FOSTERING ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT OF FEMALE STUDENTS
university or graduate degrees”1 , the fact that an increasing number of women acquire higher education degrees allow a more positive expectation on the rise of women as entrepreneurs with a focus on providing appropriate training and education for them.
The purpose of this paper is to suggest some implications for higher education institutions to improve the practicality of their entrepreneurial education programs so that entrepreneurial spirit of female students will be intensively fostered, hopefully resulting in more engagement of female graduates in future entrepreneurial activities and sustainable national developments.
For this study, by investigating the availability and features of entrepreneurship education programs offered at two higher educational institutions in Vietnam and Thailand as well as researching into secondary data of previous studies relating to ASEAN, the discrepancy between what women business owners need and what the school’s entrepreneurial education program offers is discovered as a ground for suggested implications.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Guelich (2015)2 , the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor GEM, 126 million women worldwide are operating new businesses and another 98 million do so at the helm of established businesses.
Yet –from a global perspective – we face a huge gender equality gap. Some countries like Pakistan have a nearly non-existent female entrepreneurship rate; while on the opposite side there are currently only six economies where men and women start and run businesses in an equal ratio, Thailand being one of them.
Beside two more ASEAN countries including Indonesia and the Philippines, three others come from Sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria, Zambia, and Botswana. Increasingly, multinational organizations range from the World Bank to Coca Cola developed their programs to support female entrepreneurship as they are aware that women entrepreneurs are crucial to economic growth around the world.
For ASEAN member states, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) provides another source of data to examine gender differences in entrepreneurial activity. Six ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam) participated in GEM studies in 2014 or 2015. Key findings show that women are more likely to be involved in early-stage entrepreneurial activity than men (i.e. either actively trying to get a business started or own a new business that is less than 42 months old), except in Singapore where the female rate is less than half the male rate (Figure 1). The overall female early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) rate for the six countries is 105.7% of the male rate. Notable, however, is the very low TEA rate for both men and women in Malaysia (only 3.0% for women and 2.9% for men).
Figure 1: Female and male early-stage entrepreneurial activity rates in 6 ASEAN countries 3
1 National Survey of Women Business Owners in Vietnam 2015
2 Ulrike Guelich (2015), GEM ASEAN Regional Entrepreneurship Report 2015/16
3 Sources: 2014 data for Singapore: Chernyshenko et al. (2015), Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2014:Singapore Report. 2015 data for the remaining ASEAN-5: Xavier et al. (2016), ASEAN Regional, Entrepreneurship Report 2015/2016.
146 HỘI THẢO KHOA HỌC QUỐC TẾ KHỞI NGHIỆP ĐỔI MỚI SÁNG TẠO QUỐC GIA The above figure 1 has showed the strong evidence that ASEAN woman entrepreneurs are more likely to contribute to their societies by re-investing their profits in education, their family and their community than men. There are many examples around the world, where women entrepreneurs are transforming families and society besides making contributions to business development.
Beside family and community, education is one of their priorities. In order for an economy to truly benefit from a society’s entrepreneurial potential, everyone must be able to participate and be supported in this activity, regardless of gender, age, education, income and characteristics. An increasing number of women who start their own businesses in Thailand now are better educated than in former years. This is also shows that most of them run their businesses after having obtained a bachelor degree, especially in Bangkok, the North and the South of Thailand. Nevertheless, some statistics indicate that educational level of women entrepreneurs in general is lower than that of male counterparts. For the development of woman entrepreneurs as part of gender quality, education and training initiatives should be paid attention by the government in order to increase entrepreneurial activity in business services–both female and male- to move towards an innovation- and growth-driven economy.
According to UNESCO Institute for statistics, female demand for tertiary education in Southeast Asia continues to grow and female educational attainments could improve at this level of education, this reflects the growing female student in education and the necessity for higher education institutions (HEIs) to provide the quality entrepreneurship education (Figure 2 below), differences in graduation rates remain. For example, in Singapore the share of adult women with tertiary education approximates 40%, a figure far exceeding the OECD average. The same share in the Philippines is close to the OECD average (28% as compared with 30%), with significantly more women than men completing tertiary education. By contrast, completion rates of tertiary education for women in Indonesia and Viet Nam do not exceed 10%, while in Cambodia are as low as 1%.
Higher education attainments therefore resonate well the differences across countries in the level of per capita incomes. Yet, in a number of Southeast Asian countries gender gaps in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects appear to be less marked than elsewhere in the comparator countries, including in OECD countries. Importantly, in Thailand, Myanmar, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Indonesia, women make for more than half of graduates in science, this is another point of consideration for educators.
