Influences on the Entrepreneurial Activities of Women Academics

Abstract

There has been a sustained research activity in investigating academic entre-preneurship. Although women are less likely to be involved in entrepreneur-ship than men, the research investigating the entrepreneurship of academic women has received limited attention. This paper investigates the influences on the entrepreneurial activities of women academics by conducting a litera-ture review. Individual and educational background factors, such as man-agement education, human capital, as well as being in a senior faculty posi-tion affect the entrepreneurial propensity of female academics in a positive way, while age and institute directorships have a negative influence on entre-preneurship. However, equal gender distributions of professorship, of a selec-tion of specific disciplines, such as engineering or physical science, and of previous business experience would contribute to closing the gender gap and would be a catalyst for women academics to become entrepreneurs. This pa-per fills the research gap on systematizing the research on factors that influ-ence entrepreneurial activities of female academics.