ISSUES OF WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESSES: LESSONS FROM THE U.S. Barbara K. Mistick and Deborah Cain Good

Abstract Women-owned businesses are a growing economic force worldwide. Despite their obvious economic impact, few studies have examined the practices and problems of businesses owned by women. Even fewer studies have looked at these issues from the standpoint of cultural comparisons. A series of U.S.based studies examine barriers to startup and growth of businesses owned by women. The underlying values profile of U.S. women business owners was found to be similar to that of their male counterparts. However, a persistent set of values continue to indicate a nurturer role for women. These differences lead to question of whether women pursue business ownership as a life strategy or a business strategy. The answer to that question could go far in explaining the lack of exporting behavior exhibited by U.S. small businesses. Further, the specific type of information needed to establish exporting interest in women owned firms echoes previous research findings that indicate women lack technical and financial information for firm growth. A model for venture growth in women-owned businesses which recognizes the importance of these socioeconomic issues unique to women entrepreneurs is offered. The model and research findings are then examined in relation to a Canadian sample of small businesses. 1. Introduction Women-owned businesses are a growing economic force worldwide. U.S. statistics are exemplary: Recent U.S. Census reports indicate that women own 6.4 million businesses, representing roughly 35% of all firms (Census, 1996). Female business owners employ 18 million individuals, an estimated 26 percent of all U.S. workers (NFWBO, 1996; Census, 1996), and generate $2.3 trillion in annual revenue (The State of Small Business, 1994). Female entrepreneurs are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. small business population, increasing at a rate twice that of their male counterparts. Comparative growth and development of this economic sector is found globally. Despite the obvious economic impact, little is know about the practices and problems of women owned businesses either within individual countries or on an international, comparative basis. This paper is designed to examine the issues germane to the continued growth and development of such firms. Accordingly, three general areas will be assessed. First, the motivation to start a business will be examined. The initial problems incurred in pursuing such a start-up will also be assessed. Finally, issues related to "growing the business" will be analyzed. Each topical area will be addressed by critically examining the results of recently completed studies. Study findings will serve as the basis of cultural comparisons.

2. Gender-Based Start-Up issues A number of factors have been identified that either individually or in concert, cause women to pursue business ownership. Brush (1995) provides a detailed look at many of these factors. In general, female business owners are similar to their male counterparts with regard to psychological and demographic factors in starting a business. Specifically, women and men seem to be motivated by independence, achievement and job satisfaction when it comes to starting a business (Hisrich & Brush, 1986, Chaganti, 1986). 2.1 The Start- Up's Community Impact Within the past decade, women have steadfastly identified three factors as barriers to the start-up of their entrepreneurial ventures. The first is the perception that ventures created by women are not taken seriously in terms of community impact. This perception was supported by studies commissioned by the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy which found that women-owned firms reported earnings that were 47.9 percent less than male-owned firms' earnings (Lustgarten, 1994). Citing these results, government policy experts offered a view of women-owned businesses as part-time ventures that intentionally limited growth. The implied suggestion is that women have not entered into the venture expecting to grow and expand the firm, and therefore, will not contribute to job creation and revenue generation in an economic marketplace. In contrast, the 1994 Survey by Gender of Ownership suggested that women-owned businesses with employees not only performed better than male-owned businesses, but also had higher employment rates and lower failure rates. 2.2 Access to Capital The second and most cited economic development issue raised by women was access to capital. A Canadian study (Riding & Swift, 1990) indicated differing financial conditions for male and female business owners. Specifically, women owners faced a higher average interest rate and had higher collateral requirements than their male counterparts. Similar results were found in a review of a U.S. Small Business Administration loan guaranty program where there were gender-based differences in terms of loan amount and interest rates (Good, 1997). Concerted efforts to increase access to capital, may however, be realizing their goals. Recent studies suggest access to capital is now as available to women as it is to men. Further, gender is not a factor in credit repayment rates since women-owned businesses are as fiscally sound and creditworthy as other businesses (Good & Mielicki, 1996). 2.3 Work and Family The third factor identified by women as a barrier to business formation is the need for understanding and appreciation of the role that work and family hold in their lives. Women view their entrepreneurial ventures in a broader community context. In order for women to juggle the many roles they maintain in society, they must have flexibility in their lives. Studies examining business performance, financial assistance and individual characteristics of women business owners have all agreed that women are similar to men across many psychological and demographic characteristics that drive business creation (Hisrich & Brush, 1986). Still, socioeconomic factors that support work and family -- such as validation for non-traditional female roles and how support within family, school and society affects women-have not been examined.

