Social Capital and the Willingness to Become Self-Employed: Is There a Difference between Women and Men?

34 Pages Posted: 31 Mar 2006

See all articles by Petra M. Moog

Petra M. Moog

University of Zurich - Department of Business Administration (IBW); University of Siegen - Dept. of Entrepreneurship and Business Sucession

Uschi Backes-Gellner

University of Zurich - Institute for Business Administration; Swiss Leading House

Date Written: March 2006

Abstract

This article studies the role of social capital in the occupational choice process involving whether to become self-employed or not. Although the decision to become self-employed has itself been analyzed frequently, social capital as an important explanatory variable has often been neglected. We show that the willingness to become self-employed depends quite strongly on a person's social capital. Furthermore, we are able to show for the first time that since women invest differently in social capital than men, this factor helps to explain gender differences in the willingness to become self-employed. We test our hypotheses with two ordered probit estimates using a data set with 5,000 students. Firstly, we find that the more social capital individuals hold, the more willing they are to start their own business. Secondly, we observe that women invest differently and on a smaller scale in social capital than men and are therefore less willing to become self-employed. This helps to explain why the entrepreneurship rate of women is still substantially lower than that of men and underlines the importance of fostering the inclusion of women in networking activities and other events generating social capital.

Keywords: Social Capital, Entrepreneurship, Gender Differences

JEL Classification: M13, M19, M21

Suggested Citation

Moog, Petra M. and Moog, Petra M. and Backes-Gellner, Uschi, Social Capital and the Willingness to Become Self-Employed: Is There a Difference between Women and Men? (March 2006). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=893721 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.893721

Petra M. Moog (Contact Author)

University of Siegen - Dept. of Entrepreneurship and Business Sucession ( email )

Hölderlinstraße 3, HA 4106
Siegen, 57068
Germany

University of Zurich - Department of Business Administration (IBW) ( email )

Hottingerstrasse 10
Plattenstrasse 14
Zurich, 8032
Switzerland

Uschi Backes-Gellner

University of Zurich - Institute for Business Administration ( email )

Plattenstrasse 14
8032 Zurich
Switzerland
+41 44 6344281 (Phone)
+41 44 6344370 (Fax)

Swiss Leading House ( email )

Plattenstrasse 14
Zurich, 8032
Switzerland

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
494
Abstract Views
2,442
Rank
105,611
PlumX Metrics