IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/veecee/v8y2006i1p15-31.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The use of bootstrapping by women entrepreneurs in positioning for growth

Author

Listed:
  • Candida G. Brush
  • Nancy M. Carter
  • Elizabeth J. Gatewood
  • Patricia G. Greene
  • Myra M. Hart

Abstract

The number of women entrepreneurs is rising rapidly and many are creating substantial businesses. For most women-led ventures, growth is funded by personal investment and debt, although a small percentage draw on private equity investment to fuel high growth. Of those that seek growth, not only do they face higher obstacles in obtaining capital, but little is known about ways they position ventures for growth. This paper addresses the question: ‘How do women develop financing strategies to prove the business concept, meet early stage milestones, and demonstrate to external investors the value and potential of their businesses?’ Data are drawn from phone interviews with 88 US female entrepreneurs seeking an equity investment to grow their businesses. The analysis examines the correspondence between bootstrapping and stage of business development. Results show significant differences in the use of bootstrap options utilized by women-led ventures depending on stage of business development. Companies that have not achieved sales were more likely to emphasize bootstrapping to reduce labour, while those companies with greater sales were more likely to minimize cost of operations. Implications for future research and education are suggested.

Suggested Citation

  • Candida G. Brush & Nancy M. Carter & Elizabeth J. Gatewood & Patricia G. Greene & Myra M. Hart, 2006. "The use of bootstrapping by women entrepreneurs in positioning for growth," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 15-31, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:veecee:v:8:y:2006:i:1:p:15-31
    DOI: 10.1080/13691060500433975
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13691060500433975
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13691060500433975?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. Richard B. Carter & Howard Van Auken, 2005. "Bootstrap financing and owners’ perceptions of their business constraints and opportunities," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 129-144, March.
    2. Bruno, Albert V. & Tyebjee, Tyzoon T., 1985. "The entrepreneur's search for capital," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 61-74.
    3. Winborg, Joakim & Landstrom, Hans, 2001. "Financial bootstrapping in small businesses: Examining small business managers' resource acquisition behaviors," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 235-254, May.
    4. Patricia G. Greene & Candida G. Brush & Myra M. Hart & Patrick Saparito, 2001. "Patterns of venture capital funding: Is gender a factor?," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 63-83, January.
    5. J. William Petty & William D. Bygrave, 1993. "What Does Finance Have to Say to the Entrepreneur?," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 2(2), pages 125-137, Spring.
    6. Gorman, Michael & Sahlman, William A., 1989. "What do venture capitalists do?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 231-248, July.
    7. Richard T. Harrison & Colin M. Mason & Paul Girling, 2004. "Financial bootstrapping and venture development in the software industry," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 307-333, July.
    8. Frederick C. Scherr & Timothy F. Sugrue & Janice B. Ward, 1993. "Financing the Small Firm Start-Up: Determinants of Debt Use," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 3(1), pages 17-36, Fall.
    9. Colin Mason, 1999. "Editorial. Venture Capital: Rationale, aims and scope," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 1-46, January.
    10. Myers, Stewart C., 1984. "Capital structure puzzle," Working papers 1548-84., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    11. Myers, Stewart C, 1984. "The Capital Structure Puzzle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 575-592, July.
    12. Nancy Carter & Candida Brush & Patricia Greene & Elizabeth Gatewood & Myra Hart, 2003. "Women entrepreneurs who break through to equity financing: The influence of human, social and financial capital," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 1-28, January.
    13. Stewart C. Myers, 1984. "Capital Structure Puzzle," NBER Working Papers 1393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joakim Winborg, 2008. "Use of financial bootstrapping in new businesses: a question of last resort?," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 71-83, April.
    2. Miao, Chao & Rutherford, Matthew W. & Pollack, Jeffrey M., 2017. "An exploratory meta-analysis of the nomological network of bootstrapping in SMEs," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 1-8.
