La Vita Imprenditoriale: Female and Male Entrepreneurs in Italy

Female entrepreneurship is growing (OECD, 2000) with some estimates that this growth exceeds that of most economies around the world (Carter & Williams, 2005). In a forty-one country study, females comprise 36% of all entrepreneurs (Reynolds et al. 2004), with the percentage of female entrepreneurs ranging from 2% in Japan to 18% in Thailand (Minniti et al. 2006). To start their businesses, entrepreneurs must be able to access resources, such as customers, suppliers, market information and financial capital. Entrepreneurs often turn to their own financial resources, and also those available from friends, family and fool-hardy investors. This study includes both male and female entrepreneurs and explores sex differences. This research answers calls for studies of gender and entrepreneurship (Brush, 1992; Bird & Brush, 2002), and the supply and demand of entrepreneurial finance (Carter et al. 2003; Greene et al. 2004). The paper is organized as follows. First, we provide an overview of the Italian national context and the historical role of women’s involvement in the labor force and in self-employment. Next, we provide a brief overview of research at the individual entrepreneur level, focusing on demographics and personal context. Four hypotheses are put forward. Next, we turn to the firm level, leveraging extant research in the development of one hypothesis. We then examine the sources of financing and the relationship between the investor and investee, leading to five hypotheses. We conclude our country examination with population-level differences among all Italian adults, and then only those who are actively participating in the labor force.