3. A Woman's Model for New Venture Creation Most of the models of new venture creation have been based on the needs identified for male entrepreneurs. A model to encourage women's entrepreneurship needs to consider the social structures that define women's lives (Figure 1)--omitted. Women define success in terms of their relationships towards others (Kohlberg, 1981. Gilligan, 1982). This definition of self affirms the female role of nurturer and peacemaker (Salganicoff, 1990, Powell, 1990). Accordingly, women engage in activities, meeting social expectations, that substantiate this rolelike caring for their families. When the woman moves into the business arena, she carries this socialized role with her (Lipman, 1984). This "dispositional perspective" (Liou & Aldrich, 1995) creates differing self perceptions, motivations and belief structures due to the differing socialization experiences between the genders. As such, women think more in terms of moral issues, in how relationships are involved in a situation; men watch the bottom line (Gilligan, 1982). Men are more concerned with making money; women are more concerned with having harmonious relationships. Therefore, to encourage growth in women-owned businesses, social structures which define women's lives must be more fully articulated so that factors which facilitate or inhibit growth can be discerned. 4. Gender-Based Value Systems Central to a clear understanding of this model is the issue of how growth is defined. One may need only to take a closer look at the original motivations to start the business to receive indications about the potential range and speed of growth for the firm. For example, study of professional women by Gordon and Whelan (1998) suggests that women adopt differing "coping" strategies at midlife than do their male counterparts. In short, starting a business and overseeing its development may be a life strategy for women, pursued given the manner in which she views herself in relationship to others. Male business owners, in contrast, start a business and pursue its development because of a business strategy, for example, they want to own a business. There is some evidence that one's values shape and impact our every decision, including whether or not to start a business. Accordingly, an understanding of the value systems of women and men business owners may give clues as to their firms' likelihood or nature of growth. 4.1 The Nature of Values Rokeach (1973), England (1967) and Kamakura & Mazzon (1991) suggest that an individual's value system influences his behavior. Classic definitions of corporate culture (Kilmann, 1985; Schwartz & Davis, 1981; and Posner, Kouzes & Schmidt, 1985) consistently mention values as a vital ingredient. Guth and Taguiri (1965) note that the value orientation can impact strategic decision making. The range of areas influenced by the value system suggests the core importance of the concept. Indeed, Feather (1988) defines personal values as being central to personality and suggests that they influence all other characteristics including attitudes, judgments, decisions and commitments. Although personal values differ among individuals, sufficient similarities do exist across people to group by personal value type. England (1967) employed such a technique in determining the personal values profiles of 1,072 American managers concluding that fifty eight percent of them exhibitied a pragmatic orientation. Thirty one percent showed an ethical-moral orientation.

