Erschienen in:International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship
Sprache:
Englisch
DOI:
10.1108/ijge-06-2015-0021
ISSN:
1756-6266
Entstehung:
Anmerkungen:
Beschreibung:
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</jats:title>
<jats:p>This paper aims to improve knowledge of individual heterogeneity in affecting the entrepreneurial attitude, taking socioeconomic drivers under control thanks to a cross-country analysis. The authors operate a “selection” of proxy for individual heterogeneity, mainly based on gender, demographical features, personal attitude and intrinsic motivation.</jats:p>
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title>
<jats:p>This exploration is supported by an empirical analysis based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), for the period 2001-2012, and for a selection of 37 countries. It is expected that gender and further individual variables have an impact on the probability to become a nascent entrepreneur (e.g. age, level of education, self-confidence, social perception of self-employment as career choice). This paper evaluates the degree of consistency of these variables across very dissimilar countries.</jats:p>
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</jats:title>
<jats:p>Gender and confidence on own skill play a significant and consistent effect on the entrepreneurial attitude, so these personal features are, <jats:italic>per se</jats:italic>, the driving-strength of entrepreneurial intent. Conversely, fear of failure and belief on the status are not always statistically significant, or not homogenous in their relationship: socioeconomic or country-specific characteristics are strong and sort out in an unpredictable relationship between these variables and the willingness to run new ventures.</jats:p>
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Research limitations/implications</jats:title>
<jats:p>A limited selection of individual features constrained by availability of information from the GEM data set.</jats:p>
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Practical implications</jats:title>
<jats:p>The motivation of this paper is to focus-back attention on intra-individual features that may affect entrepreneurship and to support evidence of whether individual heterogeneity is able to affect the entrepreneurial attitude, taking socioeconomic drivers under control.</jats:p>
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Social implications</jats:title>
<jats:p>An institutional and political commitment should be intensified to reduce the waste of opportunities that is associated with any forms of self-exclusion from entrepreneurship, such as those based on gender (being women) or (low) self-esteem.</jats:p>
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</jats:title>
<jats:p>Due to the “individual” perspective, this paper adds to previous studies that exploited the GEM data set because they mostly follow an institutional conceptual framework.</jats:p>
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