Entrepreneurship, my bachelor project is to analyze the situation of the ethnic female entrepreneurs in Denmark, based on the following questions: - Theoretical demonstration of entrepreneurship in historical context - Analysis of the

The example of famous economist during this era would be Alfred Marshall (1842-1924) which pointed that entrepreneur has the characteristics of taking all responsibility and gain full control, coordinate supply and demand on the market as well as capital and labour within the firm, undertake risks, act as a manager as well as employer, opportunity seeker in order to minimize costs. Furthermore, from the same author Marshall stated that a successful entrepreneur will need  general ability which are being able to do multitask in one time, have everything ready in time, act promptly and show resource when something goes wrong, flexible to changes, steady and trustworthy;  specialized abilities which are knowledge of trade, ability to forecast, taking risks and spot opportunities in the market;  act as a nature leader of men while performing as an employer; and lastly a good fortune and capital. Even though Marshall pointed out a list of entrepreneur’s characteristics, however in neoclassical era, a definition of entrepreneurship was not explained. Khalil agreed that neoclassical theory did not provide explanation on entrepreneurship due to a misleading dichotomy that supports the theory between everyday action and entrepreneurial action.

Schumpeterian

Even though Schumpeterian is classified in neoclassical era, however Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) describes entrepreneurship as promoting a change in existing situation. Schumpeter set a theory that the key feature of entrepreneurship is innovation for market place, which would lead to creation of new demand, destroy the existing market then create a new equilibrium in the market. The Schumpeterian entrepreneurship brings about technology break-through which leads to ‘creative destruction’. Schumpeter mentioned that innovation can be found in several forms such as introduction of a new or improvement in quality of the product, introduction of new method in production, opening a new market, capturing a new source of raw materials supply, and accomplish a new organization in any industry .In today situation, innovation can be related to Research and Development which could bring fresh ideas for the market. Furthermore, it is stated that entrepreneurship could contribute to the reduction of unemployment problem, important for economic growth, job creation and renewal (Acs 1999). It is proven by Minniti & Bygrave, that the United States has achieved the highest economic performance during last ten years by fostering and promoting entrepreneurial activities.

The characteristics of entrepreneur, according to Schumpeter is a person that has desire to find a private kingdom, willing to conquer and has the joy of creation, or it can be translated as having desire for power and independence, willing to succeed and satisfaction of getting things done. Furthermore, it is also stated that entrepreneurs are not money or profit driven but valued profit as the indicator for success business and act as a leader in a firm.  

In summary, Schumpeterian entrepreneur is a leader and innovator which could bring changes to the market.

Knightian

Similar to Schumpeterian, Knightian is also clustered in neoclassical group. Frank Knight’s (1885-1972) perception towards entrepreneurship is basically the continuation of Cantillon’s idea, however it focusing on assuming responsibilities in an uncertain environment. Knight describes uncertainty as a probability where there is no valid basis at all for classifying instances because on concerning the outcome of a unique event. Entrepreneurs in Knightian, is described as a person who bears the uncertainty in order to make a profit in business, has judgmental ability towards any condition, decision maker and take full responsibility of it, able to guarantee the estimate values to other parties within the firm . Furthermore, the same author stated that in order to deal with uncertainty, an entrepreneur has to have a high degree of self-confidence, power to judge people’s qualities, a character to act on own opinion, and fore approach.

In Knight’s opinion, business profit, the prestige of entrepreneurship and satisfaction of being one’s own boss is the reward for the entrepreneur. Therefore it can be sum up that entrepreneurship is about willingness to take risk, bear with uncertainty condition of the market and the concept of profit as the reward for entrepreneurial activity.

