SBA Study Finds Men And Women Entrepreneurs Have Different Motivations

The verdict is in: Men and women are, in fact, different, an SBA study has found--at least in terms of entrepreneurship.

The study found that gender does not affect the performance of any particular new venture, but that several other factors do. "Differing expectations, reasons for starting a business, motivations, opportunities sought and types of businesses…vary between the genders, and these result in differing outcomes," according to the study.

Below are excerpted the highlights of the study:

• Men had more business experience prior to opening the business and higher expectations.
• Women entrepreneurs had a larger average household size.
• The educational backgrounds of male and female entrepreneurs were similar.
• Women were less likely than men to purchase their business.
• Women were more likely to have positive revenues, but men were more likely to own an employer firm.
• Female owners were more likely to prefer low risk/return businesses.
• Men spent slightly more time on their new ventures than women.
• Male owners were more likely to start a business to make money, had higher expectations for their business, and did more research to identify business opportunities.
• Male entrepreneurs were more likely to found technologically intensive businesses, businesses that lose their competitive advantage more quickly, and businesses that have a less geographically localized customer base.
• Male owners spent more effort searching for business opportunities and this held up when other factors were controlled for.
• Differences between women and men concerning venture size and hours are explained by control variables such as prior start-up and industry experience.
• Researchers and policymakers need to understand that studies which do not take into account the differing nature of men- and women-owned firms could result in misleading results.

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2 comments:

June 16, 2008 at 5:05 PM Anonymous said...

Hey Trista,

While this article sheds some light on certain statistics I wasn't previously aware of, I think it almost paints a negative picture on women in business in general. Almost all the statements start off speaking about the male perspective. Let's not let this cast a shadow on our attempts though, ladies! We can overcome anything!

Currently, I'm an official Microsoft ambassador and right now we're really trying to scale up our connections with influential bloggers like yourself. I'd love to share with you some of the stuff we've been doing in the last couple months to help women entrepreneurs; we're really committed to providing all the necessary resources to help women start, grow and expand their business.

We just wrapped up a women's entrepreneurial tour across the US called “Vision To Venture;” the response and turn-out was great!

I'd really love your take on these offerings we have right now; I would have contacted you via email but I didn't know which was the best way to reach you.

Thank you so much, I hope I didn't overstep my bounds by directly contacting you. Definitely get back to me if I’ve piqued your interest-- I’d love to share more info with you.

Best,
Tanya M.
Official Microsoft Ambassador
t-middleton@live.com

June 17, 2008 at 9:18 AM Trista Winnie said...

Thanks for your comments, Tanya! I will contact you, because I would love to hear more about Vision To Venture!

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