    3. Pourya Darnihamedani & Siri Terjesen, 2022. "Male and female entrepreneurs’ employment growth ambitions: the contingent role of regulatory efficiency," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 185-204, January.
    4. Gry Agnete Alsos & Elisabet Ljunggren, 2017. "The Role of Gender in Entrepreneur–Investor Relationships: A Signaling Theory Approach," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(4), pages 567-590, July.
    5. Kimberly A. Eddleston & Jamie J. Ladge & Cheryl Mitteness & Lakshmi Balachandra, 2016. "Do you See what I See? Signaling Effects of Gender and Firm Characteristics on Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(3), pages 489-514, May.
    6. Mansi Singh & Sanjay Dhir & Harsh Mishra, 2023. "Analysing the Antecedents of Entrepreneurial Bootstrapping and Bricolage: A Modified Total Interpretive Structural Modelling and MICMAC Approach," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 32(1), pages 7-38, March.
    7. Bradley, Samantha R. & Gicheva, Dora & Hassell, Lydia & Link, Albert N., 2013. "Gender Differences in Access to Private Investment Funding to Support the Development of New Technologies," UNCG Economics Working Papers 13-9, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics.
    8. Lars Löfqvist, 2017. "Product Innovation In Small Companies: Managing Resource Scarcity Through Financial Bootstrapping," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(02), pages 1-27, February.
    9. Wang, Xu & Deng, Shengliang & Alon, Ilan, 2021. "Women executives and financing pecking order of GEM-listed companies: Moderating roles of social capital and regional institutional environment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 466-478.
    10. Alvarado, Marco & Mora-Esquivel, Ronald, 2020. "Financial bootstrapping among Costa Rican small businesses: an exploratory study," TEC Empresarial, School of Business, Costa Rica Institute of Technology (ITCR), vol. 14(1), pages 2-11.
    11. Khanin, Dmitry & Turel, Ofir & Mahto, Raj V. & Liguori, Eric W., 2021. "Betting on the wrong horse: The antecedents and outcomes of entrepreneur’s opportunity regret," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 40-48.
    12. Mansi Singh & Sanjay Dhir & Harsh Mishra, 2024. "Synthesizing research in entrepreneurial bootstrapping and bricolage: a bibliometric mapping and TCCM analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 487-520, February.
    13. Maha Aly & Galal Galal-Edeen, 2021. "Why is Germany less entrepreneurial? A behavioral reasoning perspective," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(5), pages 1376-1416, October.
    14. Mehmet Nasih TAĞ & Duygu HIDIROĞLU, 2020. "The Playing Field of Innovative Entrepreneurship: A Multilevel Analysis of Institutional Effects on Female Entrepreneurship," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 28(44).
    15. Charles Dwumfour Osei & Jincai Zhuang, 2020. "Rural Poverty Alleviation Strategies and Social Capital Link: The Mediation Role of Women Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, May.
    16. Malmström, Malin & Voitkane, Aija & Johansson, Jeaneth & Wincent, Joakim, 2018. "When stereotypical gender notions see the light of day, will they burst? Venture capitalists' gender constructions versus venturing performance facts," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 32-38.
    17. Sheela Pandey & Alejandro S. Amezcua, 2020. "Women’s business ownership and women’s entrepreneurship through the lens of U.S. federal policies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1123-1152, April.
    18. Brush, Candida G. & Greene, Patricia G. & Welter, Friederike, 2020. "The Diana project: a legacy for research on gender in entrepreneurship," Working Papers 02/20, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    19. Tansel Yilmazer & Holly Schrank, 2010. "The Use of Owner Resources in Small and Family Owned Businesses: Literature Review and Future Research Directions," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 399-413, December.
    20. Talia Pfefferman & Michal Frenkel & Sharon Gilad, 2022. "On Gendered Justification: A Framework for Understanding Men's and Women's Entrepreneurial Resource‐Acquisition," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 249-283, March.
    21. Joern H. Block & Christian Fisch & Mirko Hirschmann, 2022. "The determinants of bootstrap financing in crises: evidence from entrepreneurial ventures in the COVID-19 pandemic," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 867-885, February.
    22. Douglas A. Bosse & Tom Arnold, 2009. "Trade credit: a real option for bootstrapping small firms," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 49-63, September.
    23. Forrester, Juanita Kimiyo & Neville, François, 2021. "An institutional perspective on borrowing discouragement among female-owned enterprises and the role of regional female empowerment," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(6).
    24. Brush, Candida G., 2008. "Pioneering strategies for entrepreneurial success," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 21-27.

