PRESS RELEASE
Contacts: Prue
Cruickshank, 09-815-4321 x8821 pcruickshank@unitec.ac.nz
Howard
Frederick, 09-815-4321 x7016 021-376-560 hfrederick@unitec.ac.nz
Although
New Zealand
has the highest women’s entrepreneurship rate in developed world,
the
entrepreneurial gender gap is still severe despite improvements.
Despite an improvement over
2003, New Zealand women suffer a 30 percent deficit compared to the
numbers of male entrepreneurs, according to a cross-national study of 34
countries. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report on women’s
entrepreneurial activity was released today by The Center for Women’s
Leadership at Babson College (USA) and Unitec New Zealand’s GEM
project.
Unitec is the New Zealand
partner of the GEM consortium and it assisted the Center for Women’s
Leadership in the study.
The GEM 2004 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship provides an
in-depth global look at women’s entrepreneurship and highlights the
important role that women play in developing and developed economies.
”Our research emphasises the
critical role that New Zealand women have in new venture creation and
provides insights to inform policies focused on increasing and extending
the scope and reach of their entrepreneurial activities,” said Prue
Cruickshank, leader of the GEM New Zealand women’s team. “These
findings support our goal of understanding, featuring and supporting the
entrepreneurial efforts of women worldwide.”
Key findings in 2004
-
In 2004, GEM estimated that about 73 million
people are involved in starting a new business in the 34 countries
that participated in the study. Of those, about 30 million are
women. The average level of female total entrepreneurial activity
(TEA) rate varied from 39.1 per cent of the adult population in a
turbulent Third World country such as Peru to only 1.2 per cent in
unentrepreneurial Japan.
-
At 12.1 per cent of the adult population, New
Zealand had the highest women’s entrepreneurship rate in the
developed world in 2004 (see table and figure). Yet the male rate
of 17.2 per cent is much higher (New Zealand overall is 14.7 per
cent). Nonetheless, the women's rate improved from its 2003 rate of
9.9 per cent.
-
In every country in our study, men are more
entrepreneurially active than women. In New Zealand, women have only
70 percent of the male rate (see table and figure).
-
The United States (89 per cent) and Portugal (93
per cent) greatly exceed that rate and are near to achieving
entrepreneurial parity between men and women.
- GEM identifies two
motivations for entrepreneurial activity. Overall, “opportunity” is
the dominant motivation for women’s entrepreneurship, similar to
men. Nonetheless, many more women than men must start businesses
out of “necessity”.
- In a middle income country
such as New Zealand, the
peak years
to become involved in entrepreneurial activities for women are ages
25-34. Yet young New Zealand women are
hugely under-represented compared to males. Only 30% of the
youngest entrepreneurs are women. This rises to 41% by age 34 but
only approaches parity later in life (see figure “Gender by Age
Category”).
-
In New Zealand, entrepreneurship and education
are highly correlated amongst women.
-
As in the case of men, and regardless of per
capita income, the largest majority of New Zealand women involved in
starting a new business hold other jobs.
- Regardless of per capita
income, a strong positive and significant correlation exists between
knowing other entrepreneurs and a woman’s involvement with starting
a new business.
“Our results suggest that
employed New Zealand women who have been exposed to entrepreneurship in
school and who know other entrepreneurs are the most likely to start a
new business,” said Unitec Professor Howard Frederick. “We also found
that a woman’s perception of environmental opportunities, as well as
confidence in her own capabilities, are powerful predictors of her
entrepreneurial behaviour.”
The GEM report shows that
across all countries, a strong positive and significant correlation
exists between opportunity recognition and a woman’s likelihood of
starting a new business. Women who perceived the existence of business
opportunities were more likely to make the decision to start a new
business.
Additionally, across all
countries, a strong positive and significant correlation exists between
a woman’s belief of having the knowledge, skills and experience required
to start a new business and her likelihood of starting one. Conversely,
a strong negative and significant correlation exists between fear of
failure and a woman’s likelihood of starting a new business.
What are the lessons for New
Zealand?
“New Zealand needs to sustain
innovation rates and that means encouraging the involvement of more
women in entrepreneurship,” Professor Frederick said. “If New Zealand
women entrepreneurs could match their male counterparts and reach levels
seen in the United States and Portugal, we could accelerate our
innovation and growth rates.”
