Work

An institutional perspective on borrowing discouragement among female-owned enterprises and the role of regional female empowerment

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: We develop an institutional perspective to examine the important, albeit largely overlooked, occurrence of borrowing discouragement for female-owned enterprises: the likelihood that they will not seek business financing because they believe their requests will be rejected. Given a prevailing business logic casting the field of entrepreneurship as largely male-typed, we theorize that female-owned enterprises will be more likely than their male-owned counterparts to exhibit borrowing discouragement. However, we also further propose that gender-based borrowing discouragement will be influenced by female empowerment levels in three distinct indicators of female empowerment that vary by geographic region within a society: social and economic autonomy, reproductive rights, and political participation. We find strong support for our predictions using a unique multi-sourced sample of 4090 small businesses operating in the United States.

Source: Journal of Business Venturing

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2021.106156

Authors: Juanita Kimiyo Forrester, François Neville

Institutions: Mercer University, McMaster University

Language: English

Topic: Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences

Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Gender equality, Decent work and economic growth, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,600