Businesswomen Discussing Growth – What Are They Talking About? by Margrete Haugum, Britt Paula Mørkved, Kari Sagen Lilleenget, Cecilia Dalborg* and Yvonne von Friedrichs
Growth in business is a burgeoning area of research worldwide. Previous research shows however that research results and conceptualization don’t seems to fit very well for entrepreneurs and the practitioners mean that the wrong questions are raised. Using a sample of 852 businesswomen, our intention is to study how they understand the notion of growth and their growth intention. It is often argued that businesses run by women voluntarily remain small. To understand what affects the entrepreneurs’ intention to growth we use the Theory of Planned Behavior. Analysis of empirical data shows that there is a high growth intention in women's companies but growth is not always synonymous with economic measurable expressions. Growth involves development of the entrepreneurs themselves as development of the company and the market. Most important factor for growth intention turned out to be entrepreneurs' own attitudes, followed by perceived control (self-efficacy).
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Introduction Growth in business is a burgeoning area of research worldwide and the interest is of great importance as well from academic, practical and political direction (Achtenhagen, Naldi, and Melin 2010). A review of business growth research shows however that research results and conceptualization don‘t seems to fit very well for (growth) entrepreneurs (Achtenhagen, Naldi, and Melin 2010). The faith in the entrepreneur is high, but statistics show that only a few of today's founders, both men and women, are successful in developing their business to a higher level than the so-called living bread level. Most businesses grow Margrete Haugum is Senior Researcher at Trøndelag R&D Institute Britt Paula Mørkved is Assistent Proffesor at North Trøndelag University College Kari Sagen Lilleenget is Bachelor student at North Trøndelag University College Cecilia Dalborg is PhD student at Mid Sweden University. Yvonne von Friedrichs is Associate professor at Mid Sweden University. Address correspondence to: Cecilia Dalborg, Mid Sweden University, Östersund 831 25, Sweden. E-mail:
[email protected].
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only during their first year of life to stagnate and hopefully give their owners an acceptable support (Andersson 2001; Burns 1987). Previous studies show that many companies voluntarily remain small and thus lack the intention to grow. (Levie and Lichtenstein 2010; Achtenhagen, Naldi, and Melin 2010). The low proportion of growth is particularly true of businesses run by women. Studies in Sweden show significant differences in growth based on the company's leadership. Companies run by women has significantly lower growth in their businesses compared to businesses run by men. All cases where the leadership is shared by several persons present higher proportion of growth companies (Growth Analysis 2010). As stated above, the majority of today's small business owner‘s don´t see growth as a goal of itself, instead motivation and incentives vary from company to company. Since the growth process in a company often is demanding, it can come into conflict with the desired lifestyle and that in turn may be one reason why businesses run by women remains small. (Fisher 2006) Previous research on business growth is criticized by practitioners because they ask "the wrong questions". If future research should be meaningful and relevant to entrepreneurs, it is important that their own voices are taken in consideration when the growth concept is studied, measured and defined. (Achtenhagen, Naldi, and Melin 2010). In this paper, we report on a study of growth in women owned businesses. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the growth of women managed enterprises. It includes investigating what underlying factors that may affect women's views on the growth and how the definition of growth in turn influences the intention to grow. The following research questions will be dealt in the paper: 1. How do women entrepreneurs define the notion of growth? 2. What has formed the women entrepreneurs understanding of growth? 3. How does women‘s view on growth affect the intention to grow?
