Gender Role Characteristics and Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy: A Comparative Study of Female and Male Entrepreneurs in China

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Chengyan Li¹  Diana Bilimoria²  Yelin Wang³  Xiaowei Guo⁴ 

[1] Department of HRM, Shanghai Normal University;Department of Organizational Behavior, Case Western Reserve University, United States;Department of Education and Human Development, New York University, United States;Shanghai University of International Business and Economics

关键词: gender role orientation;    entrepreneurial self-efficacy;    female entrepreneur;    male entrepreneur;    China;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.585803

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

This study, based on Bem’s (1974) gender schema theory, investigates gender differences in and the relationship between gender role characteristics and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) of 261 female and 265 male entrepreneurs in China. The results show that male and female entrepreneurs did not differ significantly in ESE or in masculine gender role characteristics, but differed significantly in feminine gender role characteristics. Examining four different stages in the entrepreneurial life cycle, we find that for female entrepreneurs, feminine characteristics had a positive influence on ESE in the searching and planning stages of entrepreneurship, and masculine characteristics had a positive influence on ESE in the searching stage. For male entrepreneurs, feminine characteristics had a positive influence on ESE in the searching and planning stages, and masculine characteristics had a positive influence on ESE in the marshaling and implementing stages. In addition, one feminine characteristic, “Friendly,” showed a positive association with male entrepreneurs’ ESE in the marshaling stage. Overall, the feminine gender role factor of “Friendly” and the masculine gender role factor of “Compete” played a greater role on ESE than other characteristics. Implications of the findings are discussed. This study contributes a new perspective to extant research on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and female entrepreneurship.

【 授权许可】

CC BY