The neo-Austrian approach

The neo-Austrian has different concept with neoclassical in which it concerned on how the market achieve the equilibrium condition. In neo-Austrian context it is assumed that only certain people could recognized entrepreneurial opportunity, information about opportunities could determine someone to become an entrepreneur, the process of entrepreneurship depends on factors other than ability and willingness in taking action. Israel Kirzner defined entrepreneurship as a term of alertness or ‘costless discovery’ which could bring new knowledge. Kirzner mentioned that entrepreneur has to be alert in order to identify and deal with profit making opportunities, in which entrepreneur tries to discover profit opportunities and help to restore equilibrium in the market; coordinate information by identifying the gap between supply and demand; act as a broker between supply and demand; and able to achieve the possibility in earning money from the difference of supply and demand. Furthermore, entrepreneurs are people in the economy with the ability to discover and exploit profit opportunities.

The term of profit opportunities include buying at one place and selling at the other place, buying in one period and selling in another period, buying inputs and selling modified inputs. In other words, profit opportunities can be found when entrepreneur able to buy products and sell in different place from where the products are gotten, different timeline, or modify the products in order to add value and able to be sold in higher price. Therefore, it can be concluded that entrepreneurship according to Kirzner is the process of discovering something unique for the market and able to exploit the profit opportunity.

The entrepreneur is widely regarded as an integral player in the business culture of American life, and particularly as an engine for job creation and economic growth.  published The Entrepreneurs: Explorations within the American Business Tradition in 1974.  and  have produced an edited volume surveying Entrepreneurship as an academic field of research, and more than a hundred scholars around the world track entrepreneurial activity, policy and social influences as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and its associated reports.

The macro view of entrepreneurship

It is a view which presents a broad selection of factors relating to success or failure in existing entrepreneurial businesses in the external locus of control. It also includes external processes that are beyond the control of the individual entrepreneur and can be broken down into three subcategories:

The Environmental School of Thought

This school deals with external factors that affect the lifestyle of a potential entrepreneur. These could be positive or negative forces in the modeling of entrepreneurial desires.  The school focuses on institutions, values and influence of the society that put together, form socio-political environmental framework that affects the development of an entrepreneur.  For example strong support from family and friends may influence the desire to become an entrepreneur. In the case of Richard Branson this would refer to the major influence of his mother.

The Financial/ Capital School of Thought 

The foundations of this school are based on the capital-seeking process. The search for start-up and growth capital is the complete focus because securing venture capital is vital to an entrepreneur’s development. In this case, the entire entrepreneurial venture is viewed from a financial management viewpoint and decisions involving finance occur at every major point.

The Displacement School of Thought 

This thought process concentrates on the negative side of the existence of group, where someone can feel out of place or be displaced from the group. It argues that a group can slow a person’s development, either bringing it to a halt or removing specific factors vital to the individual for them to advance. As a result the frustrated individual is motivated to succeed which can be projected into an entrepreneurial pursuit. There are three major types of displacement that demonstrate this school of thought:

-Political displacement: Government regulations and policies that can limit/ redirect certain industries or reject free enterprise.

-Cultural displacement: Social groups excluded from professional fields e.g. Ethnic background, sex race, religion.

-Economic Displacement: Job loss, capital shrinkage and anything affected by economic variations of recession and depression.

The micro view of entrepreneurship

It examines the factors that are specific to entrepreneurship and are part of internal locus of control. The potential entrepreneur has the ability to direct or adjust the outcome of each major influence.

The Entrepreneurial Trait School of Thought

This approach focuses on researches about successful entrepreneurs and recognizing similar traits and characteristic that if copied could increase success opportunities for the emulators. They believe that certain attributes are usually exhibited by entrepreneurs’. They influences of family and education is also examined. Some researchers argue that educational involvement challenges entrepreneurial nature and kills creativity. The family development is considered very important in the creation of entrepreneur; certain traits established and supported early in life will lead eventually to entrepreneurial success.

The Venture Opportunity School of Thought

Opportunity aspect of venture development is the main focus in this school of thought and the interest areas are the search for idea sources, the development of concepts, and the importance of venture opportunities. Developing the right idea at the right time for the right market niche is extremely important for the entrepreneurial success and creativity and market awareness are viewed as essential.

