Management style and innovation of females in gender-atypical businesses

Abstract

Research on female entrepreneurship has increased in recent years. Female entrepreneurship is understood as an additional opportunity to create jobs and contribute to economic growth. Female entrepreneurs play a plurality of roles in the family and professional environment. The goal of this research is to study the entrepreneurial profile and the management style of females in gender-atypical businesses. This is a contemporary topic but still with few empirical studies, particularly in Portugal when we observe it from the specific regional perspective of less developed regions, such as the interior of Portugal (region of Viseu). This study is based on a qualitative methodology, and presents 12 case studies of female entrepreneurship in SMEs from to a regional perspective. The main results suggest that women voluntarily create their own business and balance their private and professional life well. The managerial profiles seem to reveal no substantial differences between male and female entrepreneurs.