The weaker sex? A tale of means and tails
The weaker sex? A tale of means and tails
One of the most commonly held beliefs prevalent in entrepreneurship research is that women-led ventures tend to generate lower earnings than men-led ventures. We contend that this thinking emanates from empirical analyses that obscure the variation in entrepreneurial performance across the earnings distribution. Relying solely on the mean as a measure of central tendency conceals the heterogeneity among so-called underperformers. Using density plots from a nationally representative database, we demonstrate that women-led ventures perform better at some quantiles of the earnings distribution, contrary to the common myth that men-led ventures consistently outperform them. Our study debunks this myth and contributes to entrepreneurship research that adopts a gendered perspective by showing that the reality experienced by women entrepreneurs is not as dismal as it appears when compared to focusing exclusively on the mean. Our study has implications for policymakers, who need to adjust their policy approach by designing targeted policies explicitly incorporating the heterogeneity inherent in entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship, Gender, Heterogeneity
Khurana, Indu
924b5aef-f21e-4b97-bbee-9c1b30927d1d
Tamvada, Jagannadha Pawan
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Audretsch, David B.
b24bc159-cc95-49ad-bf69-89fb0adbc7fa
November 2023
Khurana, Indu
924b5aef-f21e-4b97-bbee-9c1b30927d1d
Tamvada, Jagannadha Pawan
767d0374-3cc1-4822-adb6-f22b7a1f6531
Audretsch, David B.
b24bc159-cc95-49ad-bf69-89fb0adbc7fa
Khurana, Indu, Tamvada, Jagannadha Pawan and Audretsch, David B.
(2023)
The weaker sex? A tale of means and tails.
Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 20, [e00407].
(doi:10.1016/j.jbvi.2023.e00407).
Abstract
One of the most commonly held beliefs prevalent in entrepreneurship research is that women-led ventures tend to generate lower earnings than men-led ventures. We contend that this thinking emanates from empirical analyses that obscure the variation in entrepreneurial performance across the earnings distribution. Relying solely on the mean as a measure of central tendency conceals the heterogeneity among so-called underperformers. Using density plots from a nationally representative database, we demonstrate that women-led ventures perform better at some quantiles of the earnings distribution, contrary to the common myth that men-led ventures consistently outperform them. Our study debunks this myth and contributes to entrepreneurship research that adopts a gendered perspective by showing that the reality experienced by women entrepreneurs is not as dismal as it appears when compared to focusing exclusively on the mean. Our study has implications for policymakers, who need to adjust their policy approach by designing targeted policies explicitly incorporating the heterogeneity inherent in entrepreneurship.
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JBVI-D-23-00082_Accepted Version
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Accepted/In Press date: 1 June 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 June 2023
Published date: November 2023
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Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Inc.
Keywords:
Entrepreneurship, Gender, Heterogeneity
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 478838
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/478838
ISSN: 2352-6734
PURE UUID: aabe62a8-22da-47e3-93e1-7fb8f4911ee9
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Date deposited: 11 Jul 2023 17:03
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:33
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Contributors
Author:
Indu Khurana
Author:
Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada
Author:
David B. Audretsch
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