Figure 2: Proportion of adults (aged 25+) who have completed tertiary education1
1 OECD 2017, Strengthening Women’s Entrepreneurship in ASEAN “Towards increasing women’s participation in economic activity” September
Characteristics of Male and Female Entrepreneurs
Several researches suggest that certain natural characteristics that make people successful in doing business. The process of becoming an entrepreneur may be due to the intrinsic nature of these characteristics rather than a rational process. Entrepreneurs are people who believe that they can control their destiny with an ability to concentrate on the new venture and confidence in their abilities is very necessary for the entrepreneur. In order to undertake the risk of starting a new business, a person must be confident that it will succeed. 1
Entrepreneurs who have certain traits that help them to become business-owners such as risk-taking, full of energy, hard working, confidence and good visionary to exploit opportunities. There are successful male and female entrepreneurs all over the world. Some researches have found that there are some characteristics that are found in both men and women. There are some differences between the two. In order for an educator to appropriately develop entrepreneurship program or learning activity for both male and female students, educators need to understand the characteristics of female and male entrepreneurs in the following aspects including decision making styles, risk tolerance, goals for the business, financing of the business, management styles, networking ability, motivations.
Table 1: General characteristics of female and male entrepreneurs2
Table 1 above indicated that male and female entrepreneurs have different characteristics. Men tend to make them quicker and women need more time. Male entrepreneurs focus on making sure costs are under control and are more profit driven. Women seek to make a social contribution and want to insure their quality. Men and women tend to start different kinds of enterprises. Men are more willing to undertake the risk than women. Men tend to be more task oriented than women. Good relationships with employees are more important to women.3
From the above information, no one can deny that women have stronger potential for start up a business than men such as community contribution and social development in stead of focusing on profit only. According to Moore and Buttner, (1997)4, they found the most important reason why women become entrepreneurs is that they want to feel self-fulfilled. Women care about their clients and feel some sort of societal responsibility as well.
According to Rosa P, Carter S, Hamilton D (1996)5, their research proved that it is necessary to provide
1 Bolton B, Thompson J (2000), Entrepreneurs: Talent, Temperament, and Technique, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
2 Sexton DL (1990), Research on women-owned businesses: Current status and future directions. In:
Hagen O, Rivchum C, Sexton DL (eds.) Women-owned Businesses, Praeger, New York, NY, 183-193
3 Sexton DL (1990), Research on women-owned businesses: Current status and future directions. In: Hagen O, Rivchum C, Sexton DL (eds.) Women-owned Businesses, Praeger, New York, NY, 183-193
4 Moore DP, Buttner EH (1997), Women Entrepreneurs: Moving Beyond the Glass Ceiling, Sage Publications.
Thousand Oaks, USA.
5 Rosa P, Carter S, Hamilton D (1996), Gender as a Determinant of Small Business Performance, Small Business Economics 8: 463-478
148 HỘI THẢO KHOA HỌC QUỐC TẾ KHỞI NGHIỆP ĐỔI MỚI SÁNG TẠO QUỐC GIA support and promote female entrepreneurship because female entrepreneurs were more likely to close to their businesses than men even they have fewer resources to start their businesses. Also, the study revealed that women used innovative strategies to overcome the shortages they faced and the educators is the key to get them ready for obstacles.
Risk tolerance
Entrepreneurs are often seen as people who are willing to take a risk. According to Jianakoplos and Bernasek (1998)1, men are much more willing to take a financial risk than women. Women have a different attitude toward risk and are less risk tolerant. .
Table 2: 2 The risk tolerance of male and female entrepreneurs
Table 2 above examines the risk tolerance of male and female entrepreneurs. Men are more willing to take risks when it comes to business. Women are more conservative, particularly when it comes to financial risk. Men require less information when making decisions than women do. Women need to have more information prior to making decisions. Women require much more social support prior to starting up a business than men. Men are also more willing to fail in business than women. This allows men to take greater risks when it comes to growing the business. Female entrepreneurs may not grow their businesses as quickly because they do not want to risk failure. In general, men are much more willing to take risks than their female counterparts.
Financing
There are some differences between men and women regarding the financing of the business. Women usually start up their business with less capital than men and their businesses tend to be smaller. Even though number of researches suggest “access to finance” as one of the top barriers for women, even they had a good track record in business, they were still viewed as more of a risk than men. According to Holmquist C (1997)3, women did excellent planning, focused on market and technology expansion, were more committed to their businesses and were willing to get additional capital for growth. They had formal organizational structures, planned for growth, and used more financial resources. Women also adopted a slower growth strategy and were less risk adverse (Table 3 below examines the financing of male and female entrepreneurs).
1 Jianakoplos NA, Bernasek A (1998), Are women more risk averse? Economic Inquiry 36: 620-630.
2 Holmquist C (1997), The other side of the coin or another coin? Women entrepreneurship as a complement or an alternative, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 9:
179-182-3 Holmquist C (1997), The other side of the coin or another coin? Women entrepreneurship as a complement or an alternative, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 9:
179-182-Table 3:1 The differences between men and women regarding the financing of the business
Motivation
There are some differences in what motivates female and male entrepreneurs. According to Brush CG (1992)2 there may be differences in male and female personal and business profiles. Men and women start their businesses in different sectors, different types of products. There also may be differences in the way they structure their business. Women may have differing goals like to be autonomous on the contrary a man may have purely profit goals.
