IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v53y2024i1s0048733323001919.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The gender gap in PhD entrepreneurship: Why balancing employment in academia really matters

Author

Listed:
  • Muscio, Alessandro
  • Vallanti, Giovanna

Abstract

We use original data from a questionnaire survey of 9062 individuals enrolled in PhD programmes in Italy between 2008 and 2014 to conduct an empirical investigation of gender issues in PhD entrepreneurship. The analysis focuses on the influence of the gender balance among academics at the parent university, to measure the opportunities available to female students to engage with same-sex role models and the effect of such engagement on female students' attitudes to applied research and entrepreneurship. Our evidence shows that there is a gender gap in PhD student entrepreneurship and suggests that the gender composition of the academic faculty has a significant impact on female students' attitudes to business-oriented research and its commercialisation, which, in turn, affects their entrepreneurial intention and probability of starting a business. Our results indicate that female students' entrepreneurship would benefit from the opportunities offered by a more gender-balanced work environment and reinforces arguments calling for equality in the academic workplace.

Suggested Citation

  • Muscio, Alessandro & Vallanti, Giovanna, 2024. "The gender gap in PhD entrepreneurship: Why balancing employment in academia really matters," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(1).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:53:y:2024:i:1:s0048733323001919
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2023.104907
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733323001919
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.respol.2023.104907?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Muscio, Alessandro & Ramaciotti, Laura, 2019. "How does academia influence Ph.D. entrepreneurship? New insights on the entrepreneurial university," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 82, pages 16-24.
    2. Lex Borghans & Bart H. H. Golsteyn & James J. Heckman & Huub Meijers, 2009. "Gender Differences in Risk Aversion and Ambiguity Aversion," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 649-658, 04-05.
    3. Eesley, Charles & Wang, Yanbo, 2017. "Social influence in career choice: Evidence from a randomized field experiment on entrepreneurial mentorship," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 636-650.
    4. Manuel Bagues & Mauro Sylos-Labini & Natalia Zinovyeva, 2017. "Does the Gender Composition of Scientific Committees Matter?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(4), pages 1207-1238, April.
    5. Scott E. Carrell & Marianne E. Page & James E. West, 2010. "Sex and Science: How Professor Gender Perpetuates the Gender Gap," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(3), pages 1101-1144.
    6. Conti, Annamaria & Visentin, Fabiana, 2015. "A revealed preference analysis of PhD students’ choices over employment outcomes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1931-1947.
    7. Aurora Ricci & Francesca Crivellaro & Daniela Bolzani, 2021. "Perceived Employability of Highly Skilled Migrant Women in STEM: Insights from Labor Market Intermediaries’ Professionals," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, January.
    8. Kang, Yuyang & Xiong, Weiyan, 2021. "Is entrepreneurship a remedy for Chinese university graduates’ unemployment under the massification of higher education? A case study of young entrepreneurs in Shenzhen," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    9. Candida G. Brush & Sarah Y. Cooper, 2012. "Female entrepreneurship and economic development: An international perspective," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1-2), pages 1-6, January.
    10. Fiona Wilson & Jill Kickul & Deborah Marlino, 2007. "Gender, Entrepreneurial Self–Efficacy, and Entrepreneurial Career Intentions: Implications for Entrepreneurship Education1," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(3), pages 387-406, May.
    11. Ramadani, Veland & Rahman, Md. Mizanur & Salamzadeh, Aidin & Rahaman, Md. Saidur & Abazi-Alili, Hyrije, 2022. "Entrepreneurship Education and Graduates' Entrepreneurial Intentions: Does Gender Matter? A Multi-Group Analysis using AMOS," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    12. Graddy-Reed, Alexandra & Lanahan, Lauren & Eyer, Jonathan, 2019. "Gender discrepancies in publication productivity of high-performing life science graduate students," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    13. Martine R. Haas & Sangchan Park, 2010. "To Share or Not to Share? Professional Norms, Reference Groups, and Information Withholding Among Life Scientists," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 873-891, August.
    14. Maria Abreu & Vadim Grinevich, 2017. "Gender patterns in academic entrepreneurship," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 763-794, August.
    15. Fiona Murray & Leigh Graham, 2007. "Buying science and selling science: gender differences in the market for commercial science," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(4), pages 657-689, August.
    16. Nevo, Aviv, 2001. "Measuring Market Power in the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(2), pages 307-342, March.