    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. John Watson, 2005. "External funding and firm growth: Comparing female- and male-controlled SMEs," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 33-49, October.
    2. Magnus Schückes & Tobias Gutmann, 2021. "Why do startups pursue initial coin offerings (ICOs)? The role of economic drivers and social identity on funding choice," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1027-1052, August.
    3. Alexander S. Kritikos & Christoph Kneiding & Claas Christian Germelmann, 2006. "Is there a Market for Micro-Lending in Industrialized Countries? - Evidence from Germany," Working Papers 0003, Gesellschaft für Arbeitsmarktaktivierung (GfA).
    4. Massimo G. Colombo & Kourosh Shafi, 2021. "Receiving external equity following successfully crowdfunded technological projects: an informational mechanism," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1507-1529, April.
    5. Susan Coleman & Alicia M. Robb, 2011. "Financing Strategies of New Technology-based Firms," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 1, pages 01-18, August.
    6. Linda Bergset, 2015. "The Rationality and Irrationality of Financing Green Start-Ups," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-26, November.
    7. Gry Agnete Alsos & Elisabet Ljunggren, 2017. "The Role of Gender in Entrepreneur–Investor Relationships: A Signaling Theory Approach," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(4), pages 567-590, July.
    8. Colombo, Massimo G. & D’Adda, Diego & Quas, Anita, 2019. "The geography of venture capital and entrepreneurial ventures’ demand for external equity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1150-1170.
    9. Tom Vanacker & Sophie Manigart & Miguel Meuleman & Luc Sels, 2011. "A longitudinal study on the relationship between financial bootstrapping and new venture growth," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(9-10), pages 681-705, December.
    10. Valérie Revest & Alessandro Sapio, 2012. "Financing technology-based small firms in Europe: what do we know?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 179-205, July.
    11. Alicia M. Robb, 2002. "Small Business Financing: Differences Between Young and Old Firms," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 7(2), pages 45-64, Summer.
    12. Filipe Sardo & Elisabete S. Vieira & Zélia Serrasqueiro, 2022. "The role of gender and succession on the debt adjustments of family firm capital structure," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 12(2), pages 349-372, June.
    13. Bruder, Jana & Neuberger, Doris & Räthke-Döppner, Solvig, 2008. "Financial constraints of ethnic entrepreneurship: Evidence from Germany," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 84, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    14. Pravish Kumar Nunkoo & Agyenim Boateng, 2010. "The empirical determinants of target capital structure and adjustment to long-run target: evidence from Canadian firms," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(10), pages 983-990.
    15. Ebben, Jay & Johnson, Alec, 2006. "Bootstrapping in small firms: An empirical analysis of change over time," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 851-865, November.
    16. Harrison, Richard & Li, Youwei & Vigne, Samuel A. & Wu, Yuliang, 2022. "Why do small businesses have difficulty in accessing bank financing?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    17. Epure, Mircea & Guasch, Martí, 2020. "Debt signaling and outside investors in early stage firms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(2).
    18. Colm O'Gorman & Siri Terjesen, 2005. "Financing the Celtic Tigress: Venture financing and informal investment in Ireland," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 69-88, September.
    19. A. Heughebaert & T. Vanacker & S. Manigart, 2012. "Institutional Frameworks, Venture Capital and the Financing of European New Technology-Based Firms," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 12/809, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    20. Akyuz, Kadri Cemil & Akyuz, Ilker & SerIn, Hasan & Cindik, Hicabi, 2006. "The financing preferences and capital structure of micro, small and medium sized firm owners in forest products industry in Turkey," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 301-311, April.

    More about this item

    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:taf:veecee:v:8:y:2006:i:1:p:15-31. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/TVEC20 .

    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.