Sinking inequality: Business startup motivation and business growth in female entrepreneurship

Project facts

Project promoter:
Technical University of Crete
Project Number:
GR07-0015
Target groups
Entrepreneurs
Status:
Completed
Initial project cost:
€197,029
Final project cost:
€191,391
From EEA Grants:
€ 162,682
The project is carried out in:
Greece

Description

The envisaged-innovative project's results will promote partners' capacity to collaborate with European partners especially within the EEA countries. It is also aimed to contribute to H2020 agendas on the study of the effects of inequality and gender differences. The participation in a multidisciplinary research team through the partnership is expected to facilitate access to broader European research networks. The knowledge and learning developed will be disseminated through scientific publications, a website, and a conference held in Greece. In comparison to other European countries, Greece exhibits a clear larger than average gender gap in entrepreneurship. The main idea of the proposed project rests on the fact that women's culturally specific social identity is a potent predictor of their entrepreneurial motivation and predisposition for business growth. The proposed project will (1) Investigate social identity factors that can explain differences in entrepreneurial motivation between men and women and among subgroups of women in Greece; (2) Investigate how varying those factors can explain predisposition for growth of female enterprises in Greece; and, (3) develop culture-specific measurement instruments appropriate for use in researching female entrepreneurship which can also be generalized cultures like Greece.

Summary of project results

Although the particular difficulties associated with female entrepreneurship have been emphasized in the literature, the specific differences associated with women entrepreneurs and how they contrast with their male counterparts have received less attention from the academic community. In the FOREMOST project our purpose was to: (1)Investigate whether gender identity can explain differences in entrepreneurial motivation between men and women (2)Investigate how varying those factors can explain predisposition for growth of female enterprises in Greece; (3)Develop culture-specific measurement instruments appropriate for use in researching female entrepreneurship which can also be generalized cultures like Greece. In general the project overall aims – to investigate social identity factors that can explain differences in entrepreneurial motivation between men and women in Greece and to examine if gender-related differences found in entrepreneurial motivation could also depend on the properties of the instruments being used in research- are achieved. The project brought together a multidisciplinary research team of experts in entrepreneurship research.The indirect aim for collaboration between interdisciplinary researchers is also achieved and has been strengthened through the project activities. Maintenance of long-term collaboration between partners will be ensured in different ways such us, the continuance of the FOREMOST conference in two-year basis and the submission of joint proposals to new research programs. Furthermore, the participation of the ERGANI Center in the project team ensures that the research results should be applied to the women’s who are supported by the Center. All objectives are completed successfully and project’s goals were achieved beyond any expectation. Our project research publications were successfully published to reputable scientific journals with high impact factor, proving the high level of the produced research work through the project activities. Briefly, the basic research results are the following 3: Deliverable1: Examined whether measurement instruments used to assess entrepreneurial motivation are culture-specific and thus appropriate for use in researching female entrepreneurship in cultures like Greece. Deliverable2: Incorporated gender identity (or related gender roles) in theoretical models of entrepreneurial behavior. Deliverable3: Built an integrated model of entrepreneurial

Summary of bilateral results