Keywords

1 Introduction and Theoretical Background

Women have currently reached managerial and entrepreneurial positions requiring behaviour/competences previously related to men (Saggese et al. 2020; Torchia et al. 2011; Paoloni and Serafini 2018). Indeed, data indicates that about 187 million of women are involved in creating and founding enterprises and represent nearly half of worldwide entrepreneurs (Bosma 2013).

These circumstances have placed the implications of women for the entrepreneurial orientation at the centre of the scholarly debate. In this regard, by defining the EO as “processes, practices, and decision-making activities that lead to new entry” (Lumpkin and Dess 1996: 136), recent research investigates the development of EO by approaching the concept from a gender perspective. In this vein, literature defines the EO as the combination of three factors: (i) innovativeness, (ii) risk-taking and (iii) proactiveness (Rauch et al. 2009; Lumpkin and Dess 2001; Vecchiarini and Mussolino 2013). By relying on the above-mentioned classification, scholars emphasize that firms can be considered as “entrepreneurial” when these three dimensions are high in level (Kreiser and Davis 2010). However, while previous studies point out many differences between male and female entrepreneurs (Lim and Envick 2013), it is still an open issue what factors might drive the EO in the presence of women entrepreneurs.

This is especially true for human capital (Florin et al. 2003; Coleman 2007) as scholars suggest that the ventures’ success can depend on the founders/entrepreneurs’ human capital (Florin et al. 2003; Rauch et al. 2005; Coleman 2007). In this regard, literature highlights that education, knowledge, skills and experience that entrepreneurs bring to the company enhance the related cognitive and productive capabilities (Becker 1964; Davidsson and Honig 2003). In line with this conclusion, human capital proponents emphasize that the level of entrepreneur human capital positively affects the entrepreneurial activity. Indeed, research documents that the human capital fosters the building process of new business as it increases the owner’s ability to discover and exploit new opportunities by enhancing the entrepreneurial alertness (Westhead et al. 2005; Unger et al. 2011; Wennekers and Thurik 2000). At the same time, it helps the accumulation of knowledge and skills (Haber and Reichel 2007; Sarto et al. 2019), improves both the venture strategic and planning activity (Shrader and Siegel 2007; Baum et al. 2001; Frese et al. 2007) as well as supports the entrepreneur’s funding (Unger et al. 2011). Therefore, the human capital of entrepreneurs is not only helpful to new business ventures (Rotefoss and Kolvereid 2005), but it also improves the related outcomes (Alpkan et al. 2010; Marvel and Lumpkin 2007) since more educated entrepreneurs try to receive higher compensation for their human capital investments (Cassar 2006; Unger et al. 2011).

In the same vein, academics emphasize that human capital investments can affect EO due to the entrepreneur’s gender (Brush et al. 2017) as women differ from their male counterparts in terms of expertise and experience (Hillman et al. 2002; Singh et al. 2008). Indeed, literature on female human capital highlights that women are better educated and present a stronger experience than their male peers since the academic and professional training plays a pivotal role in certifying their expertise (Hillman et al. 2002). This is especially true when women hold entrepreneurial positions as they present higher level of education and international training as well as more relevant professional experiences than men (Singh et al. 2008; Hillman et al. 2002; Nekhili and Gatfaoui 2013). From a different standpoint, academics suggest that the female human capital under scrutiny is more likely to cover human resources, CSR and marketing skills (Zelechowski and Bilimoria 2004; Saggese and Sarto 2018) than financial managerial ones (Hillman et al. 2002; Singh et al. 2008). As a result, women tend to build their background in non-business areas (e.g. philanthropic and non-profit organizations) as well as in governmental and educational institutions (Dang et al. 2014).

At the same time, scholars highlight that female entrepreneurs are disadvantaged in comparison with their male peers as they present a limited business education and prior employment experience as business owners/managers (Coleman 2007; Boden and Nucci 2000). In addition, research documents that the business activity of women entrepreneurs is mainly focused on traditional businesses (e.g. retail and service industries) where companies are smaller in size and need low capital investments (Gundry and Welsch 2001; Orser et al. 2006; Kepler and Shane 2007).

However, while this literature has extensively advanced the knowledge on gender dissimilarities also in terms of human capital, it is still an open issue how the female human capital is able to influence the EO.

Our paper aims to address the above-mentioned issue by examining how the human capital of female entrepreneurs is able to affect the EO in terms of risk-taking, innovativeness and proactiveness. In particular, following a multiple case study approach, the article exploratively assesses the influence of female entrepreneur human capital on EO to inductively formulate ex post propositions (Yin 2003).

