Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on the barriers and opportunities for underrepresented groups in entrepreneurship, including but not limited to female entrepreneurship and intersectionality. The importance of studying diversity in entrepreneurship is growing as the market realm acknowledges the benefits of inclusiveness and diverse viewpoints.¹ The articles in this Special Issue explore how underrepresented groups experience entrepreneurship differently and the ways to foster greater diversity and inclusion. This topic couldn’t be timelier, considering the need to stimulate local and global economies after the COVID-19 pandemic. Nowadays, there’s a broad consensus that a region’s economic recovery and onward progress depend on increasing its entrepreneurial talent.² A diverse entrepreneurial pool is critical to foster creativity and innovation, which can lead to technological advancements, economic growth and job creation.^3,4

Traditionally, entrepreneurship has been a domain primarily studied in the context of men, with interest in understanding female entrepreneurs not gaining momentum until the 1990s.⁵ The role of female entrepreneurs in society is fundamental.⁶ Increasing the number of female entrepreneurs provides diversity among business owners and cultivates creativity and innovation. More female entrepreneurs can improve the variety and quality of entrepreneurship because female and male entrepreneurs tend to operate in different sectors and engage in different processes to run and develop their businesses.⁷ Moreover, prior studies have indicated that entrepreneurship can trigger positive changes in women and their communities, leading to greater emancipation, equality and empowerment.^2,8 Entrepreneurship provides women with rewarding careers that lead to their professional fulfillment. It can also help reduce the persistent salary gap between men and women, promoting greater gender equality across all aspects of society.^6,9

Notwithstanding the growing number of female entrepreneurs over the past few decades, this number remains comparatively low, as most business owners are men.¹⁰ This gender gap in entrepreneurial behaviour has been the subject of numerous studies that have tried to understand the influence of several intrinsic and extrinsic factors on the desire, interest, motivation and intention of becoming an entrepreneur.¹¹ However, these approaches to studying the gap in entrepreneurial behaviour of men and women have produced inconsistent results.^10,12,13 This Special Issue will try to fill this gap by presenting novel scientific achievements and evaluating current research on female entrepreneurship and diversity. Suitable topics addressed in the Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Barriers to Entry
• Access to Capital
• Stereotypes and Biases
• Balancing Business and Personal Life
• Inclusive Entrepreneurship Education
• Entrepreneurial Intention
• Representation
• Policy and Legal Frameworks
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Support Systems
• Impact of COVID-19

We request that, before submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 300-500 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors (Email A) or /Administrative Sciences/ editorial office ([email protected]). The guest editors will review abstracts to ensure proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blinded peer review.

References

1. Cardella, G. M., Hernández-Sánchez, B. R. & Sánchez-García, J. C. Women Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review to Outline the Boundaries of Scientific Literature. Front Psychol 11, 536630 (2020).
2. Amentie, C. & Negash, E. The Study on Female Undergraduates’ Attitudes and Perceptions of Entrepreneurship Development (Comparison Public and Private Universities in Ethiopia). Journal of Accounting & Marketing 04, 1–12 (2015).
3. Moremong-Nganunu, T., Rametse, N., Al-Muharrami, S. & Sharma, S. K. Perceptions towards entrepreneurship and intention to become entrepreneurs: The case of Sultan Qaboos university female undergraduate students. in Contributions to Management Science (2018). doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90394-1_12.
4. Datta, A., Bazan, C. & Arnold, K. Effect of gender role identity on the entrepreneurial intention of university students. https://doi.org/10.1080/08276331.2021.1981729 (2021) doi:10.1080/08276331.2021.1981729.
5. Ng, J. C. Y., Huang, M. M. D. & Liu, Y. The ‘feminine’ entrepreneurial personality trait: The competitive advantage of female college-student entrepreneurs in Chinese wei-shang businesses? Asian Business and Management (2016) doi:10.1057/s41291-016-0012-0.
6. Ferri, L., Ginesti, G., Spanò, R. & Zampella, A. Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intention of Female Students in Italy. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity (2018) doi:10.3390/joitmc4030027.
7. Verheul, I., Stel, A. Van & Thurik, R. Explaining female and male entrepreneurship at the country level. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development (2006) doi:10.1080/08985620500532053.
8. Bianco, M. E., Lombe, M. & Bolis, M. Challenging gender norms and practices through women’s entrepreneurship. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship (2017) doi:10.1108/IJGE-10-2017-0060.
9. Austin, M. J. & Nauta, M. M. Entrepreneurial Role-Model Exposure, Self-Efficacy, and Women’s Entrepreneurial Intentions. J Career Dev (2016) doi:10.1177/0894845315597475.
10. Haus, I., Steinmetz, H., Isidor, R. & Kabst, R. Gender effects on entrepreneurial intention: A meta-analytical structural equation model. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship (2013) doi:10.1108/17566261311328828.
11. Mueller, S. L. & Dato-On, M. C. A cross cultural study of gender-role orientation and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal (2013) doi:10.1007/s11365-011-0187-y.
12. Shneor, R. & Jenssen, J. I. Gender and Entrepreneurial Intentions. in Entrepreneurial Women: New Management and Leadership Models (ed. Kelley, L.) 15–67 (Praeger Publishing, 2014).
13. Nowiński, W., Haddoud, M. Y., Lančarič, D., Egerová, D. & Czeglédi, C. The impact of entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and gender on entrepreneurial intentions of university students in the Visegrad countries. Studies in Higher Education (2019) doi:10.1080/03075079.2017.1365359.

Dr. Carlos Bazan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• entrepreneurship
• gender
• diversity
• intersectionality
• entrepreneurial intention
• entrepreneurship education