Building gender-aware ecosystems for growth: Women’s entrepreneurial learning and leadership development.

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Hughes, Karen D.
  • Yang, Te

• Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine processes of entrepreneurial learning and leadership development (ELLD) for women involved in growth-oriented businesses. It considers how ELLD can be supported by building gender-aware ecosystems for growth.

  Design/methodology/approach – Data are from a small-scale study of a growth accelerator program in Canada run by Alberta Women Entrepreneurs. The study uses a mixed-methods approach, drawing on interview, document, and observational data.

  Findings – The study finds that three key activities— formal learning, informal learning, and peer / community support—are central to women entrepreneurs’ learning and leadership development. In line with emerging scholarship, entrepreneurial learning is found to be strongly relational, with social capital play a central role in the formation of human capital.

  Originality/value – This study contributes to our understanding of the micro-foundations of growth, the processes involved in ELLD and the importance of developing gender-aware ecosystems.

• Date created

  2019-12-01

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Women
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Growth
  • Entrepreneurial learning
  • Entrepreneurial Leadership

• Type of Item

  Article (Draft / Submitted)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-fns6-xg72

• License

  Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International