Table 43: The motivation of male and female entrepreneurs
Management Style
According to Brush CG (1992)4, men and women also may differ in the way the think regarding the business. Women tend to be more intuitive and men more logical. Women’s communications skills are excellent. They tend to be better listeners and can understand the needs of their employees. Female entrepreneurs tend to manage differently than their male counterparts. Management is how the entrepreneur manages the business. The most distinct differences between men and women as entrepreneurs are in their management styles. Women manage using more “feminine” strategies than men. Women tend to value the relationships with their employees more than the task at hand. Men and woman also may think differently.
Male entrepreneurs are more logical thinkers. Female entrepreneurs are more intuitive thinkers.
1 Holmquist C (1997), The other side of the coin or another coin? Women entrepreneurship as a complement or an alternative, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 9:
179-182-2 Brush CG (1992), Research on women business owners: Past trends, a new perspective and future directions, En-trepreneurship Theory and Practice 16:5-30
3 Holmquist C (1997), The other side of the coin or another coin? Women entrepreneurship as a complement or an alternative, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 9:
179-182-4 Brush CG (1992), Research on women business owners: Past trends, a new perspective and future directions.
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 16: 5-30.
150 HỘI THẢO KHOA HỌC QUỐC TẾ KHỞI NGHIỆP ĐỔI MỚI SÁNG TẠO QUỐC GIA Table 5: Differences in management of male and female entrepreneurs 1
Networking
Networking is very crucial to the success of any business. Networks are valuable sources of information and can help during the startup phase of the business. Family can be a very helpful network when it comes to decision making.
Buttner H (2001) 2suggests that networking may be more critical than having financial resources.
Women and men can be excellent networkers; however men usually have larger networks that are stronger, with more depth and strength. Women’s networks are often smaller, and have less density.
Women networks tend to be collaborative external relationships and are not as prone to use clubs, business associations and networks. Their networks include their family, staff, society and other business relationships.
Table 6: The network of male and female entrepreneurs 3
From the table above, we can see the differences between male and female entrepreneurs. In general entrepreneurs may be similar demographically. All entrepreneurs face obstacles and barriers when starting their enterprises. However, for women there are some additional barriers. Women may not have received the experience and training to make them successful that their male counterparts have had especially from HEI’s. Access to sufficient capital is also a challenge for female entrepreneurs.
Some banks may not have the confidence in female entrepreneurs that they have in males. It is also difficult for women to balance work and home. Women may not have access to some of the networks that men have. These networks may provide more financial assistance and mentoring. There are also cultural barriers that can prevent women from starting a business and ultimately being successful. In some cultures women are not viewed as equal to men and are not given access to the resources they need for their enterprises.
With the above additional barriers for women entrepreneur is it necessary for every nations to foster female entrepreneurship at their higher educational institutions.
1 Holmquist C (1997), The other side of the coin or another coin? Women entrepreneurship as a complement or an alternative, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 9:
179-182-2 Buttner H (2001), Examining female entrepreneur’s management style: An application of a case of Pakistan.
Journal of Business Venturing 11: 507-529
3 Holmquist C (1997), The other side of the coin or another coin? Women entrepreneurship as a complement or an alternative, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 9:
179-182-3. DISCUSSIONS
The primary source of data used for this study is secondary data taken from previous researches and from internal documents of two universities chosen.
Looking deeply into the curriculum of hundreds of degree training programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels of two higher educational institutions investigated revealed the following facts:
First, both universities set up policy governing students’ entrepreneurial activities and offer firm support in terms of management, infrastructure, financing and mainly advisory boards for various forms of their entrepreneurship activities. As a result, the entrepreneurship education is not only offered and embedded in the curriculum for business major students at both universities but also in the form of optional courses and extra-curriculum activities for non-business major students. Both institutions organize a lot of activities to encourage entrepreneurship at campus such as seminars, workshops, selective training sessions, business plan competition and the like. However, in terms of content, all of the existing entrepreneurship courses emphasizes the theoretical knowledge while the practical application of the subject is seemingly neglected.
Students are equipped with foundation knowledge such as philosophy, theories with minimum exposure to the practical aspects. In addition, skill development and tacit experiences are absent. The application to imagination, creativity and innovation are theoretically explained and hence, it is quite difficult for students to emulate and grasp the experience of being an entrepreneur. All additional entrepreneurial activities such as seminars, workshops, entrepreneurship competition and the like as extra-curricular activities are in fact not informative and motivating enough for students to realize any significant relationship between entrepreneurship knowledge and intent to venture into business.