    17. Alessandro Muscio & Giovanna Vallanti, 2022. "The gender gap in Ph.D. entrepreneurship: How do students perceive the academic environment?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(4), pages 1-15, April.
    18. Thomas Buser & Noemi Peter & Stefan C. Wolter, 2017. "Gender, Competitiveness, and Study Choices in High School: Evidence from Switzerland," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 125-130, May.
    19. Michele Pezzoni & Jacques Mairesse & Paula Stephan & Julia Lane, 2016. "Gender and the Publication Output of Graduate Students: A Case Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, January.
    20. Cassidy R Sugimoto & Chaoqun Ni & Jevin D West & Vincent Larivière, 2015. "The Academic Advantage: Gender Disparities in Patenting," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(5), pages 1-10, May.
    21. Gaule, Patrick & Piacentini, Mario, 2017. "An Advisor Like Me? Advisor Gender and Post-Graduate Careers in Science," IZA Discussion Papers 10828, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    22. Bassanini, Andrea & Batut, Cyprien & Caroli, Eve, 2021. "Labor Market Concentration and Stayers' Wages: Evidence from France," IZA Discussion Papers 14912, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    23. Rajeev H. Dehejia & Sadek Wahba, 2002. "Propensity Score-Matching Methods For Nonexperimental Causal Studies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 151-161, February.
    24. Oliver Falck & Stephan Heblich & Elke Luedemann, 2012. "Identity and entrepreneurship: do school peers shape entrepreneurial intentions?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 39-59, July.
    25. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    26. Sonali Shah & Emily Pahnke, 2014. "Parting the ivory curtain: understanding how universities support a diverse set of startups," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 39(5), pages 780-792, October.
    27. Conti, Annamaria & Liu, Christopher C., 2015. "Bringing the lab back in: Personnel composition and scientific output at the MIT Department of Biology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(9), pages 1633-1644.
    28. Marinescu, Ioana & Ouss, Ivan & Pape, Louis-Daniel, 2021. "Wages, hires, and labor market concentration," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 506-605.
    29. Sascha G. Walter & K. Praveen Parboteeah & Achim Walter, 2013. "University Departments and Self–Employment Intentions of Business Students: A Cross–Level Analysis," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(2), pages 175-200, March.
    30. Mauro Sciarelli & Giovanni Catello Landi & Lorenzo Turriziani & Mario Tani, 2021. "Academic entrepreneurship: founding and governance determinants in university spin-off ventures," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1083-1107, August.
    31. José Azar & Ioana Marinescu & Marshall Steinbaum, 2022. "Labor Market Concentration," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(S), pages 167-199.
    32. Frank T. Rothaermel & Shanti D. Agung & Lin Jiang, 2007. "University entrepreneurship: a taxonomy of the literature," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(4), pages 691-791, August.
    33. Åstebro, Thomas & Bazzazian, Navid & Braguinsky, Serguey, 2012. "Startups by recent university graduates and their faculty: Implications for university entrepreneurship policy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 663-677.
    34. Arezou Abbasianchavari & Alexandra Moritz, 2021. "The impact of role models on entrepreneurial intentions and behavior: a review of the literature," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(1), pages 1-40, February.
    35. A. Colin Cameron & Douglas L. Miller, 2015. "A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 317-372.
    36. Michael Roach, 2017. "Encouraging entrepreneurship in university labs: Research activities, research outputs, and early doctorate careers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, February.
    37. Christopher S. Hayter & Roman Lubynsky & Spiro Maroulis, 2017. "Who is the academic entrepreneur? The role of graduate students in the development of university spinoffs," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 42(6), pages 1237-1254, December.
    38. Michael Roach & Henry Sauermann, 2015. "Founder or Joiner? The Role of Preferences and Context in Shaping Different Entrepreneurial Interests," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(9), pages 2160-2184, September.
    39. Niccolò Ghio & Massimiliano Guerini & Erik Lehmann & Cristina Rossi-Lamastra, 2015. "The emergence of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 1-18, January.
    40. Thomas Buser & Muriel Niederle & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2014. "Gender, Competitiveness, and Career Choices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(3), pages 1409-1447.
    41. Anne De Bruin & Candida G. Brush & Friederike Welter, 2007. "Advancing a Framework for Coherent Research on Women's Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(3), pages 323-339, May.
    42. Gaule, Patrick & Piacentini, Mario, 2018. "An advisor like me? Advisor gender and post-graduate careers in science," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 805-813.
