Learning Objectives
This guide is intended to help you to focus on the key lessons in each chapter. We present the learning objectives to help assimilate theory and practice, create a vocabulary that defines your entrepreneurial leadership style, and to deepen your understanding about how gender influences the venture creation process.
Introduction
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
- Identify questions that confront business owners, policymakers and scholars about business ownership, entrepreneurship and venture creation.
- Identify different perspectives about how (and if) gender influences enterprise performance.
- Articulate your own views about how (and if) gender influences venture creation
- Understand the authors’ motivations for writing the book.
Reframing Entrepreneurship — Chapter 1
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
- Describe the evolution of thinking about entrepreneurship and how that has influenced current notions and expectations about women’s involvement in entrepreneurship
- Recognize traditional rationales advanced to explain the “underperformance” of female-owned firms.
- Understand how language, including classic feminine and masculine nomenclature, depicts entrepreneurs and influences our expectations.
- Describe feminist rationales, (liberal and social feminism), advanced to explain gender influences in enterprise performance.
- Explain the theoretical foundation of entrepreneurial feminism.
- Understand your own views about feminism and entrepreneurship.
Intention, Success, and Identity — Chapter 2
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
- Understand the structure of entrepreneurial identity and success, and how each can impact entrepreneurial decision-making.
- Recognize the transformational nature of business ownership.
- Describe the entrepreneurial identity gap
- Identify the entrepreneurial leadership styles of self-described feminist entrepreneurs.
- Articulate your own entrepreneurial identity
- Identify your own perceptions of entrepreneurial success
- Challenge the relevance of psychometrics used to determine entrepreneurial propensity and acumen.
- Describe your own views on enterprise growth (intention).
Getting to Go — Chapter 3
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
- Recognize how business owners are leveraging feminine capital through opportunity identification, start-up and enterprise growth.
- Identify activities and challenges that confront nascent and early stage entrepreneurs.
- Identify your own preferences in navigating the path to venture creation.
- Describe four theories that help to explain the evolution of an enterprise.
- Recognize gender influences in sector choice.
- Articulate your own perspective about how gender is enacted through business start-up.
- Apply lessons learned to evaluate the impact of gender in business owner actions and interactions, enterprise structures and entrepreneurial processes.
Enterprise Growth — Chapter 4
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
- Explain why some firms grow and others do not.
- Describe four alternative views on enterprise growth.
- Identify which explanation of enterprise growth best explains your own business.
- Identify the risks associated with managing a lifestyle or stagnant versus growing enterprise.
- Understand the importance of the business model and ownership structure in enterprise performance.
- Design a business model that meets your values and expectations.
- Identify your own entrepreneurial strengths.
- Identify challenges associated with exporting.
Social Capital — Chapter 5
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
- Describe the concept of social capital and its importance.
- Explain the framework, elements and spheres of social capital. Understand the role of trust in accruing and managing social capital.
- Identify strategies for building trust in relationships.
- Describe the prime sources and configuration of your own social capital.
- Identify the strengths and weaknesses of family and friends, informal networks, mentors, advisors and associations as sources of social capital.
- Recognize potential gender influences in the way in which you approach and manage professional relationships.
- Develop strategies to build and manage social capital.
Money Matters — Chapter 6
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
- Understand the impact of financial literacy in entrepreneurial decisions.
- Recognize sources of capital available to aspiring entrepreneurs.
- Challenge myths about gender and entrepreneurial finance.
- Discuss gender influences in enterprise financing.
- Understand how type of financing impacts the ability of the business owner to attract investors.
- Assess your own entrepreneurial financial literacy.
- Apply the lessons learned to develop strategies to access capital.
Power in Policy — Chapter 7
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
- Understand the link between public policy, enterprise performance, and economic opportunities for women.
- Recognize global indices that monitor women’s economic, legal and social progress.
- Understand the rationale, strengths and weaknesses of mainstream and female-focused entrepreneurship/small business training programs.
- Recognize gender biases in entrepreneurship policy and programming.
- Identify common tactics to stifle advocacy and policy reform.
- Identify strategies to make policy change happen.
Never Underestimate the Underestimated Woman — Chapter 8
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
- Recognize schisms between theory and practice.
- Apply the lessons learned to develop strategies to support female entrepreneurs.