What holds back women, minorities in starting businesses is focus of two studies at Case’s Weatherhead School
Tandem projects seek to understand relationships between race, gender, ethnicity and entrepreneurial activity
October 27, 2004 | For more information: Susan Griffith (216)-368-1004
Do white men have an advantage over women and minorities starting new businesses? Is it discrimination or are other factors hampering the launching of new businesses by these groups? Two researchers in the department of economics at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University received $282,000 from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which promotes entrepreneurial success across the country, for two studies that will examine factors that can enhance or put up barriers to success for people who want to start a new business.
Robert Slonim, Case associate professor of economics, will undertake the “Discrimination in Entrepreneurship” study, while Scott Shane, Case professor of economics, will conduct the “Women and High Technology Entrepreneurship” research project. Both studies will run for the next three years.
“Many observers have remarked that people of different races, genders and ethnicity engaged in entrepreneurial activity at different rates. Why this variation occurs, however, is a question of intense debate,” explained the researchers.
Is it differences in the types of businesses people pursue? Is it discrimination against specific groups? Is it access to resources? The two research projects have set out to fill in the gaps in understanding the relationship between race, gender and ethnicity and entrepreneurial activity.
“Knowing why these differences occur is tremendously important,” explains Shane. “If we find out that women start high tech business at a lower rate than men because they are less likely to major in science and engineering in college, then the government policies that we need to fix the problems are different than if we find out why these differences occur, and we can’t come up with any good policy solutions.”
The studies will look at the following factors:
- Discrimination in Entrepreneurship—Slonim received $139,000 to design and conduct laboratory experiments that look at what financially motivates the decision-making process. The experiments will isolate potential explanations for why discrimination might take place. Students will participate in a pilot study to test the experiment’s methodology, which will be followed by a heterogeneous Internet sample of approximately 45,000 individuals to determine if race, gender, age, employment status or income influences discrimination in entrepreneurship.
- Women and High Technology Entrepreneurship—Shane’s $143,000 study will look at whether women scientists and engineers are less likely than males to start companies and exploit their technological inventions. Information will be gathered by screening approximately 50,000 faculty, staff and student at universities across the country who filed invention disclosures. A subset of individuals who have created inventions will be surveyed for what motivates men and women to exploit their inventions and start businesses.
From the studies, Slonim and Shane hope to understand if and what discrimination takes place in the establishing new businesses for men, women and minorities; formulate policy steps and educational tools that might mitigate the situation; and conduct seminars to connect scholars with policy makers and practitioners to inform and educate the general public and business leaders about their findings to mitigate circumstances that might be occurring and blocking women and minorities from starting new businesses.
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