    43. Fini, Riccardo & Grimaldi, Rosa & Meoli, Azzurra, 2020. "The effectiveness of university regulations to foster science-based entrepreneurship," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(10).
    44. Perkmann, Markus & Tartari, Valentina & McKelvey, Maureen & Autio, Erkko & Broström, Anders & D’Este, Pablo & Fini, Riccardo & Geuna, Aldo & Grimaldi, Rosa & Hughes, Alan & Krabel, Stefan & Kitson, Mi, 2013. "Academic engagement and commercialisation: A review of the literature on university–industry relations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 423-442.
    45. Eric P. Bettinger & Bridget Terry Long, 2005. "Do Faculty Serve as Role Models? The Impact of Instructor Gender on Female Students," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 152-157, May.
    46. Cristian L. Dezsö & David Gaddis Ross, 2012. "Does female representation in top management improve firm performance? A panel data investigation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(9), pages 1072-1089, September.
    47. Peter Rosa & Alison Dawson, 2006. "Gender and the commercialization of university science: academic founders of spinout companies," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 341-366, July.
    48. Kjersten Whittington & Laurel Smith-Doerr, 2005. "Gender and Commercial Science: Women’s Patenting in the Life Sciences," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 355-370, October.
    49. Krabel, Stefan & Mueller, Pamela, 2009. "What drives scientists to start their own company?: An empirical investigation of Max Planck Society scientists," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 947-956, July.
    50. Lex Borghans & Bart H.H. Golsteyn & James J. Heckman & Huub Meijers, 2009. "Gender Differences in Risk Aversion and Ambiguity," Working Papers 200903, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    51. Jerry Thursby & Marie Thursby, 2005. "Gender Patterns of Research and Licensing Activity of Science and Engineering Faculty," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 343-353, October.
    52. Pierre Azoulay & Waverly Ding & Toby Stuart, 2009. "The Impact Of Academic Patenting On The Rate, Quality And Direction Of (Public) Research Output," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 637-676, December.
    53. Catherine Porter & Danila Serra, 2020. "Gender Differences in the Choice of Major: The Importance of Female Role Models," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 226-254, July.
    54. Dheer, Ratan J.S. & Li, Mingxiang & Treviño, Len J., 2019. "An integrative approach to the gender gap in entrepreneurship across nations," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 1-1.
    55. Michele Meoli & Eleonora Pierucci & Silvio Vismara, 2018. "The effects of public policies in fostering university spinoffs in Italy," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(5-6), pages 479-492, August.
    56. Mickael Laviolette & Miruna Radu & Olivier Brunel, 2012. "The impact of story bound entrepreneurial role models on self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention," Post-Print halshs-00682227, HAL.
    57. David Neumark & Rosella Gardecki, 1998. "Women Helping Women? Role Model and Mentoring Effects on Female Ph.D. Students in Economics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(1), pages 220-246.
    58. Landry, Rejean & Amara, Nabil & Rherrad, Imad, 2006. "Why are some university researchers more likely to create spin-offs than others? Evidence from Canadian universities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 1599-1615, December.
    59. Ramana Nanda & Jesper B. Sørensen, 2010. "Workplace Peers and Entrepreneurship," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(7), pages 1116-1126, July.
    60. Jeannette Colyvas & Kaisa Snellman & Janet Bercovitz & Maryann Feldman, 2012. "Disentangling effort and performance: a renewed look at gender differences in commercializing medical school research," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 478-489, August.
    61. Abreu, Maria & Grinevich, Vadim, 2013. "The nature of academic entrepreneurship in the UK: Widening the focus on entrepreneurial activities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 408-422.
    62. Jain, Sanjay & George, Gerard & Maltarich, Mark, 2009. "Academics or entrepreneurs? Investigating role identity modification of university scientists involved in commercialization activity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 922-935, July.
    63. Alessandro Muscio & Sotaro Shibayama & Laura Ramaciotti, 2022. "The Effects of the Academic Environment on PhD Entrepreneurship: New Insights from Survey Data," International Studies in Entrepreneurship, in: Joaquín M. Azagra-Caro & Pablo D'Este & David Barberá-Tomás (ed.), University-Industry Knowledge Interactions, chapter 0, pages 179-199, Springer.
