Information support in the assessment of female students as potential entrepreneurs

Abstract

Abstract. On world's average, every third business is run by a woman. Typically, these businesses are small and limit their growth, they rarely employ staff, have shorter surviva[l rates, lower level of capitalization, and are financed with foreign capital to a lesser extent in comparison with businesses run by men. In addition, women are motivated to start their own business due to the phenomenon of a "glass ceiling", problems finding a job after returning from parental leave, and the need to balance work and parental duties. Running their own business opens up many opportunities for women. It seems, therefore, appropriate to examine the factors that will help the next generation of women realize their entrepreneurial potential. The article presents the opinions of management students on the usefulness of different measures in supporting the initiation and conduct of business in the SME sector. The results were compared with assessments made by female entrepreneurs. This helped identify areas in which the expectations of students differed significantly from the reality. The authors of this article believe that such a discrepancy between the ideas and the realities of running your own business may be the cause of the lower survival rate of businesses run by women and their limited participation in the overall number of entrepreneurs. Based on these results, the authors propose directions for the education of potential female entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship Education Among University Students as a Predictor of Female Entrepreneurial Undertakings

“…This has resulted with common belief that characteristics of a successful leader and entrepreneur are only possessed by men. Other authors (Siemieniak & Pawlak, 2017) emphasize the significance of socio-cultural aspects on the perspective of female entrepreneurship development. This means that the degree of social approval towards female self-employment can be a significant determinant of women's entrepreneurship success rates.…”

“…Creative spirit can result in innovative solutions, job creation and economic development. Anyhow, (Siemieniak & Pawlak, 2017) argue that formal education is necessary but not sufficient requirement for achieving success in entrepreneurship as one needs practical knowledge and experience about running a business. This can be observed as a reason why firms ran by female entrepreneurs start smaller and have slower revenue growth (JPMorgan Chase & Co., 2019) even though they have higher levels of formal education than male counterparts (Weisul, 2018).…”

“…According to (Zhang, Duysters, & Cloodt, 2014) entrepreneurship programs which make part of education curriculums have an encouraging effect on entrepreneurial intention among university students. Even though women have higher level of education, lack of practical experience in busi-ness results in lower survival rate of companies ran by female entrepreneurs (Siemieniak & Pawlak, 2017).…”