Gender and entrepreneurial success: evidence from survey data

ABSTRACT

A wealth of studies have contributed to the literature on gender differences in entrepreneurial success, but most lack key controls that aid in determining that success. Scale of the entrepreneur’s business is often not accounted for, and no studies to the author’s knowledge approach the gender comparison by specifically utilizing a sample of entrepreneur-only managed businesses. This allows for a direct comparison between individual entrepreneurs’ performance by gender, without the confounding heterogeneity that workforces may introduce. Data are taken from a national US survey of individuals, and model specifications include a number of important but oftentimes unavailable controls that have never before been used in conjunction. Female and male entrepreneurial success are statistically equal after controlling for risk preferences, intelligence, start-up capital, prior industry experience and hours worked at the business. Alternative specifications and sensitivity checks confirm and expand on these results.

KEYWORDS:

• Entrepreneur
• gender
• success
• performance
• female

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• L26

Acknowledgement

The author thanks M. Ryan Haley for thoughtful guidance and insightful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Klapper and Parker (2011) provide a broad overview of the gender and entrepreneurship literature.

² Technically, this is the revenue per weekly hour worked.

³ All estimates are available from the author upon request.