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Theoretical framework and research model Women and Growth ”Women-owned businesses are one of the fastest growing entrepreneurial populations in the world. They make significant contributions to innovations, employment and wealth creation in all economies” (de Bruin et al. 2006, p. 1). Women have always been enterprising but it is only recently this has been highlighted (Nilsson et al. 2010). Despite the increased interest in women's entrepreneurship, recent studies shows that research on women's entrepreneurship represents only 10 percent of the total entrepreneurship research (Brush et al. 2010). There is thus a great need to increase awareness of women's entrepreneurship. In the studies of women's entrepreneurship it is important to reflect and discover the world in which women operate. Many studies are made based on a masculine norm where they are trying to fit into women's entrepreneurship. We can assume that the understanding of growth also follows this masculine norm, and what effect has it for women entrepreneurs? It is well known that women who run companies are well educated, but they lack experience in business management. This is something they receive first in their own company. Women appear more "alone" in their role as an entrepreneur. For example, previous studies show that women often are involved as a supportive person in their partner companies, but they do not receive the same support in their own businesses. As a result, many women are aware of a conflict between privacy and the time required by the company and it limits the time and energy that they can actually spend on their businesses. Emotional support has often been a decisive factor in women's career choices. Without the support from home, they had not started operating. (Stevenson 1986) Studies also show that the outcomes of women‘s businesses are improved by several owners (Growth Analysis 2010). Previous studies show that it is not possible to identify characteristic differences between men and women's ways of manage a business. Nor do they have different motives for
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starting a business. The desire to be autonomous and determine their own lives are gender independent motivation for all entrepreneurs. Flexibility is however a key factor for women to be able to combine family and work on their own conditions. In the case of operating the new company all entrepreneur´s meet the same obstacle. However it appears that women encounter more skepticism regarding their business ideas. (Stevenson 1986) Traditionally, women run companies mainly within the housekeeping, recreation and other services as well as health care services and education (Growth Analysis 2010). This also raises a question if different industries have different views of growth. A research model with focus on Growth definition and Growth intention It is argued that women are more likely than men, to start a business and then remain small, and that women have less growth intentions for their businesses than men (Bruun 1998). This assertion is supported by research from several countries. To understand what affects the entrepreneurs‘ intention, it is possible to use the Theory of Planned Behavior, TPB (Ajzen 1988; 2002). The theory focuses on three areas that affect intentions: attitudes toward behavior, subjective norms regarding the behavior and perceived behavioral control. The actors‘ intention to act is a key element to understand the actors‘ behavior (Ajzen 1988; Jensen et al. 2006). Intention refers to the interest and desire to perform a concrete action. Following this model the actors‘ intention is the main explanation for what kind of acting is taking place. The actors intention is affected by three underlying factors; 1) the actors attitude, about positive and negative assessment of behavior, 2) the actor subjective norms, describes perceived signals from the environment of what is expected behavior, 3) the actors perceived control, how capable the actor is to perform the action. The actors perceive control influences both the intention and the acting directly. Research shows that behavioral intention is a good predictor for behavior. The theory of planned behavior, TPB is mainly used in consumer research and health choice predictions (George 2004, Fishbein et al. 2001). We 4
want to test this model empirically on the entrepreneurs‘ growth intentions. Entrepreneurship researchers have argued that the TPB model will help to understand more of the complex processes related to entrepreneurship, because it focuses on the acting individual and not on the more or less abstract structures, that not in itself creates action, but have an indirect influence on acting (Kolvereid and Olsen 1994). Historical, entrepreneurship has been related to risk taking and the entrepreneurs who dare to translate visions or products to business. Entrepreneurship is about development of the entrepreneurial. All entrepreneurial activity implies some kind of action (Landström 2000). The TPB model used on entrepreneurship and growth is suitable to describe the entrepreneurs‘ growth intentions. Following the model, it is assumed that the entrepreneurs growth intentions is influenced by the entrepreneurs attitudes, norms for the environment and the entrepreneurs perceived control related to the growth intention. We have simplified the model to focus on the intention and excluded the actual behavior, due to our focus on the intentions. We have also an interest in focusing on the women entrepreneurs definition of growth and are curious about how women entrepreneurs define growth and if the definition influence their growth intentions. Based on this modifications of the TPB model, is our two step research model presented in figure 1. Figure 1 Research model
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Source: Modified from Ajzen (1988)