Rokeach (1973) adopted a different approach to profiling an individual's value system. Rokeach's values instrument is designed to assess value orientations along two dimensions: instrumental and terminal. Each dimension is then further divided into two areas. Instrumental values can be either moral or competence based. Terminal values can be either personally or socially based. Posner and Schmidt (1982; 1983) surveyed 1,460 managers using England's Personal Values Questionnaire and Rokeach's Value Survey. Analysis of the results led the pair to classify the most common managerial type as a "Producer", a profile corresponding closely to the pragmatic manager of England (1967). Although extensive work has been done in examining the values profile of managers, less attention has been given to the nature of a business owner's value system. One notable exception is a 1997 study by Kotey and Meredith. Using a version of the Allport, Vernon, Lindzey (1960) instrument, survey participants were asked to rate personal value items on a five point Likert scale as to their importance. The surveyed entrepreneurs placed high value on ambition, achievement, reliability, responsibility, hard work, competence, optimism, innovation, aggressiveness, honesty, creativity, social recognition and growth. 4.2 Values and Gender The ever increasing numbers of women-owned businesses has led researchers to examine the genderbased differences that may exist in issues ranging from managerial style to financing opportunities. Given that research findings currently indicate the important role values play in a number of areas, it is surprising that more work has not be done on the implications gender has on the values profiles of women entrepreneurs. Carol Gilligan (1982) first explored the gender based differences in values in her groundbreaking work, In a Different Voice. Reflecting on her mentor Kohlberg's (1981) work, Gilligan suggested that men and women construct the relation between self and others in decidedly different ways. As such, men define their self identities via separation and individualism, couched in terms of their relative accomplishments. Women, on the other hand, define themselves in relationship to others via intimacy and connectedness. This basic gender difference in moral development is then enhanced by further gender socialization with regard to attitudes, skills and behaviors (Lipman, 1984). Specifically, women are taught to be sensitive and tactful (Lipman, 1984). Females are given little opportunity to take risks (Cockburn, 1987) and are frequently given the role of nurturer and peacemaker (Salganicoff, 1990; Powell, 1988; Lipman, 1984; Chodorow, 1978; and Miller, 1976). Males, in contrast, are taught to be self reliant and self assertive (Lipman, 1984). They learn aggressiveness, dominance and competitiveness (Powell, 1988). 4.3 Values and Culture England, Dhingra, and Agarwal (1974) utilized the England Personal Value Questionnaire in the landmark study of personal value systems in varying cultures. The research team examined the responses of 2,556 managers from the United States, Japan, South Korea, India and Australia. They determined that major differences in the value profiles and primary value orientation existed across the five countries. Specifically, Japanese and U.S. managers showed profiles with a focus on organizational goals, less focus on organizational goals was shown by Korean managers and Australian and Indian respondents indicated a minimal relevance attached to organizational goals. With regard to the primary values orientation, Japanese and, U.S., and Korean managers demonstrated a pragmatic orientation. Australian and Indian managers, in contrast, were the least pragmatically-oriented.

4.4 A Comparative Analysis of Values A recent study examining the values profiles of U.S. small business owners and the general U.S. population in comparison to a Canadian sample of small business owners indicate a distinction between some of the groups. Specifically, U.S. small business owners are decidedly more social-competence in their orientation than the population in general. This finding is in marked contrast to that of Weber's (1988) work where U.S. managers featured predominately personal-competence profiles. Seemingly, small business owners do differ in their value profiles from those of a general comparison group. In general, the comparison U.S. group had higher mean scores across the values than either group of business owners. This was especially pronounced when comparing the values of women business owners to the females in the general comparison group. T-tests of the specific values concepts indicate some significant differences between women business owners in the U.S. and the comparison sample of women. Women business owners rate the importance of Rokeach's values lower across the board than a comparison sample of women. This differential may owe itself, to some degree, to the differential in sample sizes, however, it may also suggest that women business owners have a different perspective on values, a means for distinguishing them from the population of women in general. Of even more interest than the rating of the values concept however, is the fact that certain values orientations, not normally associated with the "caretaker/nurturer" role of women appear. That is, freedom, happiness and social recognition are orientations of a personal nature. Likewise, responsible and ambitious have this competence or personal basis rather than the moral or interpersonal orientation you might associate with women. If one examines the overall relative rankings of values within each group, some noticeable differences arise between women business owners and females in the comparison group. Female entrepreneurs rate the values of capable, honest, independent, a comfortable life and social recognition higher than the comparison group. They rate family security the same as the comparison group and happiness lower. In general male and female business owners tend to exhibit similar value profiles. The specific values that significantly differ between male and female business owners reflect the very manner in which women identify themselves. This identification is reinforced by socialization. Thus, women business owners rate helpful as significantly more important than male business owners. This is evidence of women's interest in the welfare of others. Similarly, women entrepreneurs rate a world at peace and pleasure as more important than their male counterparts. The nature of the differences that emerge from the relative value rankings of male and female business owners is a continuation of this pattern. Male business owners rank courage and responsibility higher than female business owners. In comparison, women business owners rank social responsibility, a comfortable life, loving and helpful higher. The data gathering on the Canadian sample is on-going, however, thus far, the value profiles of entrepreneurs in the country indicate a profile very similar to that of the employed comparison group in the United States.

