Gender differences in academic entrepreneurship: experience, attitudes and outcomes among NSF I-CORPS participants

Abstract

PurposeExpanding access to entrepreneurship training programs can be a method to increase female involvement in technology commercialization only if these programs adequately address the specific challenges facing female faculty and graduate students. In the context of the US National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps) program, this study examines gender differences in prior experience and attitudes towards the training in order to propose improvements to the program design.Design/methodology/approachThis quantitative study uses Pearson's Chi-Square and ANOVA tests on survey data from the I-Corps national program (n = 2,195), which enrolls faculty members, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and industry experts.FindingsIn comparison to male participants, female I-Corps participants reported less entrepreneurial experience prior to the program, poorer team relationships during the program and lower entrepreneurial intention and technology commercialization readiness at both the beginning and the end of the program. However, no gender differences were found in positive or negative perceptions of the instructional climate or perceptions of program usefulness.Originality/valueThis study is unique as it is based on a large-scale dataset drawn from sites across the United States. The results support potential changes to I-Corps and similar programs, including providing more explicit instructions for tasks with which female participants have less prior experience than males (e.g. in applying for patents), offering guidance for team interactions, and providing mentorship to assess whether low self-efficacy is leading women to underestimate the potential success of their projects.

Examining the minimal combined effects of gender and minoritized racial/ethnic identity among academic entrepreneurs

“…Given the well-documented structural barriers and biases facing women and members of minority racial/ethnic communities in STEM and entrepreneurship settings (Conley and Bilimoria, 2021;Lee et al, 2020), we expected that identification with these groups would be negatively associated with the outcome variables. We found only one significant gender difference for the variable of prior entrepreneurial experience, corroborating the findings of a previous analysis of a similar dataset in which women reported significantly lower levels of prior entrepreneurial experience, team interaction quality, and entrepreneurial intention than men (Epstein et al, 2022). This gender disparity may be of particular importance because this pattern has been found to partially explain lower levels of resources critical to entrepreneurial behavior, selfefficacy, and the success of new ventures (Chowdhury et al, 2019).…”

“…For Prior Experience, we found that the effects of racial/ethnic identity and its interaction with gender were not significant (racial/ethnic identity: F (1, 395) = 2.146, p = 0.144; interaction: F (1, 395) = 0.021, p = 0.886). However, the significant effect of gender found using a similar dataset in a previous study (Epstein et al. , 2022) was replicated ( F (1, 395) = 5.932, p = 0.015).…”

“…Results showed no significant effects for racial/ethnic identity ( F (1, 673) = 0.043, p = 0.835) or the interaction between racial/ethnic identity and gender ( F (1, 673) = 0.211, p = 0.647). However, the significant effect of gender found using a similar dataset in a previous study (Epstein et al. , 2022) was replicated ( F (1, 673) = 14.332, p < 0.001), indicating that women reported less prior experience than men across racial/ethnic groups.…”

Gender, STEM women and entrepreneurship: a review and future research directions

“…The wider literature indicates entrepreneurial education offerings are more effective if tailored for the specific industry or sector with such offerings found to be effective in increasing knowledge and understanding of commercialisation and developing entrepreneurial competences (Treanor et al, 2021b). Epstein et al (2022) undertook a quantitative analysis of gender differences in experience and outcomes from an entrepreneurship training programme designed to support academic entrepreneurs in the U.S.A. Their paper recommends the inclusion of mentoring support for women to assess if low self-efficacy negatively affects their appraisal of the potential commercial success of their work. This could, however, be construed as a remedial, "fix the women" approach that may inadvertently reinforce negative gendered stereotypes.…”

Choosing Self-Care and Preservation: Examining Black Women STEM Faculty’s Decision to Pursue Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Education Programming

“…Prior work has explored the engagement patterns of women [21]- [24] and racially minoritized faculty [25]- [27]. This body of literature suggests a lack of gender and racial diversity in STEM EEPs can be attributed to systemic barriers in STEM higher education [28]- [31].…”