This stepwise research model is constructed to first have a focus on what role the definition of growth have. The second step in the research model is the modified version of the TPB model, where we study what influence the women entrepreneurs‘ growth intentions. As the original model we assume that attitudes, social norms and perceived control influence growth intentions. The relations in the model are discussed more briefly under. Definition of growth and the intention to grow Interest in business growth is significant from academic, practical and political direction. Despite of this the notion of Growth is still conceptually limited. (Leitch, Hill, and Neergaard 2010) One explanation is that various stakeholders put different definitions of the term. Society's interest in entrepreneurship bottoms mainly in an employment perspective. The entrepreneur is the one who creates new activities and new activities can in turn generate new jobs. Consequently, society and politicians develop the concept of growth on the basis from an increase in the number of employees. Entrepreneurs themselves considered growth synonymous with the development of the company and the change in value of the company indicates a growth. In research context, the concept involve a broader definition, it could be 6
increased sales, increased number of employees or change in return on assets. (Achtenhagen, Naldi, and Melin 2010) The majority of previous research in the concept of growth is based on a quantitative approach, often with the help of the definition change in the growth or number of employees. This is a hasty and simplified view of complex phenomena. (Leitch, Hill, and Neergaard 2010) Even when the research focuses on the same growth measurements, the research is usually not comparable because they are based on different time intervals. Despite this, researchers often refer to previous studies. By discussing the different dimensions of usability justifying why a particular instrument is used, many of the reliability problems should be avoided. ―…there is no way of measuring an amount of expansion, or even the size of a firm, that is not open to serious conceptual objections‖ (Penrose 1959, p. 199). Nevertheless, only a few of today's emerging researchers include a definition and reflection of the growth concept in their study (McKelvie and Wiklund 2010). Earlier growth research is criticized by practitioners, who mean that the wrong questions are raised. This leads to social action to try to create more growth based on erroneous assumptions. If future research should be useful to the entrepreneurs, it is important that their voice is heeded when the growth concept should be studied, measured and defined (Achtenhagen, Naldi, and Melin 2010). Growth intention is all about the desire the entrepreneur has to growth. Not everyone has the same opinion about what growth is, and some also have no desire for grow, partly because growth means a greater administrative burden (George 2004, Fishbein et al 2001). Growth may also be associated with risks and sacrifices required of the owner. It could be about to give up control of the company or extra work which can result in a disturbance in the relationship between business and personal life. (Leitch, Hill, and Neergaard 2010) Cliff
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(1998) believes that many entrepreneurs therefore find an acceptable level to pursue their business and then try to maintain this level instead of raising it. Research shows that growth intention is influenced by attitudes, society, experience, industry and self-definition of the concept of growth. The intention is an indicator of how hard a person is willing to try and how much effort is planned to use in trying. An intention will be attempted translated into action when time and space permits. Intentions may change over time, and the longer time that passes before the intentions are translated into action, the greater the chance that something unexpected occurs and will influence the intention. This means that there are not always consistent between original intention and action. One can assume that the intention is strong if the person has very positive attitudes to the act, perceive that others are equally positive, and also has great faith in his own mastery (Ajzen 1988). The first step in the research model is related to the interest in women‘s definition of growth and how the definition influence growth intentions. This discussion leads to following hypotheses to be tested: H1: Women entrepreneurs’ growth intentions are influences by their definition of growth. Attitude – Entrepreneurial orientation Attitude is people‘s positive or negative judgment of an actual action (Ajzen 1988). Attitudes are the sum of a person‘s convictions and beliefs about something. The theory of entrepreneurial orientation describes attitudes to entrepreneurship on company level. The entrepreneurship perspective is useful in studying change and growth in companies. Godfery and Gregerson (1999) argue that the entrepreneurial perspective can contribute to explain how recourses are made and utilized. This is partly the background for the strategically entrepreneurship perspective, where the company not only utilize the recourses, but also behave entrepreneurial. Lumpkin and Dess (1996) give a related description where they 8
