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Different, but same: A power law perspective on how rock star female entrepreneurs reconceptualize “gender equality”

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  • Booyavi, Zahra
  • Crawford, G. Christopher

Abstract

Prior studies investigating new venture emergence and growth from a gender-based lens have consistently found that, on average, female-founded ventures underperform their male-founded counterparts. In this study, we draw from the power law perspective to suggest that these findings primarily originate from the way researchers treat the outliers, those observations far from the normal. We hypothesize that the best of the best (i.e., the Rock Star) founders and ventures of each gender will have equally stellar performance. Contrary to the majority of entrepreneurship studies that consider outliers as ‘‘problems’’ that must be removed or transformed, the power law perspective assumes that outliers are different, have differential effects by skewing distributions far to the right, and are likely the most interesting and influential cases in the population. We leverage semi-parametric methods on longitudinal data from a representative sample of nascent entrepreneurial ventures to demonstrate the gender effect on outlier vs. non-outlier categories. Our findings suggest that gender does, in fact, negatively affect non-outliers (i.e., “average” entrepreneurs), while having no impact on outliers. We show that compared to the majority of the population, those with outlier inputs—resource endowments, expectations for future growth, and engagement—have a greater likelihood of achieving outlier outcomes, regardless of their gender. Our study contributes to the domain's inclusive understanding of women entrepreneurs and female-led ventures, and to the growing theoretical interest in the emergence of star performers.

Suggested Citation

  • Booyavi, Zahra & Crawford, G. Christopher, 2023. "Different, but same: A power law perspective on how rock star female entrepreneurs reconceptualize “gender equality”," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:19:y:2023:i:c:s2352673423000033
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2023.e00374
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Justo, Rachida & DeTienne, Dawn R. & Sieger, Philipp, 2015. "Failure or voluntary exit? Reassessing the female underperformance hypothesis," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 775-792.
    4. Afreen Huq & Caroline Swee Lin Tan & Vidhula Venugopal, 2020. "How do women entrepreneurs strategize growth? An investigation using the social feminist theory lens," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(2), pages 259-287, March.
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    8. Crawford, G. Christopher & Aguinis, Herman & Lichtenstein, Benyamin & Davidsson, Per & McKelvey, Bill, 2015. "Power law distributions in entrepreneurship: Implications for theory and research," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 696-713.
    9. Pierpaolo Andriani & Bill McKelvey, 2009. "Perspective ---From Gaussian to Paretian Thinking: Causes and Implications of Power Laws in Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(6), pages 1053-1071, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Crawford, G. Christopher & Joo, Harry & Aguinis, Herman, 2024. "Under the weight of heavy tails: A power law perspective on the emergence of outliers in entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    2. Clark, Daniel R. & Crawford, G. Christopher & Pidduck, Robert J., 2023. "Exceptionality in entrepreneurship: Systematically investigating outlier outcomes," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    3. Gala, Kaushik & Valladares, Carlos D. & Mueller, Brandon A., 2023. "Students' assumptions of Entrepreneurs’ performance: The paradox of excess entry and missed opportunity," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    4. Khurana, Indu & Tamvada, Jagannadha Pawan & Audretsch, David B., 2023. "The weaker sex? A tale of means and tails," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    5. Crawford, G. Christopher & Linder, Christian & Lechner, Christian & Villani, Elisa, 2024. "Outlier entrepreneurs: Nonlinear paths and novel ventures," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender effect; Entrepreneurship; Nascent entrepreneurs; Outliers; Power law perspective;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

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