TY - JOUR
AU1 - Zolin, Roxanne
AU2 - Stuetzer, Michael
AU3 - Watson, John
AB - Purpose  The question of whether femaleowned firms underperform maleowned firms has triggered much research and discussion. Klapper and Parker's review concluded that the majority of prior research suggests that femaleowned firms underperform relative to maleowned firms. However, using performance measures that control for size and risk and after controlling for demographic differences such as industry, experience and hours worked Robb and Watson found no gender performance difference in their sample of newly established US firms. The aim of this study, therefore, is to replicate Robb and Watson's study to determine whether their findings can be generalized to another geographical location, Australia.Designmethodologyapproach  The authors test the female underperformance hypothesis using data from the CAUSEE project, a panel study which follows young firms over four years. They use three outcome variables survival rates, return on assets and the Sharpe ratio.Findings  Consistent with Robb and Watson the results indicate that femaleowned firms do not underperform maleowned firms.Originalityvalue  While replication studies are rare in entrepreneurship, they are an important tool for accumulating generalizable knowledge. The results suggest that while femaleowned firms differ from maleowned firms in terms of many control variables such as industry, owners' previous experience and hours worked they are no less successful. This outcome should help dispel the female underperformance myth which if left unchallenged could result in inappropriate policy decisions and, more importantly, could discourage women from establishing new ventures.
TI - Challenging the female underperformance hypothesis
JF - International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship
DO - 10.1108/17566261311328819
DA - 2013-06-20
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/emerald-publishing/challenging-the-female-underperformance-hypothesis-9XXZrmR3GB
SP - 116
EP - 129
VL - 5
IS - 2
DP - DeepDyve
ER -