Another noticeable point taken from an insight into the content of those mentioned courses is that no courses ( both academic and non-academic) are specifically designed for female students or aim to develop self- efficacy among women students regardless the fact that females take a much larger proportion in schools’ population in comparison to men and that characteristics of women are quite distinct from that of men. Moreover, it seems that “entrepreneurship education and trainings conducted are dominated by male role models” 1. Also, a vast majority of guest speakers are males and an overwhelming entrepreneurial success stories feature businessmen rather than women.
In relation to ratio of female and male students, statistics of 2017 intake showed that female students took 68, 59 % in the Vietnamese university and 75 % freshmen of 2018 are women. In the past, for example, figures of year 2005 show the number of males passing entrance exam outnumbered that of females. Similar situation happens in Rangsit University (Thailand) when 60 % freshmen of 2018 are women. Figures of alumni in recent three years at two investigated universities showed quite contradictory results in terms of genders as job-makers. Most of female alumni are in wage employment and the number of women entrepreneurs is less than one forth that of men. Statistics concluded that male alumni were more active in entrepreneurship than women.
In addition, researches have indicated that women in fact possess different entrepreneurial styles and have different potentials in comparison to that of men. Additionally, they “learn differently from men and
1 Olena Bekh, (2014), Training For Women Entrepreneurs: An Imperative For Growth And Jobs, Policy briefing, extracted from https://www.etf.europa.eu/en/publications-and-resources/publications/inform-issue-14-training-women-entrepreneurs-imperative
152 HỘI THẢO KHOA HỌC QUỐC TẾ KHỞI NGHIỆP ĐỔI MỚI SÁNG TẠO QUỐC GIA value the increased level of sharing a relationship-building “1. Therefore, entrepreneurial learning have to target different qualities in men and women so that women’s potentials can be fully explored without having to take males ‘roles. From literature reviews, it seems that one of the reasons why the potential of women has not been fully recognized, resulting in the lack of adequate investment from parties involved is that females themselves are not aware of their own potential or do not know how to apply it to a business activity. All trainings given do not differentiate different qualities in men and women engaged in business activity and offer training in males’ way. Meanwhile, according to the survey conducted by IFC-GEM/
MPDF in Vietnam, women business owners are much more likely to value women-focused programming than training and education programs that are open to all business owners.
4. SUGGESTIONS
It is undeniable that men and women need the same basic business training and support to develop core skills and competences to be successful in entrepreneurial activity. However, in order to increase women’s awareness about entrepreneurship and inspire them to engage into a near future of being job-makers require more than simply offering general courses. It is apparent that the participation of women as entrepreneurs not only can be useful in benefiting their households and national economies but also affect the “entrepreneurial mind set of future generations who may come to consider self-employment as a natural career option following the examples of their mothers” 2. Choice of being an entrepreneur requires risk taking spirit and a vital degree of self-efficacy as well as a mix of knowledge, skills and attitudes base of flexible and adaptable self- realization. However, currently, academic research indicates a lack of all those factors among women. While women now appear to possess more higher education degrees, here is a demand that entrepreneurial education at higher educational institutions have to fully equip them with both foundation knowledge and skills essential for them to become job-creators graduates.
Relating to general entrepreneurship trainings to develop core skills and competences necessary to be successful on entrepreneur activity delivered to both male and females students, because entrepreneurship cover a wide variety of knowledge and skills and it is not only about learning the theories of business, but also demands extensive exposure to personal practical experience3the application of an effective pedagogical method by experienced and competent trainers is the first recommendation. Examination- oriented courses with a lot of theories will not be very effective in nurturing students’ entrepreneurial attitude or positively affect graduates’ tendency to be startups. Instead, a focus on developing qualities like optimism, confidence, risk-taking propensity, self-efficacy and the like is likely to influence more.
Secondly, entrepreneurship knowledge such as business behavior, entrepreneur mind set, and entrepreneur characteristics, planning business plan, management skills and the like should be delivered in close relation to practical activities to enhance students’ tacit knowledge. Allowing opportunities for students to put theories into practice is quite essential in motivating students. By planning their own business startup plan, executing their proposed projects, making cut throat decisions, taking risks and responsibility, students
1 National Survey of Women Business Owners in Vietnam 2015
2 Olena Bekh, (2014), Training For Women Entrepreneurs: An Imperative For Growth And Jobs, Policy briefing, extracted from https://www.etf.europa.eu/en/publications-and-resources/publications/inform-issue-14-training-women-entrepreneurs-imperative
3 Thomas M. Cooney, (2012), Entrepreneurship Skills for Growth-Orientated Businesses, OECD Report for the Workshop on ‘Skills Development for SMEs and Entrepreneurship’, extracted from http://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/
cooney_entrepreneurship_skills_HGF.pdf