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‘In the company of cheerful ladies’: whether female entrepreneurs are more productive?

Author

Listed:
  • Tomasz Mickiewicz

    (Aston University)

  • Bach Nguyen

    (University of Exeter Business School)

Abstract

After over two decades, the debate on the female underperformance hypothesis remains not concluded. This study sheds some new light on the hypothesis by (i) showing that surrounding institutional forces play an important role in determining how female businesses perform and (ii) arguing that to understand gender differences (or lack of those) in performance, we need to look at productivity alongside profitability, revenues, and growth. Specifically, we posit that, in certain developing countries, female entrepreneurs devise specific strategies to cope with challenging institutional contexts. In such contexts, female entrepreneurs have less opportunity to realize economic rents compared to males, but they respond to these constraints by becoming more efficient in resource use through relying on female employment. Investigating a large set of longitudinal data from Vietnam, we find that female businesses are more productive than male businesses, and that this effect is stronger when female owner-managers employ more female employees, or even female employees only. However, we also find that these positive effects are weakened with increased corruption. This provides important implications for female entrepreneurs and policymakers in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Tomasz Mickiewicz & Bach Nguyen, 2025. "‘In the company of cheerful ladies’: whether female entrepreneurs are more productive?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 837-861, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:64:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11187-024-00929-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-024-00929-9
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Female entrepreneurship; Productivity; Gender inequality; Emerging market economies; Developing economies; Vietnam;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions

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