describe entrepreneurial orientation as process, practices and decisions which creates something new. In the entrepreneurship literature is practical leadership viewed as a particular strategically orientation (Lumpkin and Dess 1996). To gain insight in this is essential to understand why some companies are doing better than others, or have a different growth intention. The entrepreneurship theory assume that entrepreneurial orientation enlarge the companies development and results, due to the discovery of new opportunities. The empirical results are not clear, but they show that the effects of entrepreneurial orientation depend on contextual differences and variations in internal resources. Wiklund and Sheperd (2005) find that entrepreneurial strategies demand considerable financial recourses to succeed. Research on entrepreneurial orientation has mainly studied the relation between entrepreneurial orientation and company performance. In especially small companies with a simple organization structure and relatively homogeny culture, the manager‘s visions and attitudes will represent the company‘s entrepreneurial orientation. In a way, the company and the managers attitudes will be woven together (Wiklund 1998). Entrepreneurship in small and medium sized companies is therefore not only about the individual but also the company (Madsen 2007). Entrepreneurial orientation refers to a company‘s tendencies to be innovative, proactive and risk taking behavior for reach strategically goals (Colvin and Slevin 1989). Innovation is about the companies‘ tendency to engage in and follow up new ideas, experiment and the creative process which represent something different from current practice and established theories (Lumpkin and Dess 1996). This may include new markets, introduction of new products, new production methods, new raw material sources, new organizations forms or redefinition of the industry. Innovation and creativity is inherent property of entrepreneurship and Schumpeter (1934) was the first to describe this as a central part of the entrepreneurial process. Innovative attitudes can be related to characteristics as
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creativity, new markets, new products, experimenting, new raw materials and new organization forms. Proactive is a critical part of the entrepreneurial orientation. Here it is central to be in front of the competitors to protect or to gain market shares, and through forward-looking act to meet future demand (Covin and Slevin 1989). Proactivity is the process about looking forward and acting according future needs and possibilities (Venkatraman 1989). Proactive attitudes are about to be in front, to act early and analyze future possibilities. Risk taking is a characteristic often used to describe entrepreneurship (Lumpkin and Dess 1996). Madsen (2007) describes risk taking as a company‘s willingness to put recourses into action even if the result is uncertain. The subjective perception of risk is complicated since a person‘s calculated risk can be viewed as unwillingness. Bird (1989) distinguishes between five different types of risk; economic risk, risk in social relations, risk in career development, psychological risk and health risk. In our study we choose to focus on economic risk. We want to study the relations between attitudes, understood as the entrepreneurs‘ attitude to innovation, proactivity and risk taking, and the entrepreneurs‘ intentions to grow. This leads to our second hypothesis. H2: Women entrepreneurs’ intentions to grow are influenced by their attitudes to innovation, proactivity and risk taking. Subjective norms Subjective norms are the expectations a person experience from different part of the environment. Family, friends, colleges, business, the education system and other public persons or systems influence the entrepreneurs‘ expectations. Generally a person will intend to act if he views the acting as positive and if the acting is expected by the environment
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(Ajzen 1988). Here we will comment on some of the social norms that we assume will form the expectations to women entrepreneurs. Socialization and family relations will influence entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs have often parents who are self-employed (Brush and Hisrich 1986). This social learning forms the children‘s careers and ambitions (Birley 1989). Usually the women stay at home and raise the children. This will influence women‘s motivation to be an entrepreneur; some will see this as an obstruction and other will view this as a possibility to make a good balance between job and family. Due to women‘s family duties they often start as a part-time entrepreneur, this may influence their economic results and their ability to grow. Previous research shows that women often have less income and capital to spend on their start-ups. This may disqualify women in their search for loans and investors, because equity is lower. In our study we investigate the subjective norms by asking who the women entrepreneurs have gain support from, such as; family, friends, personal network, other entrepreneurs, mentor, coach, company network, mentor program, society and social media. This forms the third hypothesis. H3: Women entrepreneurs’ intentions to grow are influenced by their subjective norms. Self-efficacy Ajzens concept of perceived behavioral control from 1988, is further developed by Bandura (1991) and are now named self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is explained as ―people`s beliefs about their capabilities to exercise control over their own level functioning and over events that effect their lives‖ (Bandura 1991, p. 257) or ―the conviction that one can successfully execute the behavior required to produce (certain outcomes)‖, and ‖beliefs in one`s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given levels of attainments‖ (Bandura 1998, p. 624). The entrepreneurs perception of self-efficacy
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can according to Azjen (1988) and Bandura (1998) be related to own experience, role models and social persuasion. Kolvereid (1992) finds that education has a positive influence on growth ambitions, but experiences don‘t. Widding and Jensen (2008) concludes that managers who intend to run a growing company faces as a manager, need for competence. Our approach to perceived control is concentrated around the need of different kind of competence to grow; more precisely the product, organization, management, development and growth, information- and communication
technology,
market/marketing,
sales,
internationalization,
language,
economy/finance and law. This leads to the fourth hypothesis. H4: Women entrepreneurs’ intentions to grow are influenced by their self-efficacy.
