Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Stories from the field

Electronic data

  • STORIES FROM THE FIELD FINAL 1 July 2017

    Rights statement: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-9995-6

    Accepted author manuscript, 536 KB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

Stories from the field: women’s networking as gender capital in entrepreneurial ecosystems

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
Close
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/08/2019
<mark>Journal</mark>Small Business Economics
Issue number2
Volume53
Number of pages16
Pages (from-to)459–474
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date13/02/18
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Women are underrepresented in successful entrepreneurial ecosystems and the creation of women-only entrepreneurial networks has been a widespread policy response. We examine the entrepreneurial ecosystem construct and suggest that it, and the role networks play in entrepreneurial ecosystems, can be analysed in terms of Bourdieu's socio-analysis as field, habitus and capital. Specifically, we develop the notion of gender capital as the skill set associated with femininity or from simply being recognized as feminine. We apply this to the development of women's entrepreneurial networks as a gender capital enhancing initiative. Using data from qualitative interviews with network coordinators and women entrepreneurs we reflect on the extent to which formally established women-only networks generate gender capital for their members and improve their ability to participate in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The paper concludes by drawing out the implications of our analysis for theory, entrepreneurial practice and economic development policy.

Bibliographic note

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-9995-6