Women’s entrepreneurship policy research : a 30-year review of the evidence

Foss, Lene and Henry, Colette and Ahl, Helene and Mikalsen, Geir H (2019) Women’s entrepreneurship policy research : a 30-year review of the evidence. Small Business Economics, 53 (2). pp. 409-429. ISSN 0921-898X

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Abstract

This paper focuses on women’s entrepreneurship policy as a core component of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We use a systematic literature review (SLR) approach to critically explore the policy implications of women’s entrepreneurship research according to gender perspective: feminist empiricism, feminist standpoint theory, and post-structuralist feminist theory. Our research question asks whether there is a link between the nature of policy implications and the different theoretical perspectives adopted, and whether scholars’ policy implications have changed as the field of women’s entrepreneurship research has developed. We concentrate on empirical studies published in the BBig Five^ primary entrepreneurship research journals (SBE, ETP, JBV, JSBM, and ERD) over a period of more than 30 years (1983–2015). We find that policy implications from women’s entrepreneurship research are mostly vague, conservative, and center on identifying skills gaps in women entrepreneurs that need to be Bfixed,^ thus isolating and individualizing any perceived problem. Despite an increase in the number of articles offering policy implications, we find little variance in the types of policy implications being offered by scholars, regardless of the particular theoretical perspective adopted, and no notable change over our 30-year review period. Recommendations to improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem for women from a policy perspective are offered, and avenues for future research are identified.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Small Business Economics
Additional Information:
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-9993-8
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1400/1400
Subjects:
?? general business,management and accountingeconomics and econometricsbusiness, management and accounting(all) ??
ID Code:
127292
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
12 Sep 2018 08:20
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
17 Sep 2024 00:32