Research method The ideas to the study came when we were establishing a development program for women entrepreneurs in Mid Scandinavia. We needed to know more about women entrepreneurs and their relations to growth, and we started out with a quantitative study directed to women entrepreneurs. Sample The population is women who run businesses in a sparsely populated district in Mid Scandinavia. We first conducted a pilot study with the purpose to construct a functioning questionnaire. In a second step the questionnaire was sent out electronically to women entrepreneurs in the autumn of 2010. In Norway 4.681 questionnaires was sent out and 825 did never reach the right e-mail address. We received 1007 answers, a response rate of 26
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percent, but 292 were out of business or not actual of some other reason. In Sweden 1.0882 questionnaires was sent out. 170 questionnaires did not reach the respondents, we got them back as mail delivery failure. This means that the survey reached 918 Swedish respondents. 307 of these respondents replied, representing a response rate of 33 percent. 109 of the respondents were out of business or we reached wrong person. Of totally 913 answers, 13 men answered the questions and 48 women did not have any ownership in the company and these answers were removed. This means that the final number of observations reached 852 women entrepreneurs. Respondents are women who run businesses in a sparsely populated district in Northern Scandinavia. The average age is 42 years, and most women are in the age range 31-45 years old, (46 percent). The women are well educated and more than half of them have a university degree. The majority of the businesses women have been running their business for a long time. Nevertheless, the majority of the businesses are in the growth phase according to the product life cycles. The majority of the women own their business themselves, alternative have a high share of ownership. The most common industry sector is trade, health care, tourism, consulting and education. The companies operated primary as private firms (72 percent) or limited liability companies (24 percent). The companies are small and the majority of the entrepreneurs have stated a sale in 2009 less than 1 million SEK/NOK (78 percent). Half of the companies have indicated that they have no staff costs. (For detailed data/country, see Annex 1) Implementation The dependent variable in our study, Intention to Grow is recoded to a dichotomous variable, want to grow and don‘t want to grow. In the questionnaire the respondents were
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The Norwegian company register have e-mail addresses, but not the Swedish company register. Therefore we had to search for Swedish e-mail addresses on homepages and so on. This made it difficult to reach so many Swedish companies.
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asked to write with their own words, what they understand with the concept of Growth. The answers were coded into eight categories; economy, employment, market, products, competence, creativity, society and personal growth. Other analysis of this question is presented in next chapter. The entrepreneurs‘ attitudes are based assertions about how they describe themselves as entrepreneurs. These assertions were includes in a factor analysis. The principal component analysis with oblimin rotation resulted in four factors with eigenvalue greater than 1. We named the factors employment creation (job creator), entrepreneur (the creative), economic risk (risk aversion) and the professional.