The Strategic Formulation School of Thought 

This approach emphasizes the planning process in successful venture development. The effective venture formations are constructed by unique markets, unique people, unique products, or unique resources. Each of these unique aspects has its own strategy.

Those Schools of Thought are foundations to entrepreneurial theory. And we need those theories to understand the field of entrepreneurship in its growth and development.

Culture of entrepreneurship

The influence of national culture on entrepreneurship is of considerable theoretical and practical value ‘Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes one group of people from another’ Hofstede (1980) Culture is always a collective phenomenon, because it is derived from one’s social environment and partly shared with people who live or lived within the same social environment, which is where it is learned.

Culture indeed does have an impact on entrepreneurial activity and some cultures encourage entrepreneurship while some other cultures hinder entrepreneurship, though it is argued that there are other factors to be considered like a favorable environment which combines social, political and educational attributes which promote entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship is ingrained in the fabric of North American culture; it is taught in school from kindergarten and has been integrated into college and university curricula. It is promoted through personal success human interest stories in the media and through various outreach and training programme and as a career, entrepreneurship is espoused early and reinforced regularly through out ones life.  

Individualism vs. collectivism 

This is the degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than groups. Individualistic societies are loosely knit social frameworks in which people primarily operate as individuals or in immediate families; here, the task prevails over relationships. Collectivist societies are composed of tight networks in which people operate as members of in-groups and out group, expecting to look after and be looked after by other members of their in group.

Power distance

This is the degree of inequality among people that the community is willing to accept. High power distance cultures endorse hierarchies, relations are formal, information flows are formalized and restricted, and organizations tend to be rigid and hierarchical. Low power distance countries endorse egalitarianism, relations are open and informal, information flows are functional and unrestricted and organizations tend to have flat structures.

Uncertainty avoidance

This is the degree to which people prefer to avoid ambiguity, resolve uncertainty and prefer structured rather than unstructured situations. Low uncertainty avoidance cultures tolerate greater ambiguity, prefer flexibility, stress personal choice and decision making, reward initiative, risk taking and team play and stress the development of analytical skills. High uncertainty avoidance cultures prefer rules and procedures, stress compliance, loyalty and attention to detail.

Masculinity vs. femininity

Masculine virtues are those of assertiveness, competition and success. Masculine cultures reward financial and material achievement with social prestige and status. Feminine virtues are those such as modesty, compromise and cooperation. In feminine cultures, issues such as quality of life, warmth in personal relationships, service and so on are important.

Hofstede’s theory has been extensively validated, although the point needs to be made that cultures change and specific country examples which Hofstede has used in the past may not be valid today. His frame work has been used by other researchers to determine the suitability of certain management techniques for various countries and to make comparisons between countries to understand cultural differences in various areas of management.

Other writers have extended his work by looking at different groups of workers and different countries. Michael Bond took Hofstede’s work into Hong Kong and Taiwan by using a Chinese values module devised by Chinese social scientists to test whether Hofstede’s work was conditioned by his western outlook and methods, and the cultural dimensions were confirmed, except that of uncertainty avoidance. Bond’s work led to the discovery of a fifth dimension, long-term/short term orientation, which measures th e extent to which a country takes a long or short term view of life.

Different types of entrepreneurs

According to Richard L. Draft we can differentiate 5 types of entrepreneurs.

Idealist entrepreneurs

They are the most common type of entrepreneur shown above. They like innovation and enjoy working on something new or creative or something personally meaningful.

Optimizer entrepreneurs

The optimizer entrepreneur comes in a close second and is content with the personal satisfaction of simply being a business owner. I think everyone would have some sort of satisfaction being a business owner.

Hard worker entrepreneurs

This category includes persons who enjoy putting in long hours to build a larger more profitable business. They like the challenge it presents and of course reap the most rewards if the business turns out to be a multi-million dollar enterprise. Hard work comes with all businesses but as we now see not everyone works hard for the business to grow as this group of entrepreneurs does.