Women business owners do differ from a comparison group of females with regard to their values profiles, although the difference is an interesting one. The values literature as well as that on gender socialization would suggest that women, with their focus on others and their "nurturer role", should be largely social-competence or social-moral in values profile orientation. Yet this study's, sample of the general female population profiled them as predominately personal-competence in nature. In contrast, women business owners, like their male counterparts, were more likely to be rather evenly divided as to the values profile between the personal-competence and socialcompetence orientations. This seeming incongruity between the hypothesized values profile and the actual one, may however, be central in explaining a number of different findings in recent studies of women in business. Gordon and Whelan (1998) discuss the nature of women's decisions at midlife or "coping" decisions. A key factor to understanding how women-owned businesses grow becomes the life strategy decision women make in choosing firm ownership as an option to balancing work and family issues, desiring to help others or just as an opportunity. Men, in contrast, choose business ownership because they want to be entrepreneurs or because they do not want to work for another person, a more business-style or strategy decision which provides minimal restriction on growth of the enterprise. The nature of this female life strategy decision is such, that women business owners must account for their values. Therefore, even though overall they are generally very similar to male entrepreneurs in their values profile, the areas where they differ from men reflect their caretaker/nurturer role. The "lifestyle" decision approach to business ownership, driven by the underlying values orientation, may provide some insight into research findings that indicate women tend to concentrate in some industries (The State of Small Business, 1994) or tend not to pursue some competitive strategies (Williams, Carter & Reynolds, 1993). Consequently, women may choose to enter industries where they can "help" others like education and healthcare. These restrictions consequently may restrict the growth potential of their enterprise. Although the data on Canadian business owners is very limited, the preliminary findings tend to support the notion that there are certain values shared by entrepreneurs that cross cultural lines (Busenitz & Lau, 1996). Enhanced sample size and increased participation by other comparison groups are foci for the next phase of the cultural study. The differences in approach utilized by male business owners versus their female counterparts have received increasing attention as economic development groups seek to enhance support for the small business sector. The findings of this study suggest that a basic understanding of owner orientation may be gained by studying the individual's value profile. Programming can then be tailored to complement the decisions evolving from the values orientation to enhance growth of the business. 5. Growing the Business Through Exporting As Mehran and Moini (1999) note, given today's global nature of competition, there are apparent benefits to exporting. Yet, very few small and medium-sized businesses have taken advantage of such opportunities. A recent Small Business Administration report (SBA, 1998), indicates only 1.8 percent of U.S. firms export goods or services. Clearly this is an area of tremendous opportunities for growth for the small firm.

