Williams, C.C. orcid.org/0000-0002-3610-1933 and Kedir, A. (2018) Contesting the underperformance thesis of women entrepreneurs: firm-level evidence from South Africa. International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 17 (1). pp. 21-35. ISSN 1468-4330
Abstract
This paper provides one of the first known evaluations of whether enterprises in which women are owners underperform male-owned enterprises in the developing world. Until now, the widespread assumption, mostly from developed world studies, has been that enterprises in which women are owners underperform male-owned enterprises. To evaluate this in developing countries where there is a dearth of studies, cross-sectional data is reported from a 2007 World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) of 937 South African enterprises. The finding is that enterprises that are women-owned or jointly owned by men and women perform better than those owned solely by men, after controlling for other determinants of firm performance as well as potential sample selection bias. The outcome is a call to transcend the underperformance thesis regarding women entrepreneurs and for greater resources to be devoted to the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship and women’s involvement in firm ownership.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Inderscience. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; enterprise development; gender; firm performance; development economics; South Africa |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Management School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 22 Dec 2017 09:29 |
Last Modified: | 07 Feb 2018 01:38 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1504/IJMED.2018.088327 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Inderscience |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1504/IJMED.2018.088327 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:112619 |