A detailed empirical study of how small business owners finance their enterprises, this volume compares the experiences of women with those of men. The author redresses an over-reliance on subjective and anecdotal evidence of discrimination in this area with a controlled study of forty matched pairs of male/female owners and their strategies for raising finances. The research reveals the importance of adopting a theoretical framework in which the role of gender in the financing of small businesses is considered, and the practical implications for female entrepreneurs, banks and policy-makers.
Author(s): Lauren Read
Series: Routledge Studies in Small Business
Edition: 1
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 248
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
List of figures......Page 10
List of tables......Page 11
Preface......Page 13
Acknowledgements......Page 14
The growth and characteristics of female entrepreneurship......Page 16
Explaining the growth of female entrepreneurship......Page 17
The problems faced by female entrepreneurs......Page 31
Summary, research rationale and overview......Page 38
The financing of women-owned businesses: an empirical overview and theoretical framework......Page 41
The financing of women-owned businesses: a theoretical framework......Page 46
Explaining the problems faced in the financing of women-owned businesses: a contextual approach......Page 55
Conclusion and research agenda......Page 74
Research into the financing of women-owned businesses: methodological considerations......Page 77
The financing of women-owned businesses in the UK: research method......Page 84
Data collection: practical and conceptual difficulties......Page 94
Sample overview......Page 101
Summary and conclusion......Page 107
Raising finance: the use of and attitudes towards sources ofsmall business finance......Page 109
The characteristics of small business finance......Page 110
Explaining the reliance on internal sources of finance......Page 123
Raising bank finance: an in-depth analysis......Page 128
Conclusion......Page 132
The characteristics of the banking relationship......Page 135
The small business-banking relationship: an overview......Page 137
The use of banks......Page 143
The banking relationship......Page 151
Conclusion......Page 170
The role of networking in the financing of male and female-owned businesses......Page 173
Networking behaviour and the size of small business networks......Page 181
Network profiles......Page 185
Conclusion......Page 192
Conclusions, implications and an agenda for future research......Page 195
Research implications......Page 202
Limitations and an agenda for future research......Page 210
Notes......Page 214
Bibliography......Page 217
Index......Page 240