5.1 The Stage Model of Exporting Activity Previous research has offered a number of stage models to explain the nature of exporting activity in those small businesses which do engage in such practices. Studies by Bilkey and Tesar (1977) and Bilkey (1978) posit a six stage model where the increasing propensity to export is a response to the competitiveness of the domestic market. Firms thus move gradually from a point of unwillingness to export to one with a full scale commitment. Czinkota and Johnston (1981) suggest a similar six stage model. More recent research in the area (Moini, 1995; Moini, 1998; and Mehran & Moini, 1999) set the number of stages at three or four. McDougall (1989) offers a differing perspective on exporting development by looking at the nature of intended internationalization at firm inception. In short, the notion is one of distinguishing between the preexisting firm which expands to international economic activity from the one which is created with the express purpose of international activity. 5.2 Characteristics of Exporting Firms A fairly substantial body of research has attempted to clarify the characteristics of exporting firms versus nonexporters as well as the differentiation or modification of such characteristics as firms move through the developmental stages of exporting. A number of demographic factors have been identified as differing between firms in various stages of exporting. Julien, Joyal, Deshaies and Ramangalahy (1997) suggest nearly all industrialized countries find large firms exporting more than their small/midsized counterparts. However, they note that above an employee size of 200, small firms resemble large ones with regard to relative percentage of export activity per production. Cavusgil and Nevin (1984) and Sood and Adams (1984) also found that larger firms, exhibit an increasing amount of exporting behavior. In contrast, Johnston and Czinkota (1982) found no relationship between firm size and exporting activity. A recent Small Business Administration report (SBA, 1998) however, lends an interesting perspective to these findings. The Office of Advocacy notes that only 1.8 percent of all firms export goods. Yet small firms represent 95.7% of U.S. exporters of goods, contributing about 30% of the overall value of exported goods. There also seems to be an inverse relationship between the age of the firm itself and the amount of export activity. Ursic and Czinkota (1984) found that younger firms are more interested in exporting than older companies. The motivation for the establishment or development of exporting behavior is a second area of interest. Bilkey and Tesar (1977) suggest that the receipt of unsolicited orders may be the first step in the exporting process which then expands to exporting to neighboring countries (Johanson & Valhne, 1977) and finally evolves to such activity serving as a competitive advantage for a given firm (Nakimi, 1988). 5.3 Issues of Women-Owned Businesses Research findings on women-owned businesses with regard to motivations to start the business and obstacles to start-up and growth are particularly important in assessing the potential for export activity in the firm. Women business owners, like their male counterparts, cite a need for independence, job satisfaction and achievement as motivations to start their business (Hisrich & Brush, 1986). However, women also indicate fulfillment (Brush, 1995), flexibility in balancing work and family (Chaganti, 1986), and identification of an opportunity (Gatewood, Shaver & Gartner, 1994) as motivators. Male business owners, in contrast often indicate power and money (Brush, 1995) as major reasons to pursue self employment as well as simply desiring to be an entrepreneur (Gatewood, et

al., 1994) or not wanting to work for someone else (Swayne & Tucker, 1973). The business goals resulting from such differing motivations may provide some explanation for the disparity in financial performance between male and female-owned businesses (Brush, 1995). Government statistics indicate that earnings of women-owned firms are 47.9 percent less than the earnings of male-owned firms (Lustgarten, 1994). The performance differential may be a result of the desire of women business owners not to grow (Hagan, Rivchun, & Sexton, 1989) or to grow slowly, or the result of being faced with more obstacles in establishing and managing their businesses than their male counterparts. Women face greater difficulty in developing financial resources (Riding & Swift, 1990) gaining access to or credibility with financial resources (Buttner & Rosen, 1989), have fewer recognized managerial and leadership skills (Hisrich & Brush, 1986) and report themselves lacking in financial and technical skills (Chaganti, 1986). 