The study suggests that the female human capital factors foster/hamper the woman’s personal traits in terms of risk aversion and web thinking, which, in turn, affect the EO dimensions.

The rest of the article is structured as follows. Section 2 presents the research methodology. Section 3 illustrates the findings and formulates the research propositions. Finally, Sect. 4 concludes by highlighting contributions and directions for future research.

2 Methodology

We exploratively investigate the influence of the human capital of female entrepreneurs on EO through a multiple case study approach to formulate ex post propositions useful to carry out subsequent studies on the topic (Punch 2005; Eisenhardt 1991; Yin 1994).

In particular, our research examines three in-depth qualitative case studies conducted in Italy during the second half of 2018. As shown in Table 1, the sample is composed of three medium-sized Italian companies, and, for each of them, we have collected data through semi-structured interviews to female entrepreneurs. To this aim, we have started from the interview guidelines that have been developed by two experts of the field by relying on the literature related to the dimensions of EO. Then, we have held six interviews, with the female entrepreneurs of the companies in our sample. In detail, we have asked respondents to describe the story of their company and their educational and professional experience and highlight the most widespread entrepreneurial behaviour.

Table 1 Overview of case studies
Full size table

To appreciate the entrepreneurial orientation, we have relied on the definition provided by scholarly research claiming that EO is a firm-level construct that results from the aggregation of the following sub-dimensions: (i) innovativeness, (ii) risk-taking and (iii) proactiveness. In particular, we define the innovativeness as the commitment towards the introduction of new technology/products/services (Lumpkin and Dess 1996; Lega 2009; Vecchiarini and Mussolino 2013). Differently, we consider the risk-taking as the entrepreneur’s willingness to provide resources to uncertain projects in terms of results (Rauch et al. 2009; Miller and Friesen 1978). Finally, we define proactiveness as the forward-looking ability of anticipating future demand (Lumpkin and Dess 2001) and timely recognizing strengths, weaknesses and trends of markets (Kropp et al. 2006).

Each interview that lasted on average 90 minutes has been digitally recorded and transcribed for analysis soon after the event. Once all the interviews have been completed, we have carefully read the interview reports and discussed the main issues emerged during the dialogues to establish an overall picture of the phenomenon under investigation.

We have also collected secondary data from the company websites and the press releases to ensure the reliability of our research (Pettigrew 1988). At the end of this process, we have drawn conclusions by coding data and providing a systematization of the case studies (Yin 2003). Building on these sources, we have inductively formulated research propositions (Yin 2003) on the implications of female entrepreneur human capital factors for the EO dimensions.

3 Findings

The interviews highlight that female entrepreneurs are characterized by two main personal attributes risk aversion and web thinking that can be considered as the joining link between human capital factors and EO.

As suggested by the interviews, female entrepreneurs are typically risk adverse, and they also live their decision experiences more emotionally. Indeed, female entrepreneurs severely judge the potentially negative consequences of their actions and are very pessimistic about the implications of both the business options and the related outcomes. Taken together, these factors dampen their propensity for risky choices and therefore lead them to be less likely engaged in risky behaviour (Jianakoplos and Bernasek 1998; Charness and Gneezy 2012).

Shifting the attention to the web thinking personal trait, the interviews reveal that female entrepreneurs are characterized by the attitude of being flexible thinker and the ability to gather data from the environment to establish elaborate relationships between all the pieces of information (Runyan et al. 2006). Therefore, our interviews support the idea that business women foster web thinking as their decision-making process tends to bring in more details all the factors to be considered (Fisher 1999).

As far as the implications of human capital for EO are concerned, findings show that the educational background and business expertise of female entrepreneurs influence the EO through their personal traits. Indeed, our results highlight that, on the one side, the human capital moderates the women personal traits (risk aversion and web thinking) and, on the other side, the latter affects the company innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking.

In particular, the interviewees remark that the educational background influences the female personal characteristics in terms of risk aversion. Indeed, the women’s background shapes how confident they are in taking risky projects. More specifically, the achievement of a high level of education leads to the development of structured skills that make women more rational (Jianakoplos and Bernasek 1998; Sila et al. 2016). Consequently, we propose the following proposition:

  • P1: The level of education increases the woman’s risk aversion.