Results Business Women's definition of grow In the survey we asked the women: -How would you explain the concept of growth? We got a major numbers of various responses, but after a while, a pattern grew up and we could thematize the notion of growth into eight different categories: Economy, Employing, Marketing, Production, Competence, Creativity, Contribute to the society and Personal development. The most common definition of growth was connected to the company's finances and to profitability in the company. ‖ To be able to grow in volume and revenue and / or have growth in economic profit.” The second most common definition of growth was connected with a larger market and to reach more customers. ‖ Increased number of satisfied customers, increased number of areas / forums requesting my expertise, greater geographic revenues.‖ Several business women sees growth synonymous with employment or changes in the production. ‖I understand growth equal with expanding the number of employees in the company‖ and ‖Product development/more products‖ For others growth is personal related and is it about competence, personal development and creativity. ―Knowledge/The fact that
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you learn and develops yourself‖, ―To grow as a person‖ ―I think about development, creativity, seeing opportunities‖. Finally, growth can also mean contribution to the society. ―Growth is not positive in itself. In this case it is for me to increase contributions to society and a sustainable planet.” Numerous have expressed the diversity of the concept: “"Growth can be personal: freedom, creativity and flexibility and growth can be economic: increased revenue, more employees.” The figure below shows the different themes: Figure 2 The Notion of Growth Creativity; 5 % Competence;
Society; 2 %
5%
Personal Development ;1%
Economy Market
Production ; 12 %
Economy; 41 %
Employing Production
Employing; 15 %
Market; 18 %
Competence
Impact of Growth Definition on Growth Intention The intention to grow is high. An average of 80 percent of the entrepreneurs, want their businesses to grow. In a Norwegian study of small scale food producers Magnus and Kvam (2008) found that 82 percent of them wanted their business to grow. The high degrees of entrepreneur who want their business to grow have to be related to how much they are willing to sacrifice to grow. This is not studied here, but we assume that not all of them are willing to take all the actions, which are needed to grow. Ajzen (1988) says that a strong intention more often lead to action than a weak intention.
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However, it is possible to discern differences in the intention to grow depending on how growth is defined. Figure 3 Growth Intention and Growth Definition
100 % 80 % 60 % 40 % 20 % 0%
Growth intention No growth intention
The definition of growth in eight categories explain 2,3percent (R2=0,023) of the variation with the intentions to grow. This is not a very strong relation. The understanding of growth as market is the only category which shows a significant relation to intention to grow. When the entrepreneurs define growth as growth in market it is a signal that they have an external focus. Brush et al (2010) finds that market is one of three growth drivers and our results support this. The understanding of growth as market growth involves challenges like how to get and keep customers, market segmentation, marketing, pricing, distribution and product development based on market signals. We found that those who answered the question about, how they explain the notion of growth have a larger intention to grow than those who didn‘t answer. The figure under shows
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that out of those who mention one or several of the categories of growth, more of them intended to grow. Figure 4 Growth Intention and Numbers of Categories in Definition
60 % 50 % 40 % 30 % 20 % 10 % 0% none
one
two
three
four
Attitudes – entrepreneurial orientation’s impact on growth intentions The female entrepreneurs‘ attitudes are a result of a factor analysis. The factor analysis resulted in four factors, which we have named; work creation, entrepreneur, risk oriented and professional. These factors can be related to Ajzens (1988) model, where attitudes are viewed as innovation, proactive and risk taking based on Colvin and Slevin (1989). Our findings support Ajzens (1988) groups of attitudes to some degree, partly because it is difficult to name the factors. The analysis of the relations between attitudes and the entrepreneurs‘ intention to grow is significant for the factors; Attitudes explain 24,6 percent of the variation, which is a relatively strong relation and indicates that the entrepreneurs attitudes affects the intention to grow.
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Subjective norms impact on growth intentions Subjective norms are studied as the entrepreneurs‘ experience of who have supported them in their work as entrepreneurs. Subjective norms explain 5 percent of the variation. We found that support from mentors and social media had a significant impact on intention to grow. Both social media and mentors are relatively new forms of support, and this may indicate that those who have growth intentions are early users of new offerings. This may be related to attitudes like proactivity, but this is not tested. In this relation we also found that there were significant differences between the countries (Norway and Sweden) and the entrepreneurs‘ education. The differences between the countries can be related to differences in the support system which forms the entrepreneurs understanding of what is important. Another explanation can be differences in the education, differences in the use of social media and other cultural differences. Those entrepreneurs who have growth intentions have a higher educational level. This shows that education have an impact on social norms in a way that education forms who the entrepreneurs seek to get support from. The role of education is further discussed in next chapter. Self-efficacy’s impact on growth intentions Self-efficacy is analyzed in the sense of what kind of competence do the entrepreneur need to grow. Self-efficacy can be understood as the entrepreneurs own experience of control and competence is one central source to gain control. Self-efficacy explains 11,9 percent of the variation in growth intentions. We found that a need for competence in product and services, development and growth, market and marketing and internationalization had a significant relation to intention to grow. These finding shows the competence areas which are important to stimulate growth. It is also interesting that we find some of the same areas here as the categories of definition we found. The entrepreneurs‘ differences in educational background showed significant relations to self-efficacies impact on intention to grow. It may 18
be obvious that there is a relation between educational level and need for more competence. Other studies show that higher educated people are more oriented toward need for competence.