5.4 Results of an Export Activity Study Results of the a study of U.S. women-owned firms indicate that, in general, exporting firms were more profitable, had more employees and had not been in business as long as their nonexporting counterparts. These findings are consistent with recent SBA reports on the nature of women-owned exporters. Data from the Canadian sample indicates some similarities between the groups. As with the U.S. sample, Canadian exporters are more profitable and employ more individuals than their non-exporting counterparts. However, the Canadian data indicates, on average, older firms are more likely to engage in such exporting activity than firms more recently established. One important issue to consider with regard to these generalizations is that the number of Canadian exporters in the sample is very small and may not be representative. The sample of U.S. women exporters indicate that current customers and trade assistance organizations are important sources of exporting contacts, while current distribution channels are somewhat important. However, contrary to other findings (Mehran & Moini, 1999), the Internet is not seen as a contact source. Similarly, current marketing techniques as well as SBA and NAFTA channels are not useful contact sources for this sample. The sample of Canadian exporters differs from their U.S. counterparts only slightly with regard to their source of export contacts. Canadians also see their current customers as sources, however, this sample also views NAFTA channels as a viable source. In this sample, unsolicited orders do not play a major role in the initialization of exporting activity. The lack of information on foreign markets, as well as a lack of financing, are two major problems, U.S. sample respondents faced. Also problematic, although not to the degree of the aforementioned, are a lack of distribution channels and the amount of competition faced. Again, there are variations between Canadian exporters and those in the U.S. with regard to exporting problems. Canadians see the lack of financing as their major impediment, a finding consistent with previous work on Canadian women business owners (Riding & Swift, 1990). Mehran and Moini (1999) suggest that exporters often begin their exporting activities in response to unsolicited orders. While the U.S. exporters indicated that such orders were somewhat important in causing them to begin foreign trade, equally important in that decision was the desire to grow the business, and to a lesser extent, make a contribution to profits. Their Canadian counterparts suggested that their moves into exporting were solidly designed as business growth and a contribution to profits.

U.S. exporters found seminars on the basics of exporting as well as some assistance in banking services and product market potential identification to be very helpful endeavors. To a slightly lesser degree, trade missions and programs focusing on specific countries were useful. Study results indicate clearly, that exporters are operating from a perspective different from non exporters. Nonexporters seem to have a more "inward" focus, expressing a preference to continue to grow within the domestic market. Further, non-exporters exhibit a concern that the product or service of the firm is inappropriate for world trade. Exporters in contrast, seem to have overcome any concerns they have as to the relevance of their product for foreign markets, and instead, become concerned with the actual procedures and knowledge needed to enter those international areas and the accompanying problems which will arise. 6. Conclusion The development of models of entrepreneurial activity has largely relied on an analysis of male-owned businesses. The study results offered in this paper indicate that a model designed to examine and encourage the development of women-owned businesses needs to incorporate the social structures that define women's lives. The underlying values profile of U.S. women business owners was found to be similar to that of their male counterparts. However, a persistent set of values continue to indicate a nurturer role for women. These differences lead to question of whether women pursue business ownership as a life strategy or a business strategy. The answer to that question could go far in explaining the lack of exporting behavior exhibited by U.S. small businesses. Further, the specific type of information needed to establish exporting interest in women-owned firms echoes previous research findings that indicate women lack technical and financial information for firm growth. When these findings are examined in light of results from a companion survey of Canadian women owned firms, similar conclusions are reached. In sum, the success of women-owned businesses will be enhanced by attention to social structures. References Allport, G., P. Vernon, & G. Lindzey. (1960) Study of Values. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Bilkey, W.J. (1978) "Attempted Integration of the Literature on Export Behavior of Firms,"Journal of International Business Studies, Spring/Summer:33-46. Bilkey, W.J. & G. Tesar. (1977) "The Export Behavior of Smaller-Sized Wisconsin Manufacturing Finns." Journal of International Business Studies, Spring/Summer:93-98. Brush, C. (1995) "Women-Owned Businesses: The State of Our Knowledge and Issues For the Future," Boston: Boston College. Bureau of the Census. (1996) Women-Owned Businesses. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration. Busenitz, L. & Lau, C. (1996) "A Cross-Cultural Cognitive Model of New Venture Creation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Summer: 25-39. Buttner, E. & B. Rosen. (1989) "Funding New Business Ventures: Are Decision-Makers Biased Against Women Entrepreneurs?" Journal of Business Venturing, 4(4):249-26 1.

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