A systematic review of women's entrepreneurship and internationalization literature

• Author: Alexandra Braga,Vanessa Ratten,Joana Moreira,Carla Susana Marques
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/tie.22045
• Date: 01 July 2019
• Published date: 01 July 2019

RESEARCH ARTICLE

A systematic review of women’s entrepreneurship and

internationalization literature

Joana Moreira

1

| Carla Susana Marques

2

| Alexandra Braga

1

| Vanessa Ratten

3

1

ESTG—School of Technology and

Management, Porto Politecnico, Felgueiras,

Portugal

2

University of Tras os Montes e Alto Douro,

Vila Real, Portugal

3

Department of Entrepreneurship, Innovation

and Marketing, La Trobe University,

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Correspondence

Vanessa Ratten, Department of

Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Marketing,

La Trobe University, Plenty Road, Bundoora,

Melbourne, Vic. 3083, Australia.

Email: v.ratten@latrobe.edu.au

There has been an increased interest in women’s entrepreneurship research due to the changing

sociocultural conditions in the global marketplace. Despite this trend, there is still a lack of

understanding about the role women entrepreneurs play in the internationalization process of

firms. The aim of this article is to systematically review the literature on women’s entrepreneur-

ship and internationalization by examining the trends in the research. A bibliometric analysis is

conducted on articles in the Web of Science databases to understand which researchers are

publishing the most and how they are related to other researchers in the field. In addition, a con-

tent analysis of the articles from the bibliometric analysis is conducted that reveals three main

clusters from the research: (a) epistemological position and gender, (b) cultural and social rea-

sons for the creation of businesses, and (c) motivations, business characteristics, and perfor-

mance. From the bibliometric and content analysis, implications for policy makers and future

research directions for women’s entrepreneurship and internationalization patterns are stated.

KEYWORDS

bibliometric, internationalization, women’s entrepreneurship

1|INTRODUCTION

Despite women owned and managed businesses contributing to the

internationalization of the world economy, there is still a gap in the

literature about the role women entrepreneurs play in the interna-

tionalization process of firms (Bullough, Moore, & Kalafatoglu,

2017). Traditionally, most studies about entrepreneurship have

focusedonmalesandnotdistinguishedgenderdifferences

(DeBruin,Brush,&Welter,2006).Thishasmeanttheoriesand

understanding about entrepreneurship have come from a United

States or European perspective without taking into account socio-

cultural differe nces (Kuschel, Lep eley, Espinosa, & G utierrez, 2017).

Thus, changing the so cietal and economic conditions is imp ortant to

understand the changing nature of research on the role women

entrepreneurs play in the global economy. This is due to countries

that have equal participation of women compared to men in the

workforce are also likely to have the same number of entrepreneur

(Kelley et al., 2016/2017).

Countries have different entrepreneurship ecosystem environ-

ments in terms of culture, economics, financial, institutions, infrastruc-

ture, political, policies, and programs, which influence the ability of

women entrepreneurs to enter the international marketplace

(C. Brush, Edelman, Manolova, & Welter, 2018). In recent Global

Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Global Women’s Report, it was

found only 5 of the 74 economies have equal start-up rates between

males and females (Kelley et al., 2016/2017). This is supported by

Hechavarria and Ingram (2018) who found in a study of nascent entre-

preneurship activity from 14 years of GEM date across 75 countries,

women nascent entrepreneurs are more affected by a greater number

of national entrepreneurship ecosystem components.

Global differences in gender equality can be summarized as

involving the culture or context of a country (Eden & Gupta, 2017).

The inclusion of gender equality in the Sustainable Development

Goals of the United Nations has further fueled interest in women’s

entrepreneurship in the global economy (United Nations, 2015). This

is because women entrepreneurs play an important role in ensuring

gender parity in the international business environment (Kuschel

et al., 2017). While there has been a rise in gender egalitarianism in

the global economy, there are still societal expectations about

women’s work that relate to a country’s stage of economic develop-

ment (Al-Dajani & Marlow, 2010; Hofstede, 1998; Petridou, 2009).

DOI: 10.1002/tie.22045

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