Browsing by Person "Koch, Laura H."

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Perceptions of women entrepreneurs and their impact on opportunities and challenges
(2025) Koch, Laura H.; Kuckertz, Andreas
Women’s entrepreneurship constitutes a critical driver of economic and social progress. Millions of women are entrepreneurs or leaders of ventures and actively contribute to innovation, employment, and economic growth. Moreover, women’s entrepreneurship significantly promotes gender equality by enabling women’s financial independence and enhancing their societal participation. Despite this central role, women remain vastly underrepresented as entrepreneurs globally. Women entrepreneurs often face restricted access to social, financial, and human resources, which limits their entrepreneurial potential. A key factor driving these resource disparities is societal perceptions of women entrepreneurs. These perceptions shape how key actors recognize, evaluate, and support women entrepreneurs and directly influence their opportunities and challenges within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Deeply ingrained gender stereotypes frequently frame these perceptions, reflecting traditional role expectations and gender-based attributions. Society has long linked entrepreneurship to traits associated with men, causing many to perceive women entrepreneurs as less competent. At the same time, research demonstrates that these perceptions vary considerably depending on context. While the venture capital sector often evaluates women entrepreneurs negatively, actors in crowdfunding contexts tend to perceive them as particularly trustworthy. These differences highlight how situational factors influence perceptions of women entrepreneurs. Against this backdrop, the present dissertation investigates how various stakeholders’ perceptions affect women entrepreneurs’ opportunities and challenges. It contributes novel insights into the role of perception in entrepreneurial contexts and advances the academic discourse on gender-specific dynamics in entrepreneurship. Study 1 examines the scientific perception of women’s entrepreneurship, focusing specifically on growth-oriented ventures. The study analyzed 741 publications from the past two decades using a bibliometric analysis. The findings reveal a significant increase in research activity and a marked thematic diversification since 2014. This trend reflects not only growing scholarly interest but also the rising societal relevance of the field. Simultaneously, the study identifies critical research gaps and provides valuable directions for further advancing the discipline. Study 2 centers on perceptions of women entrepreneurs among venture capital investors. Women entrepreneurs frequently encounter challenges when seeking venture capital, partly due to gender-specific biases. To quantify the extent of these biases, the study surveyed 361 international venture capital investors using an indirect questioning technique that ensures complete anonymity and reduces social desirability bias. The results reveal that a substantial proportion of respondents hold gender-biased attitudes. These biases occur most strongly among men investors and individuals active in early-stage or corporate venture capital. Study 3 broadens the perspective by analyzing societal perceptions of women entrepreneurs. This study investigates which gendered narratives of women entrepreneurs inspire readers most effectively. It employed a factorial survey design with a representative sample of 337 participants from the United Kingdom. The results indicate that narratives of women entrepreneurs inspire readers when they emphasize women-associated traits and social goals. Conversely, inspiration decreases when the narratives highlight physical attractiveness. These findings suggest that women-associated characteristics increasingly gain active recognition and appreciation in the traditionally men-dominated entrepreneurial environment, potentially signaling a cultural shift toward a more inclusive image of entrepreneurship where differences are valued and integrated. Building on the findings of these three studies, this dissertation provides new insights into how perceptions of women entrepreneurs by various stakeholders shape their opportunities and challenges. It concludes with a discussion of how these perceptions shape the challenges women face on their journey to entrepreneurship and the opportunities that exist to create new possibilities for change.