Supporting Growth-Oriented Women Entrepreneurs : A Review of the Evidence and Key Challenges
In recent years, support programs for
women entrepreneurs have gained traction and prominence as a
means to create jobs and boost productivity at the national
and regional levels. However, disparities in initial
resource endowments of male and female-led firms, sector
sorting into low productivity activities, social norms, and
institutional arrangements, constrain the growth of
female-led enterprises. This note reviews the outcomes of
programs supporting female growth entrepreneurs and draws
lessons from available evidence to inform the design of more
effective programs. The review shows that most programs are
primarily geared toward microenterprises, making it
difficult to draw conclusions about program design for
growth-oriented entrepreneurs, but some early findings point
the way forward. Management practices appear to improve as a
result of business education, but there is little robust
evidence to prove that support programs lead to significant
improvements in business performance outcomes. Furthermore,
in programs with both male and female participants, firm
performance improves in some cases for male-led firms only,
not for female-led firms. The note concludes by suggesting
the need for more experimentation in the design and delivery
of services and a new focus on strengthening the engendering
of support programs to more specifically address
gender-specific constraints such as social norms,
entrepreneurial preferences, and institutional arrangements,
changing public discourse, and paying more attention to
factors that induce female entrepreneurs to diversify into
higher value-added activities. Offering mentoring,
networking, and other consulting services, in addition to
education on basic business practices and strengthening
critical areas such as gender-specific content, can
potentially increase the effectiveness of these programs.
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: |
Cirera, Xavier,
Qasim, Qursum |
Format: | Brief
biblioteca
|
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014-09
|
Subjects: | ACCESS TO CAPITAL,
ACCESS TO CREDIT,
ACCESS TO FINANCE,
ACCESS TO INFORMATION,
ACCESS TO MARKETS,
ACCESS TO NETWORKS,
APPLICATION PROCESS,
BANK ACCOUNTS,
BORROWING,
BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS,
BUSINESS EDUCATION,
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT,
BUSINESS EXPERIENCE,
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT,
BUSINESS NETWORKS,
BUSINESS OWNERSHIP,
BUSINESS PLAN,
BUSINESS TRAINING,
BUSINESSWOMEN,
CAPITAL RETURNS,
CAPITAL STOCK,
CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE,
CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS OWNERS,
COMPANY,
CONSULTING SERVICES,
CULTURAL NORMS,
CUSTOMER SERVICE,
DEVELOPMENT BANK,
DIVERSIFICATION,
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY,
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT,
ECONOMIC GROWTH,
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES,
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES,
EMPLOYMENT GROWTH,
EMPOWERMENT,
ENDOWMENTS,
ENTERPRISE GROWTH,
ENTREPRENEUR,
ENTREPRENEURIAL ABILITY,
ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOR,
ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE,
ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUPPORT,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING,
ENVIRONMENT FOR WOMEN,
EQUAL ACCESS,
EXPANSION,
FAMILY BUSINESS,
FAMILY BUSINESSES,
FAMILY LAW,
FATHER,
FEMALE,
FEMALE BUSINESS,
FEMALE BUSINESSES,
FEMALE EMPLOYMENT,
FEMALE ENTERPRISE,
FEMALE ENTERPRISES,
FEMALE ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITIES,
FEMALE ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY,
FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS,
FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP,
FEMALE PARTICIPANTS,
FEMALE WORKERS,
FINANCIAL CAPITAL,
FINANCIAL LITERACY,
FINANCIAL SKILLS,
FIRM SIZE,
FIRMS,
GENDER,
GENDER DIFFERENCES,
GENDER DIFFERENTIAL,
GENDER DISTRIBUTION,
GENDER GAP,
GENDER ROLES,
GENDER SPECIFIC,
GREATER ACCESS,
GROUP LENDING,
GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES,
GROWTH PLANS,
HOUSEHOLDS,
HUMAN CAPITAL,
HUMAN RESOURCES,
HUSBAND,
INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS,
INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK,
JOB CREATION,
KEY CHALLENGES,
LABOR MARKET,
LABOR MARKETS,
LACK OF INFORMATION,
LIMITED ACCESS,
MARKET INFORMATION,
MEDIUM ENTERPRISES,
MICROENTERPRISES,
MICROFINANCE,
MICROFINANCE CLIENTS,
PERCEPTIONS OF WOMEN,
PRODUCTIVE ENTERPRISES,
PRODUCTIVITY,
PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS,
PROFITABILITY,
PROVISION OF FINANCE,
RATES OF RETURN,
REAL ESTATE,
SALES GROWTH,
SELF-EMPLOYMENT,
SMALL BUSINESS,
SMALL FIRM,
SMALL FIRMS,
SMALL-SCALE ENTREPRENEURS,
SME,
SOCIAL ASSISTANCE,
SOCIAL WORK,
STARTUP CAPITAL,
SUCCESSFUL WOMEN,
SUPPLY CHAINS,
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE,
TECHNICAL TRAINING,
THEORY OF THE FIRM,
UNCTAD,
VENTURE CAPITAL,
VENTURE CAPITAL FUNDS,
WOMAN,
WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS,
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS,
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP,
WOMEN OWNER,
YOUTH, |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/09/20344837/supporting-growth-oriented-women-entrepreneurs-review-evidence-key-challenges
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23654
|
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|