Conclusions Interest in business growth is significant from academic, practical and political direction. Despite of this, or perhaps because of this, the concept remains conceptually limited. In this study our intention was to illuminate how women entrepreneurs define the notion of growth. Society and politicians often enunciate the concept of growth from an increased number of employees. This approach is different compared with what business women themselves define as growth. According to them, growth is not synonymous with the traditional economic measurable expressions, growth is instead a more diverse notion and it is about the company's development as well as their own personal development. We found at least eight different categories; Economy, Employing, Marketing, Production, Competence, Creativity, Contribute to the society and Personal development. It is often argued that businesses run by women voluntarily remain small. Our study shows however that there is a high growth intention in women's companies. The majority of the business women in this study (80 percent) would like growth in their companies, but as said above, growth is not synonymous with an increased number of employees. Our main question was to explain what formed the women entrepreneurs‘ intentions to grow. To do this, we used Ajzen‘s Theory of Planned Behavior.
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The business women‘s definition of growth didn‘t show any relation to the intention to grow, but when they defined growth as market there was a significant relation to intention to grow. We found that the women entrepreneurs‘ attitudes had the greatest impact on the intention to grow. Attitudes like work creation, entrepreneur and risk oriented, had a significant impact. Self-efficacy had also a considerable impact on the intention to grow. We found that subjective norms had least impact on intention to grow. According to these findings, it seems that stimulation of attitudes support intentions to grow.
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Annex 1 A view of the Respondents N = 852 Data
Age
Education
Information
Country N
S
30 or younger 31-45 46-60 61 or older Primary School Highschool University, 3 years University, 5 years
15% 48% 33% 4% 3% 27% 34% 36%
3% 37% 48% 12% 5% 46% 32% 17%
100%
83%
56%
Ownership % 51-99%
Data
Information
Country N
0-2
19% 79% 1% 1%
14% 26% 16% 44% 40% 49% 9% 2%
32%
12%
39%
53%
Ownership, age 2-5 6-9 10 or moree Ltd Corporate form Privat firm Unlimited partnership Others Start
Lifecycle phase Growth
S
4%
3%
50%
6%
30%
Maturity
15%
23%
20-49%
6%
6%
Decline
6%
8%
0-20%
1%
4%
Closure/Dormant
8%
4%
Missing value
9%
6%
Missing value
11%
11%
0 kr
50%
29%
17%
15%
8%
12% 13%
0 kr
24%
7%
Sales 2009
1 - 200 000
34%
22%
(SEK)
200 001- 500 000
11%
14%
500 001-1 Million 1 Million -3 Million
7%
13%
200 001 - 500 000
6%
10%
18%
500 001 - 1 Million
3%
6%
3 Million or more
5%
20%
1 Million or more
5%
14%
10%
15%
Trade
Industry
Health care
sector
Tourism Consultancy
Personnel costs 1 - 50 000 (SEK) 50 001-200 000
16%
11%
Industry
4%
11%
sector
Agriculture, Forestry
6%
6%
Cultural Industry
5%
12%
Hotel/Restaurant
4%
1%
12%
9%
Creative industry
4%
3%
Education
8%
9%
Information & Com.
3%
3%
Manufacturing
4%
11%
Communication
3%
9%
11%
8%
Constr. & Transp.
2%
2%
Craft
24
