Abstract
This book is unique in that it examines various characteristics associated with women entrepreneurs in nine countries with quite different cultural backgrounds (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ghana, Iceland, India, Jamaica, Sweden and the USA). Its major strength is the comparative findings that are presented based on a survey that was administered to a sample of women entrepreneurs in each of those countries during 2007 to 2010. The author was clearly motivated by a desire to assist women entrepreneurs from various societal and economic backgrounds by providing a number of insights with respect to both the potential motivations for women entering self-employment, and the impediments or difficulties that they face.
The book comprises an introductory chapter, nine individual country chapters and a conclusion. In the first chapter (to help the reader better understand the position of women within a global context) the author provides various statistics to highlight some of the challenges that women face in today’s environment across various regions of the world. The primary reason for presenting this information is to provide a comprehensive overview from a social, political and economic perspective, and to help the reader better understand how the environment in which women find themselves might impact both their motivation and ability to proceed down an entrepreneurial path. Each of the individual country chapters begins with an introduction that outlines the country’s historical background and current policies. This contextual information includes key national statistics comparing men and women (such as education levels and employment or self-employment rates), followed by a literature review focusing on women entrepreneurs in both that country and surrounding countries. This information not only provides useful background material, but also assists in assessing the reliability or consistency of the information derived from the surveys of women entrepreneurs conducted in each of the nine countries. The survey sought information about both the women entrepreneurs and their businesses, with respect to human capital (such as their age and level of education), networking structures and key sources of financial capital. The information requested with respect to the women’s businesses included the industry it was in, what assistance had been received and what problems had been encountered in establishing and running the business (including access to finance). The survey also asked the women about their reasons and motivations for moving into self-employment, and what they felt were the key problems faced by business owners.
The final chapter draws together the individual findings from each of the nine countries examined and the implications that flow from those findings. In summarising these findings, it is interesting to note both the similarities and differences that appear to exist across the different country contexts. For example, there was a wide range in terms of the percentages of women entrepreneurs with a university education: Australia (80%), Brazil (72.7%), Canada (61.3%), Ghana (45.1%), Iceland (87.8%), India (100%), Jamaica (80%), Sweden (85.3%) and the USA (68.9%). Similarly, there was a wide range in terms of women entrepreneurs who were members of professional and industry organizations: Australia (57.5%), Brazil (39.4%), Canada (94.7%), Ghana (29.1%), Iceland (53.7%), India (97.1%), Jamaica (26.7%), Sweden (82.4%) and the USA (44.1%).
In terms of similarities (and as expected), the majority of women in all nine countries were operating in the services industry, although there was a reasonable number of women involved in manufacturing (particularly of garments, furniture and arts and crafts). Similarly, with the exception of Iceland, where there appears to be a significant number of serial women entrepreneurs, for most of the women their current venture was their first, and they appeared to have quite similar motivations for entering entrepreneurship. For example, with the exception of the USA, the women entrepreneurs in each of the other eight countries typically included ‘Always wanted to start my own business’ in their top five reasons for becoming entrepreneurs and, with the exception of India and Sweden, the entrepreneurs in each of the other seven countries typically included ‘To make more money’ in their top five reasons for becoming entrepreneurs. There also appeared to be a general consensus among the women that they had used their own savings and/or loans/gifts from family and friends primarily to start their businesses, and that assistance from family and friends had been a very important source of support for them during this process. Interestingly, most of the women had either family members or friends who also owned their own business. There was somewhat less consensus when it came to the main obstacles or difficulties that the women encountered in starting or running their businesses. The most common difficulty that the women appeared to confront (except in Sweden) was the ‘Rising costs of business’. Similarly, the women generally ranked quite highly the difficulty they experienced in ‘Finding good employees’ (except in Canada, Sweden and the USA), and the belief that there was ‘Not enough time for business and personal life’ (except in Australia, India and Jamaica).
In summary, the book outlines the global progress that has been made by women entrepreneurs in the last three decades, highlighting the factors that have led to their success and the issues that might be impeding their ability to advance entrepreneurially. I believe the insights developed and shared in this book will be of interest not only to potential women entrepreneurs, but also to those organisations that have been established to help these women; also, to regulators and policymakers charged with trying to develop a more entrepreneurial culture as a means of stimulating economic growth and reducing poverty (particularly for women and their children). With respect to policymakers, it is clear that government policies (for example, to stimulate SME growth) need to be designed with a proper understanding of the various motives and goals of SME owners, and the external environmental factors that can have an impact both on their decision to start a new venture, and the performance of that venture (Watson et al. forthcoming, 2014). Similarly, in designing their studies, researchers need to ensure that they properly understand both the internal and external environmental and contextual factors influencing women’s entrepreneurship in a global setting (Brush et al., 2009; Watson et al. forthcoming, 2014).