To Boldly Go: women's entrepreneurial behaviour in social enterprise sectors

Entrepreneurship is highly valued in many economies, and is often associated with the creation of new firms. Much of existing entrepreneurship research and theory focuses on key themes such as: innovation; the role of the... [ view full abstract ]

Entrepreneurship is highly valued in many economies, and is often associated with the creation of new firms. Much of existing entrepreneurship research and theory focuses on key themes such as: innovation; the role of the entrepreneur as an individual with specific personality characteristics and abilities; the process of organization creation; creating value; whether entrepreneurship involves profit-making organisations only; the importance of growth as a characteristic of entrepreneurship; the essential element of uniqueness; and the owner-manager as entrepreneur. Until relatively recently most of the discussion about characteristics of entrepreneurs has been based on studies of men and male characteristics, but research into female entrepreneurs has begun to emerge.
Another dimension to the discussion of what constitutes entrepreneurial behaviour is the debate around commercial and social entrepreneurship, and particularly their similarities and differences. Social entrepreneurship can be understood as the establishment of new social enterprises as well as innovation in existing ones. This is also an area of increasing interest due to the growth and importance of such organisations in the UK economy. The significance of women’s roles in these enterprises is also noteworthy, as in the UK fifty per cent of social entrepreneurs are women. It can be argued, however, that many academic studies to date have used a gender blind analysis of social entrepreneurship, and there has been limited UK research into the extent of any horizontal or vertical segregation within social ventures (in comparison with the wealth of research into ‘gendered’ work organisations in the private and to a lesser extent, the public sector).
This paper therefore builds on a critical review of literature focussing on gender and entrepreneurship to consider the position of women in social enterprise. The value of taking a critical review of extant literature on both gender and entrepreneurship can be seen in opening up dialogue and questioning assumptions around the economic rationality that underpins much of the literature to date. This discourse takes for granted that venture creation and entrepreneurial behaviour is primarily defined as positive economic activity linked to financial performance and rewards. An alternative view, provided from a postmodern feminist epistemological perspective, is that entrepreneurship is a more complex and dynamic phenomenon, and entrepreneurship is a process of social change, which can be understood without attention to economic or managerial logic. It can be argued, therefore, that more pluralistic perspectives and research are needed, in order to discover what has been left out of extant literature and research.
Another significant dimension to women’s entrepreneurship is the discussion of individual characteristics and behaviour of a successful entrepreneur, compared with a community, social, communal, and supportive model of entrepreneurialism. There is some recent research highlighting the collective role of female entrepreneurs as opposed to the male orientated individualistic view of entrepreneurialism, emphasising the importance of close social and family networks, and the entrepreneurial aim to improve the lives of oneself and others in the community, and build on social networks. This is particularly relevant to an exploration of entrepreneurial women in the non-profit and social enterprise sectors. The paper thus draws on initial qualitative research with women entrepreneurs and begins to plot the life stories of individuals to capture and give voice to women’s social experience; moreover to consider the distinctiveness of gender in social enterprise sectors and to thus consider specific characteristic of entrepreneurial behaviour in this context.