Juggler entrepreneurs

The juggler entrepreneur likes the concept that the business gives them a chance to handle everything themselves. They are usually people with lots of energy and exist on the pressure of meeting deadlines, paying bills and of course making payroll. “Nonminority females are the largest group in this category.” 

Sustainer entrepreneurs

This category consists of people who like the thought of balancing work and a personal life. Most often they do not wish the business to grow too large where it will cut into their personal life too much. They would like to survive.

The situation of entrepreneurs in the European Union

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is a research program executed annually with the aim to obtain internationally comparative high quality research data on entrepreneurial activity at the national level. Over the years, GEM has expanded from 10 countries in 1999 to 43 countries in 2008.

In this report, I focus specifically on entrepreneurial attitudes, activity and aspirations in the European Union and Denmark. In order to measure early stage entrepreneurial activity in a country, GEM developed the Total early stage Entrepreneurial Activity rate. This rate includes both the prevalence of nascent entrepreneurs and that of owner-managers of young or new businesses.

The GEM data collection covers the complete life cycle of the entrepreneurial process. This cycle starts with personal assessments of attitudes and perceptions towards entrepreneurship. The life cycle continues with individuals who have the intention to start a business within the next three years (pre-nascent or prospective entrepreneurs). Next, the cycle refers to individuals at the point when they commit resources to start a business they expect to own themselves (nascent entrepreneurs), when they currently own and manage a new business that has paid salaries for more than three months but not more than 42 months (new business owners), and when they own and manage an established business that has been in operation for more than 42 months (established business owners). The aggregate of nascent entrepreneurship and young/new business entrepreneurship forms the TEA.

The figure below shows the revised GEM model. The basic requirements for the factor-driven economies are the development of institutions, infrastructure, health and primary education. The basic requirements help to keep alive necessity-based entrepreneurship. Efficiency enhancers are proper functions of the market. These conditions are not related in the Schumpeterian entrepreneurship, but they are indirectly related, because the enlargement of the market causes more entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurs in the European Union

We can categorize the counties by the 1. Different stages of economic development, which are the ability of nation´s priorities for development change. These stages are:

-  Factor-driven economy: growth is primarily determined by primary production factors (land, unskilled labour). The economy has a low degree of integration into the world economy. This can see in countries such as Angola, Bolivia, and Columbia.

- Efficiency - driven economy: this relies heavily on the importation of global technology for local production processes. Funding of the capital imports increases the dependency on foreign capital. At this development stage, the economy becomes increasingly integrated into the global economy. The development of local financial markets for rising of debt and equity is important, as is the reduction of bureaucratic hurdles to development and the increase in labour market flexibility. It can see in countries such as Brasilia, Russia and Hungary.

- Innovation – driven economy: the economy’s focus is on continued technology generation rather than predominant reliance on foreign technology. High rates of innovation and commercialization of new technologies characterize this stage. Human resources and flexible organizations that can rapidly respond to a continually changing global environment are the key to continued innovation and maintenance of a position on the technology frontier. The innovation-driven stage requires flexible organizational structures, strong research institutions and a high degree of venture capital availability. The following countries economies are matching this stage: Germany, United Kingdom and Denmark.

2. Opportunities for starting a business

As Figure 2 (Appendix) shows the highest percentage of the people between ages 18-64 who see good opportunities to start a business in the next 6 months .The amount of people in efficiency-driven countries that see good opportunities for start a business in the area where they live has matched the share in innovation-driven countries. However, most countries show a decline in perceived opportunities from 2007- 2008. Countries showing the variant declines in the rate of perceived opportunities are Ireland, Latvia and Hungary.

3. Geographical precedent

Countries with low levels of per capita income, a decrease in prevalence rates of entrepreneurial activity could be good sign. For increases in income are experienced, the entrepreneurial sector may increase, as more individuals would like to set up a business for themselves, because the economy gives opportunity for them. There is no reason to expect that the upward slope will be as steep as the downward slope. The dispersion of TEA country estimates around the line of best fit in Figure 3 shows, entrepreneurship rates are not just a function of variant in economic development but also of other factors.

