Contextual Embeddedness of Women's Entrepreneurship

Introduction

Female entrepreneurs are the new engines of inclusive and sustainable growth. By 2020, 870 million women will have entered the economic mainstream for the first time, increasing GDP growth rates and productivity by as much as 34 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively, in some countries (World Economic Forum, 2012). Therefore, it is becoming ever more certain that women’s entrepreneurship is and will continue to be a formidable force of socio-economic development (Minniti & Naudé, 2010 ).

Although women make up 48 per cent of all entrepreneurial activity globally, men overwhelmingly outnumber women in high-tech industries (GEM, 2012; World Economic Forum, 2012), which receive the most attention from media and the public sector (Marlow, ...