Women's Entrepreneurial Activity
The GEM 2004 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship is an in-depth global look at women's entrepreneurship and the role that women play in developing and developed economies.
Key Findings in 2004
- About 73 million people are involved in starting a new business in the 34 countries that participated in the study. Of those, about 30 million are women. The average level of female total entrepreneurial activity (TEA) rate varied from 39.1 percent of the adult population in Peru to only 1.2 percent in Japan.
- At 12.1 percent of the adult population, NZ had the highest women's entrepreneurship rate in the developed world in 2004. Yet the male rate of 17.2 percent is much higher (the overall NZ rate is 14.7 percent). Nonetheless, the women's rate improved from its 2003 rate of 9.9 percent.
- In every country men are more entrepreneurially active than women. In NZ, women have 70 percent of the male rate. By contrast the US rate is 89 percent and in Portugal the rate is 93 percent.
GEM identifies two motivations for entrepreneurial activity. Overall, "opportunity" is the dominant motivation for women's entrepreneurship, similar to men. Nonetheless, many more women than men must start businesses out of "necessity".
In NZ, entrepreneurship and education are highly correlated amongst women. As in the case of men, and regardless of per capita income, the largest majority of NZ women involved in starting a new business hold other jobs.
Regardless of per capita income, a strong positive and significant correlation exists between knowing other entrepreneurs and a woman's involvement with starting a new business. Another finding was that a woman's perception of environmental opportunities, as well as confidence in her own capabilities, were powerful predictors of her entrepreneurial behaviour."
Other Findings
Women are more sensitive than men to conditions in the business environment. Subjective assessments about the availability of opportunities, the ability to exploit them, and the possibility of failing in doing so are all crucial factors in a woman's decision to start a new business.
The majority of businesses started by women employed less start-up capital compared with men, used known technology and targeted existing markets. This, says the report, suggests that women entrepreneurs may take a more conservative approach to business formation, perhaps because of their higher involvement in necessity-driven entrepreneurship.
Women tend to have slower early growth trajectories. The vast majority of women involved in starting a new business expect to create five or fewer additional jobs within a five-year period. In low and middle income countries, only one percent of women's new businesses qualify as having high employment potential. The percentage increases to only 1.6 in high income countries.
This document can be downloaded from www.gemconsortium.org/files.aspx?Ca_ID=127 |
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