    64. Rachel Croson & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 448-474, June.
    65. Howard Van Auken & Fred L. Fry & Paul Stephens, 2006. "The Influence Of Role Models On Entrepreneurial Intentions," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 11(02), pages 157-167.
    66. Ding, Waverly & Choi, Emily, 2011. "Divergent paths to commercial science: A comparison of scientists' founding and advising activities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 69-80, February.
    67. Rajeev Goel & Devrim Göktepe-Hultén & Rati Ram, 2015. "Academics’ entrepreneurship propensities and gender differences," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 161-177, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alessandro Muscio & Giovanna Vallanti, 2022. "The gender gap in Ph.D. entrepreneurship: How do students perceive the academic environment?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(4), pages 1-15, April.
    2. Maria Abreu & Vadim Grinevich, 2017. "Gender patterns in academic entrepreneurship," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 763-794, August.
    3. Halilem, Norrin & De Silva, Muthu & Amara, Nabil, 2022. "Fairly assessing unfairness: An exploration of gender disparities in informal entrepreneurship amongst academics in business schools," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    4. B. Urban & J. Chantson, 2019. "Academic entrepreneurship in South Africa: testing for entrepreneurial intentions," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 948-980, June.
    5. Muscio, Alessandro & Ramaciotti, Laura, 2019. "How does academia influence Ph.D. entrepreneurship? New insights on the entrepreneurial university," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 82, pages 16-24.
    6. Alessandro Muscio & Sotaro Shibayama & Laura Ramaciotti, 2022. "Universities and start-up creation by Ph.D. graduates: the role of scientific and social capital of academic laboratories," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 147-175, February.
    7. Dirk Dohse & Rajeev K. Goel & Devrim Göktepe‐Hultén, 2021. "Paths academic scientists take to entrepreneurship: Disaggregating direct and indirect influences," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(7), pages 1740-1753, October.
    8. Stefan Marc Hossinger & Xiangyu Chen & Arndt Werner, 2020. "Drivers, barriers and success factors of academic spin-offs: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(1), pages 97-134, February.
    9. Dipan Kumar Sahu & Sucheta Pawar & Prerna Gaur & Sudhir K. Jain, 2023. "Entrepreneurial Engagement of Faculty in Higher Educational Institutions: A Review of Literature 2011–2023," Paradigm, , vol. 27(2), pages 153-171, December.
    10. Christopher S. Hayter & Andrew J. Nelson & Stephanie Zayed & Alan C. O’Connor, 2018. "Conceptualizing academic entrepreneurship ecosystems: a review, analysis and extension of the literature," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 1039-1082, August.
    11. Mouganie, Pierre & Canaan, Serena, 2019. "Female science advisors and the STEM gender gap," MPRA Paper 94196, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Guindalini, Camila & Verreynne, Martie-Louise & Kastelle, Tim, 2021. "Taking scientific inventions to market: Mapping the academic entrepreneurship ecosystem," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    13. Annelore Huyghe & Mirjam Knockaert, 2015. "The influence of organizational culture and climate on entrepreneurial intentions among research scientists," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 138-160, February.
    14. Ruoying Zhou & Ning Baines, 2024. "To what extent do universities’ formal and informal knowledge exchange activities interact: evidence from UK HE-BCI survey," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 1145-1175, August.
    15. Graddy-Reed, Alexandra & Lanahan, Lauren & Eyer, Jonathan, 2019. "Gender discrepancies in publication productivity of high-performing life science graduate students," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    16. Kuckertz, Andreas & Scheu, Maximilian, 2024. "From chalkboard to boardroom: Unveiling the role of entrepreneurship in bolstering academic achievement among professors," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    17. Giuliano Sansone & Daniele Battaglia & Paolo Landoni & Emilio Paolucci, 2021. "Academic spinoffs: the role of entrepreneurship education," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 369-399, March.
    18. Goulas, Sofoklis & Gunawardena, Bhagya N. & Megalokonomou, Rigissa & Zenou, Yves, 2024. "Gender Role Models in Education," IZA Discussion Papers 17271, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Andreas Kuhn & Stefan C. Wolter, 2023. "The strength of gender norms and gender‐stereotypical occupational aspirations among adolescents," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(1), pages 101-124, February.
    20. Haeckl, Simone, 2022. "Image concerns in ex-ante self-assessments–Gender differences and behavioral consequences," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Student entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial university; Start-up; PhD; Gender;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:53:y:2024:i:1:s0048733323001919. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.