At the same time, the interviews reveal that the level of education of female entrepreneurs affects their decision-making style as it influences the related web thinking attitudes. In this sense, our study highlights that the level of education improves the ability of female entrepreneurs to process information especially through the development of connecting skills. This conclusion is in line with literature suggesting that the educational level fosters the identification of long-term implications of decision-making alternatives and supports female entrepreneurs in handling the information overload (McDonald et al. 2008; Westphal and Fredrickson 2001). Therefore, we propose the following proposition:

  • P2: The level of education increases the woman’s web thinking.

Our interviews also emphasize that the financial expertise additionally affects the ability of female entrepreneurs to apply their web thinking as it increases the attitude of business women to view the complexity of the world and catch all the most critical factors for decision-making (Daniel 2004). This circumstance is in line with the idea that individuals with and without financial education present different decision-making styles (Hambrick and Mason 1984; O’Fallon and Butterfield 2005; Güner et al. 2008). Therefore, we propose the following proposition:

  • P3: The financial expertise increases the woman’s web thinking.

Shifting the attention to the risk aversion, the interviews suggest that having an expertise in the financial area can shape the female entrepreneurs’ attitude towards the recognition of risky problems (García-Sánchez et al. 2017). This result suggests that business women with financial expertise are less risk adverse than their counterparts without this type of background (Beckmann and Menkhoff 2008). Indeed, women entrepreneurs with financial background bear lower costs in acquiring information about the complexity and associated risks of business activities (García-Sánchez et al. 2017), as well as they tend to make long-term risky investments which result in higher returns (Barber and Odean 2001). Consequently, we propose the following proposition:

  • P4: The financial expertise decreases the woman’s risk aversion.

Focusing on the implications of the female personal traits for the three dimensions of EO, our interviews with women entrepreneurs remark that their low propensity to risk influences the related willingness to invest in risky projects. In this regard, our findings suggest that the propensity of female entrepreneurs to take risky projects in managing their firm decreases as the perception of threats increases. In this sense, our results support the conclusion that women entrepreneurs do not tend to make long-term risky investments like those related to internationalization and new market activities (Barber and Odean 2001; Charness and Gneezy 2012). Based on these premises, we formulate the following proposition:

P5: The woman’s risk aversion decreases risk-taking.

Beside the risk aversion, our interviews reveal that also the web thinking of female entrepreneurs is able to influence the EO dimensions. This is especially true for both innovation and proactiveness. In this sense, in line with prior literature, the results of our interviews highlight that the female ability to gather data from the environment and to establish elaborate relationships between all the pieces of information supports the development of new ideas and innovation projects (Runyan et al. 2006). Consequently, we propose the following proposition:

  • P6: The woman’s web thinking increases innovativeness.

It is worth noting that the interviewees also emphasize that their web thinking tends to affect their proactiveness. In this regard, our interviews suggest that the web thinking attitude helps women to tolerate ambiguity and connect several aspects of the business (Chakraborty and Saha 2017). As a result, it supports them to actively seek out new market opportunities, apply forward-looking perspectives to the business and anticipate future demand (Lumpkin and Dess 2001; Lieberman and Montgomery 1988). Based on these premises, we formulate the following proposition:

  • P7: The woman’s web thinking increases proactiveness.

4 Concluding Discussion

Following a qualitative approach, the paper examines how the human capital of female entrepreneurs affects the EO in terms of risk-taking, innovativeness and proactiveness.

The findings provided by the interviews to female entrepreneurs lead to the development of some propositions highlighting that the female human capital factors affect the EO dimensions.

In particular, our findings document that the human capital factors (i.e. level of education and financial expertise) can foster/moderate the woman’s personal traits in terms of risk aversion and web thinking. Moreover, they point out that, once influenced by human capital factors, the woman’s personal traits are able to affect the EO dimensions (i.e. risk-taking, innovativeness, proactiveness).

Thereby, the study contributes to both theory and practice. Indeed, it fills a gap in the entrepreneurship literature that has separately investigated the role played by the human capital (Manev et al. 2005) and the gender differences between women and men for EO (Lim and Envick 2013). Moreover, the article adds value to the gender literature on the organizational implications of female directors/entrepreneurs by shedding light on the effects of their personal traits on EO dimensions. Finally, the paper provides scholars with propositions that can be empirically tested to assess the connections between the woman’s human capital and EO.

From a practical standpoint, the study calls the attention of female entrepreneurs on how their level of education and financial expertise can influence EO and emphasizes under what conditions they should invest resources to improve their level of education and financial expertise. In addition, the article suggests policy-makers to develop public programs able to support women entrepreneurs in developing skills and experiences related to entrepreneurship by promoting specific initiatives that can enhance their EO.