DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FEMALE AND MALE ENTREPRENEURS' USE OF BOOTSTRAP FINANCING

Lynn Neeley and Howard van Auken
Additional contact information
Lynn Neeley: Department of Management College of Business, Barsema Hall 245Q, Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL 60115, USA
Howard van Auken: 363 Gerdin Business Building Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), 2010, vol. 15, issue 01, 19-34

Abstract: Women-owned businesses are increasingly important to the U.S. economy in terms of numbers of firms owned, revenues and employment. Despite the growing role of female-owned business, the ownership, growth and size of female-owned firms is lower than that of male-owned firms. Differences in access to capital have been one reason attributed as an obstacle to women launching and growing small firms. This paper presents the results of an empirical study that examines differences of the use of bootstrap financing between female- and male-owned small firms. Research on the use of bootstrap financing among small firms is limited. The findings show that bootstrap finance methods were similar among female- and male-owned small firms; however, differences were found relative to age, education, sales and overdraft privileges. The results have implications for female entrepreneurs, support persons or agencies and government agencies providing assistance. Female owners should become more informed about financing options available beyond the traditional sources of capital. During periods of declining sales, especially during recessionary periods, female owners may rely on bootstrap sources to supplement capital needs, as well as proactively developing contingency plans for accessing bootstrap capital. These policies could be incorporated into training programs for female business owners. Educators and consultants could help female owners better understand financing alternatives and the importance if developing contingency plans. Government policy may be able to alleviate capital shortages through programs that better inform female entrepreneurs about the capital acquisition process.

Keywords: Finance; Bootstrap; Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S1084946710001439
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:jdexxx:v:15:y:2010:i:01:n:s1084946710001439

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S1084946710001439

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE) is currently edited by Peter Koveos

More articles in Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().