“Areas of importance for policy
makers include promoting entrepreneurial education at all levels and
encouraging more women to pursue technical degrees and to commercialise
their ideas. It’s outrageous that if you google the Ministry of
Education for the words ‘entrepreneur’ or ‘entrepreneurship’, you get
zero matches!” said Professor Frederick.
[Your search - entrepreneur
OR entrepreneurship site:moe.govt.nz - did not match any documents.]
Other Findings
·
Women are more sensitive than men to
conditions in the business environment. Subjective assessments about
the availability of opportunities, the ability to exploit them, and the
possibility of failing in doing so are all crucial factors in a woman’s
decision to start a new business.
· The majority of businesses started by
women employed less start-up capital as compared to men, used known
technology and targeted existing markets. This suggests that women
entrepreneurs may take a more conservative approach to business
formation, perhaps because of their higher involvement in necessity
driven entrepreneurship.
· On average, businesses started by men
used more capital than those started by women (USD 65,010 vs. USD 33,201
respectively).
· Women tend to have slower early growth
trajectories. The vast majority of women involved in starting a new
business expect to create five or fewer additional jobs within a
five-year period. In low and middle income countries, only 1% of
women’s new businesses qualify as having high employment potential. The
percentage increases to only 1.6 in high income countries.
· Further, women entrepreneurs tend to
start businesses with known technology and in established markets.
ENDS
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) GEM
research involves the collection of rigorous survey data and reports on
entrepreneurial activity around the world on an annual basis. The
research is carried out in exactly the same way in each country so that
the results are comparable. This research is unique in the field of
entrepreneurship studies. It allows a country to track its rate of
entrepreneurial activity over time (the project now has six years of
historic data) and to compare its level of entrepreneurial activity and
the nature of its entrepreneurs and their activities with all the other
countries involved in the research.
GEM New Zealand The GEM New Zealand
project has been headquartered at Unitec New Zealand since 2000. GEM
New Zealand is the largest team in the global GEM project. Most
national GEM teams receive funding from ministries, banks,
consultancies, and venture capitalists. GEM New Zealand has no funding
for 2005 and is currently is seeking a sponsor for the project. Its
main Web site is
www.gemnewzealand.com.
The Center for Women’s Leadership at Babson
College provides educational programmes, conducts research, and offers
executive outreach that promote the advancement and accomplishment of
women at all stages of their professional development and the
achievement of competitive advantage by companies focused on the talent
and market power of women.
Copies of GEM cross-national
assessment on women’s entrepreneurial activity are available at
http://www.gemconsortium.org/document.asp?id=401 .
|
ENTREPRENEURSHIP RATES IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES BY GENDER, 2004
Percentage of
adult population 18-64
Source:
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor New Zealand
www.gemconsortium.org |
|
COUNTRY |
TOTAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP RATE |
MEN'S ENTREPRENEURSHIP RATE |
WOMEN'S ENTREPRENEURSHIP RATE |
WOMEN’S LEVEL COMPARED TO MEN |
|
PT |
3.95% |
4.10% |
3.81% |
93% |
|
US |
11.33% |
11.98% |
10.69% |
89% |
|
AU |
13.38% |
15.70% |
11.03% |
70% |
|
NZ |
14.67% |
17.23% |
12.09% |
70% |
|
JP |
1.48% |
1.74% |
1.21% |
69% |
|
FI |
4.39% |
5.65% |
3.11% |
55% |
|
IS |
13.57% |
17.51% |
9.52% |
54% |
|
CA |
8.85% |
11.53% |
6.14% |
53% |
|
IE |
7.70% |
10.40% |
5.00% |
48% |
|
FR |
6.03% |
8.25% |
3.82% |
46% |
|
UK |
6.25% |
8.54% |
3.91% |
46% |
|
DE |
5.07% |
7.00% |
3.08% |
44% |
|
NL |
5.11% |
7.07% |
3.10% |
44% |
|
DK |
5.31% |
7.41% |
3.17% |
43% |
|
BE |
3.47% |
4.88% |
2.05% |
42% |
|
ES |
5.15% |
7.38% |
2.91% |
39% |
|
IT |
4.32% |
6.32% |
2.28% |
36% |
|
NO |
6.98% |
10.32% |
3.54% |
34% |
|
GR |
5.77% |
8.7% |
2.90% |
33% |
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