NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, April 6, 2012

A study of the sexes reveals that when it comes to starting a business, women are more likely than men to consider individual responsibility and use business as a vehicle for social and environmental change.

“We found that women are 1.17 times more likely than men to create social ventures than economic ventures, and women are 1.23 times more likely to pursue environmental ventures than economic focused ventures,” says Diana Hechevarria, a doctoral candidate in management and entrepreneurship in the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business.

Hechevarria, along with co-authors Amy Ingram, Rachida Justo and Siri Terjesen, examined data on different start-up types (economic, social and environmental) on more than 10,000 individuals from 52 counties.

Their research — “Are women more likely to pursue social and environmental entrepreneurship?” — is published as a chapter in the book “Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Research: Diverse Settings, Questions and Approaches” recently released by Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.

Their study used 2009 data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, an annual assessment of the entrepreneurial activity across many countries.