Entrepreneurship is also a socio-economic symptom. The rapidly expanding entrepreneurship studies indicate that entrepreneurial activity rates may differ across countries for cultural, institutional, economic, and demographic reasons. For instance, motivations, regulations, and rules for starting a business can be different across the world. Geographical precedent can also be witnessed in Figure 3, which shows that countries with similar geographic backgrounds and traditions tend to cluster together.

The EU countries are situated close together. Japan’s rate of early-stage entrepreneurial activity has been increasing in recent years and is now very similar to the EU-average.

Figure 3

4. Entrepreneurs in a view of age and gender

People between ages 25-34 has the highest prevalence rate for every phase of economic development. Thereafter the prevalence rates decrease as age increases. Figure 4 shows the differences in female and male entrepreneurs for each country in 2008 according to GEM. The ratio of female to male participation differs in each period, reflecting different culture and customs. In many efficiency - driven countries; eastern European countries male TEA rates are higher than female TEA rates. In innovation-driven countries, the amounts of men entrepreneurs are double then the women entrepreneurs.

Figure 4

5.  Entrepreneruship education

All of the factor-driven countries men were more efficient when it came to entrepreneurship training then women. If we look at the efficiency-driven countries, the difference between men and women according to receiving entrepreneur training were not significant. 73% of the innovation-driven countries had significantly higher levels of workshops amidst men than women. The reason for the above mentioned differences by countries can be because of the differences in attending school and being on the labor market among men and women. Furthermore men and women have different entrepreneurial attitude and motivation.

Figure 5 (appendix) shows the percentage of individuals who participated in training in starting a business after primary or secondary school.  V: training was voluntary, C: training was compulsory. It shows that entrepreneurs choose the voluntary training.

Entrepreneurs get only 3% of the knowledge from such as government agencies, business organizations. Compulsory training was reported by more than 1% of individuals. Nevertheless, at least 5% of individuals in Finland, and Slovenia participated in compulsory training as part of their post-school education. Slovenia and Croatia have relatively high rates while Hungary, Romania, and Serbia have relatively low rates. 

The situation of women entrepreneurs in some seeded European Union countries (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia and Hungary)

At present, on average, women make up 30% of the entrepreneurs in the EU. I am going to take a look at how women act across Europe in the business world. Women are increasingly represented in the labour market over the past generation. In senior management positions men are still dominating. The Europe's Small Business Act - SBA calls for mentoring schemes to inspire women to launch their own start-ups and establish a network of female entrepreneur 'ambassadors'.

Germany 

In Germany 47% of all workers and employees are female, only 33% are in higher positions. In top positions and the level of senior decision-makers, just 21% are female. There is a broad spectrum of gender ratios from industry to industry, ranging from 53% in the services sector and 39% percent in public administration to 14% in the construction industry. In Germany's 600 most important companies, there are only 42 women out of 1,721 board members, which is a proportion of 2.4% and this small figure has been declining since 2005. The share of female entrepreneurs setting up businesses is increasing slowly, but women still account for no more than 29% of all German start-ups. There are about 520,000 companies managed by female entrepreneurs, which is 18% of all German companies. Another interesting ratio is the number of daughters taking over family businesses: just 10%. 

France  

Despite a strong performance as entrepreneurs, women still earn less than men in France. On average, female workers earn 17.9% less than their male counterparts.  The board of directors of the 40 biggest companies includes just 8.8% of women. Less than one third – 29% – of businesses are created by women. Women usually hold higher-level degrees but they are less experienced than male entrepreneurs and they invest less money. The French state implemented a funding system exclusively for women in 1989 after realizing that banks were more reluctant to lend them funds to start their own business. An "equality label" was created in 2004 for businesses which respect certain norms in gender diversity. A study carried out by the government agency responsible for the creation of businesses showed that women led 31% of the SMEs included in the sample. These SMEs led by women are smaller and mainly operate in the specialized services sector.

