Female Entrepreneurship in Europe : How do socioeconomic and individual factors influence female entrepreneurial activity in Europe?

Sammanfattning: Background: Despite the societal progress made in recent decades, a gender gap in entrepreneurship persists. In Europe, there are fewer female entrepreneurs than male entrepreneurs. This issue is significant as female entrepreneurship substantially impacts economic development and social well-being. In this paper, we will investigate how different socioeconomic and individual factors affect female total entrepreneurial activity in European countries. Through our research, we aim to provide recommendations to increase the number of female entrepreneurs, remove gender-based barriers, and foster societal progress and economic growth in Europe. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of socioeconomic and individual factors on total entrepreneurial activity for women in European countries. We will specifically analyze the impacts of government support, cultural approval, insufficient access to finance, networking, training & education, and fear of failure on female entrepreneurship. Method: Using publicly available GEM data, we use a panel data study of 31 European countries and seven years, from 2013 to 2019, to investigate how socioeconomic and individual factors influence female total entrepreneurial activity. By utilizing the Hausman test and LM test, we statistically determine that the Random Effects Model (REM) is the most appropriate model to predict our data. Conclusion: The results of the REM show that both Networking and Training & Education have significant positive effects on female total entrepreneurial activity in European countries. We recommend implementing entrepreneurship education in middle or high school curricula to expose students to entrepreneurship experiences and encourage young women to pursue entrepreneurship as a career. Additionally, we recommend tailoring government policies and programs specifically to women to support female entrepreneurial activities.