tillväxtpotentialen är stor (Tillväxtanalys, 2016). Såväl kvinnor som män är aktiva inom denna näring, men kvinnorna är osynliga i statistik såväl som i forskning. Tidigare studier visar på att kvinnors arbetsliv inom de gröna näringarna är tätt sammanflätat med familjelivet (Caballé, 1999; Sattler Weber 2007). Till exempel visar SCB:s tidsanvändningsundersökning (2012) att kvinnor lägger ner betydligt mer tid på hemarbete jämfört med männen. Kvinnor kompenserar den ökade belastningen i hemmet genom att minska ner den betalda förvärvstiden vilket leder till att de har mindre timmar att lägga på verksamheten (Jennings and McDougald, 2007; Robb and Watson, 2012). Det finns stora skillnader i arbetslivet för företagare inom gröna näringar jämfört med andra typer av företagare. En skillnad är att många ärver sitt företagande (gården), en annan är den tätt sammanflätande livssituationen som denna näring innebär. Kvinnor drivs av att få vara flexibla och att självständigt få styra över sin tid, dessa kvinnor ser en fördel med att vara företagare. Tidigare forskning visar dock att kvinnor, i en högre utsträckning än män, föredrar att vara anställda än att vara egna företagare (SOU 2005:66). Inom de gröna näringarna, där kvinnor i stor utsträckning varit och är dolda företagare, kombinerar kvinnor sitt företagande med att ha en anställning. Med anledning av ovanstående diskussion blir syftet med studien att undersöka arbetslivets förutsättningar för företagande kvinnor inom de gröna näringarna. Forskningsfrågorna är följande: Hur driver de sina företag? På vilket sätt är deras företagande organiserat? Hur ser deras arbetssituationut? Datainsamling har skett genom intervjuer med kvinnor som är aktiva inom de gröna näringarna i Jämtlands län. Slutsatserna vi kan dra är att det finns fyra olika typer av företagare, med skilda förutsättningar för hur deras arbetsliv samt livssituation ser ut.
Nature-based businesses – such as those involving the land, forest, garden, or rural environment – are industries with significant growth potential. Female entrepreneurs within nature-based businesses are often invisible in statistics, as well as in research, since traditionally men have owned such companies. This had led to a lack of knowledge about the opportunities for women to start and run nature-based businesses. The aim of this paper was to explore the ambition, working conditions, and life situation for female entrepreneurs within nature-based businesses in sparsely populated areas of Sweden. Interviews were carried out with 18 female entrepreneurs within nature-based businesses in Sweden. One conclusion that was drawn from this study is that women within this industry are mainly pulled into entrepreneurship, that is, the entrepreneurship is opportunity based. Four different types of entrepreneurs were identified based on their ambitions when it comes to time spent in business and the degree of innovation. This study shows that it is often difficult to achieve profitability in a company, and the female entrepreneurs highlight that that self-employment implies hard but rewarding work. The findings of this study can be used by public actors in the design of support systems for female entrepreneurs in nature-based businesses.
This study examines the motivations, ambitions and critical resources for entrepreneurs to succeed in nature-based businesses. The article is based on semi-structured interviews with 30 Norwegian and Swedish entrepreneurs within nature-based businesses. The result shows that strong interests and motivations drive the entrepreneurs, but that they often lack time, money or sufficient skills. Norwegian entrepreneurs often use help from support schemes, while Swedish entrepreneurs rely more on their private network. Lifestyle and using the place as a residence seem to be of great importance for strategic choices and resource combinations in the entrepreneurial initiatives. For future research, we propose more in-depth studies of the dynamics between the advisor/support system and the entrepreneur.
Arena för hållbar innovativ småföretagsutveckling är ett förstudieprojekt vars primära syfte är att undersöka förutsättningarna för ett interaktivt klimat och ett ömsesidigt kunskapsutbyte mellan Mittuniversitetet, företag och lokala beslutsfattare. Utgångspunkten i forskningsprojektet har varit föreställningen om att ett utökat samarbete mellan Mittuniversitetet, de små- och medelstora företagen (SMF) i regionen och lokala myndigheter har en positiv inverkan på regionens, företagens och studenternas utveckling. Forskningsfrågan har varit under vilka omständigheter samverkan kan stimuleras så att en dynamisk ekonomisk, social och ekologisk hållbar utveckling kan ske i småföretagarmiljö. Projektet har genom det handlingsinriktade arbetssätt som använts kunnat bidra till en ökad dialog och samverkan mellan aktörerna inom projektet. Projektet har även bidragit till ökade kontaktytor för projektdeltagarna och deras intressenter. Att generera enklare ingångar i forskarvärlden som gör det möjligt att snabbt hitta rätt forskare för att lösa aktuella process-, produktions- eller produktutvecklingsproblem har konstaterats vara ett område som behöver utvecklas betydligt. Rapportens avsikt är att belysa projektets interaktiva och handlingsinriktade metod samt att lyfta fram småföretagens uppfattning om vilka förutsättningar som påverkar hur samverkansprocesser kan stimuleras mellan Universitet och klusterlika småföretagsmiljöer.
Arena för hållbar innovativ småföretagsutveckling är ett förstudieprojekt vars primära syfte är att undersöka förutsättningarna för ett interaktivt klimat och ett ömsesidigt kunskapsutbyte mellan Mittuniversitetet, företag och lokala beslutsfattare. Utgångspunkten i forskningsprojektet har varit föreställningen om att ett utökat samarbete mellan Mittuniversitetet, de små- och medelstora företagen (SMF) i regionen och lokala myndigheter har en positiv inverkan på regionens, företagens och studenternas utveckling. Forskningsfrågan har varit, under vilka omständigheter samverkan kan stimuleras så att en dynamisk ekonomisk, social och ekologisk hållbar utveckling kan ske i småföretagarmiljö. Rapportens avsikt är att belysa det pågående projektets interaktiva och handlingsinriktade metod samt att lyfta fram småföretagens uppfattning om vilka omständigheter som påverkar hur samverkansprocesser kan stimuleras mellan universitet och klusterlika småföretagsmiljöer.