United Kingdom  

In 2008, fewer women lost their jobs compared to their male counterparts. A high proportion of business ownership in the UK, around 90%, is made up of the self-employed. The number of women who are self-employed has grown in recent years, but munch of the growth is in women working part-time and among those focusing on more flexible working patterns to fit into domestic commitments. The southern regions of the UK have higher self-employment rates than the northern areas, but this disparity is lower if only those working full-time in self-employment are considered. 

Czech Republic 

Female entrepreneurs account for 9.6% of total female employment – which includes employees, employers and the self-employed. Most female entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic focus on providing services in areas like cosmetics, hairdressing, massage and cleaning, etc., says the Office."In most cases women prefer to be employed. There may also be social reasons, such as men discouraging women building their own careers. The policy is poorly designed and offers few tools to support women who want to combine family and business life. 

Italy  

In Italy, just 167 out of 2,831 seats on company boards are occupied by women. This means women occupy only 4% of leading positions in business. Women leading SMEs and micro enterprises fared better than their male. Across Italy, 25.5% of businesses are owned by women. Compared to 2007, the small army of women managers has performed relatively better than their male colleagues, particularly in business services such as information technology, professional services and advice. The number of women in boardrooms has increased in the hotel and restaurant sector as well as in health, construction, agriculture, transport and communication fields. 

Slovakia  

In 2008, women made up around one in four of all enterprises in the Slovak Republic. They are concentrated in the services sector, and are very rare in the industrial sector.  Organizations defending the interests of Slovak women running their own businesses expect more to be done to promote female entrepreneurship. Their main argument is that women have a great responsibility in running a household and raising their children.  One of the initiatives for promoting female entrepreneurship and motivating Slovak women to start to run their own business is the 'Best Female Entrepreneur of the Year' award organized by the National Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (NADSME).

Hungary  

In Hungary, 15.17% of men are entrepreneurs and 8.33% are women. Women are twice as willing to start individual entrepreneurial activity as men, but when it comes to heading up limited companies, men dominate the top positions. Of the businesses led by women, 93% are micro enterprises and 28% do not have any employees. Female entrepreneurs are supported by the economy and transport ministry. Several organizations, including the Centre for Young Entrepreneurs in Budapest, use this resource to fund projects. The latter organisation provides training for 200 people in groups of 25. In addition, the social affairs ministry has several programs for enhancing the participation of women in public and economic life. Hungary does not participate in the 'Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors' initiative led by the Swedish EU Presidency. 

The situation of women entrepreneurs in Denmark

In Denmark around 30% of the entrepreneurs are women. Danish women have a very high employment rate. This is, among other reasons, due to a highly developed day care system and a general cultural acceptance of having children taken care of by others. Being self-employed is therefore an opportunity for women in Denmark can choose. And especially at times with very low unemployment rate, the decision is a free choice – rather than a necessity.

Figure 6

As Figure 7 (appendix) shows, women are more likely to start a business. In the 2007 14.75% of the business owners were women; meanwhile this number for men was only 8%. The GEM separates those individuals who start a business: opportunity entrepreneurs and necessity entrepreneurs. In Denmark almost 80% of the women are opportunity entrepreneurs, and only 10% are necessity entrepreneurs (pushed to start a business because all other options for work are either absent or unsatisfactory).

Figure 8 shows the ratio of opportunity to necessity for women. The higher the ratio, the more women are motivated by a recognized opportunity. Denmark exhibits the highest relative rates of opportunity motivation for women entrepreneurship, with opportunity to necessity motivation ratios of 17.69.

Figure 9

In early stage entrepreneurship women between the ages 25-34 are more willing to start a business. This could be, because the most women have their first child between these ages, and self-employment is a good choice for having a flexible job. If we look at the established business ownerships, then women among 45- 64 years are dominating.

The reasons why there are only a few entrepreneurs in Denmark can be:

• Denmark is dominated economically, bureaucratically and mentally as a salary earner culture
• Denmark has not yet seen the potential of having entrepreneurs
• Women need more support to start their own business.

The Danish Government has given a lot of attention to promoting entrepreneurship. It has implemented different initiatives. The initiatives are focused on improving entrepreneurial conditions in Denmark in general. The Danish entrepreneurial policy does not target specific groups. This means Denmark does not have any public schemes for promoting or supporting women entrepreneurs on a national level. 

Although, at the local level quite a number of projects directed at women were supported by the European Social Fond in the last program period (2000-2006). The experiences gathered from these projects are collected and will be used for the purpose of future initiatives and programs. In the current program period (2007-2011) there is also a priority on projects with a strong focus on equal opportunities.

Ethnic women entrepreneurs

Ethnic female entrepreneurs can be identified as having untapped job-creating potential; while they reflect different cultures and open-ended capacities for creating economic growth in cities, they are also special in urban economic life because of their growing numbers and their contributions to economic diversity. A number of business opportunities exist for women today. Being an entrepreneur is an attractive choice for people who want to experience the joys, challenges, and flexibility of self-employment. Many women who decide to work for themselves choose to go it alone. According to a study called "Women Entrepreneurs: Leading the Charge" released by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce shows that the number of female entrepreneurs is coming closer to the male entrepreneurs year by year.

As the picture shows most of the women entrepreneurs do not have employees.

The same study predicts that by the year 2010, more than one million women in Canada will be self-employed. The number of businesses owned by women is increasing by more than three percent per year in that country. This figure represents a 60 percent faster rate of growth than for new businesses owned by men. Women over the age of 55 are starting businesses in greater numbers than ever before. The number of businesses owned by entrepreneurs is growing at a very healthy four percent per year, which is double the rate for men in the same age group.

Men vs. Women entrepreneurs

As statistic shows men and women handle money differently. As the picture shows men are willing to save money during the work period, but when it comes to older age, women are better to save money.

How is this in the entrepreneurship filed?

These last few years we have also seen quite radical changes in the traditional sex roles, which help to blur the distinction between the values of men and women. The same applies to the field of education, the choice of occupation, and the sharing of domestic chores. It is still a fact that women more often than men choose upper secondary school, the humanities, and welfare and service courses. In several educational fields, however, developments have taken place indicating a more balanced distribution by sex among the students. There is a trend towards more and more women choosing higher education: they choose a broader range of subjects than before, and in a number of subjects are better educated than men. In addition, women now dominate in number at some of the university courses previously dominated by men. Women’s choice of education allows them to choose a job in more trades and lines of business than before. It also enables them to establish an enterprise in fields that traditionally have been male territory. Thus women have better opportunities in the future to make their mark as independent in a broader spectrum of lines of business.

In the traditional division of labour by gender, the man is perceived as the provider and the woman as the one who primarily cares for the family. This division of the roles still exists. As a general rule women still assume the principal responsibility for family and children. Almost exclusively women take parental leave and childcare leave. For women this creates conflicts and problems in making their work life and family life hang together. They cannot achieve the holistic life to which they give such a high priority. When men make increasing use of flextime and to take parental leave and increasingly to take parental leave and childcare leave, the firms and culture will slowly begin to change. As a result, men’s values will shift in the direction of the holistic values so highly esteemed by the women.

Fifty-nine percent of women entrepreneurs cite the lack of an alternative avenue for professional realization as a major reason to start their businesses. In comparison, the main motive to start a business identified by men is economic independence. The level of participation in the country's total entrepreneurial activity, the motivations to engage in entrepreneurship and the sector distribution of women-led entrepreneurial ventures in the world are broadly comparable to the women-led entrepreneurial initiatives in transitional economies and to the women-led entrepreneurial initiatives worldwide, as reported by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.

“Women have larger social networks for advice and resources. But men, surprisingly, have larger "emotional" networks - the complex of associations that provide warmth, praise, and encouragement. And men apparently profit more from these emotional attachments than women do.”

This is very surprising, but Bat Batjargal a lecturer at Harvard University made a survey and came out with the result the men are more emotional then women when it comes to business time. Both men and women have the background education, and they are smart, but they are networking differently. Batjargal study shows that most of the women network for the sake of relationship, besides men network for utility. As we all know, we need networking to have a good business. Women as men as well are smart and well-educated to be successful entrepreneurs. There is only a tiny difference between them, that’s why I can say as a conclusion that women need to learn how to build network.

Reasons for more women entrepreneurs in the markets

The reasons why women decide to go into business for themselves vary.

Good reasons could be for women to become entrepreneurs are:

Flexibility

Often women find that working in a traditional 8 hours office environment doesn't give them the level of flexibility they would like. Not all employers are open to flexible working hours or a telecommuting arrangement. Many women need flexibility because they are caring for children as well as aging parents.

Freedom

When you own your own business, you have the freedom to make decisions about the type and amount of work you do. Working for someone else often means that your earnings are set according to a salary range established for that position. Putting in extra effort doesn't necessarily mean that you will see a reward in the form of greater earnings.

Sense of Accomplishment

When anyone takes something from the idea stage and makes it a reality, there is a tremendous sense of accomplishment and pride that goes along with it. The entrepreneur can't help but have a heightened sense of self-esteem because they faced obstacles to get the business off the ground and were able to overcome them.

 Financial Necessity

People who have recently been laid off or are concerned about being laid off may consider starting a business to generate income so that they are not dependent on only one source of income. They may choose to operate a business on a part-time basis, even if they are able to find employment elsewhere.

In Part I. I wrote about the types of entrepreneurs. It showed that most of the women are falling under the category so called juggler entrepreneurs. The reasons mentioned above are matching the category jugglers. Women would like to be independent. Freedom, flexibility also working alone gives them the opportunity to be independent.

Types of Business Opportunities for Women

Women own and operate many kinds of businesses, many of which are not related to work traditionally performed by them.

Here are some examples:

Home Based Businesses

Many women entrepreneurs start by working a business from their home. They may be offering a product or a service for sale. Popular choices for these types of business opportunities for women include virtual assistant, child care, and consulting services.

Home Parties

Businesses that sell products through home parties are another choice that a number of women find appealing. They can work when it's convenient and still have time for their families. The company has a business plan for them to follow, including sales presentations and set pricing.

Franchises

Franchise opportunities are available at various levels of investment. Buying one means that you are given a recognizable brand to promote, as well as support to get the business off the ground.

Professional Occupations

Women are better educated than ever before and are using their knowledge and skills to establish themselves in the professions. Owning and operating their own medical, dental, or legal practice is another example of one of the many available business opportunities for women. Women-owned businesses have certain advantages one of the biggest being that corporate and government diversity programs can help them land big contracts.

What can the government do?

Motivation

Motivation moves an individual into action and urges one to work with sincerity and loyalty. Therefore motive is a reason for the expression of a particular ability. Motive is an idea-emotion which prompts an individual to take a certain course of action; motive influences the behavior of an individual.

1.  Motivation can be positive or negative:

 - Positive motivation adds to an individual existing set of satisfaction

 - A better and more responsible job higher wages etc

 - A negative influences the behavior of an individual through a threatened loss fear of losing one’s present job reduced wages.

2.  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs of motivation

Motivation is an internal urge to do something. A person acts because he wants to fulfill his needs. All the acts of a person are based on his desire to fulfill the needs.

The physiological, social and other needs motivates the customers Abraham Maslow has presented the hierarchy of human needs to explain the behavior of the individual want is recognized needs and leads the buyer to act and satisfy it. Unsatisfied needs result in action Maslow, in his why the five level hierarchies explained that if lower level needs are satisfied the customer aspires for the satisfaction of higher level needs.

Funds, courses

In several countries in the European Union offer entrepreneurship courses. These courses are useful both for the state and the entrepreneurs. In the growing economy the state needs more entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurs need information and knowledge about start-ups, taxes, rules, etc.

Now days, it is really hard to get a bank loan. Most of the entrepreneurs- wannabe´s are not able to start their own business in the lack of money.

In the lack of governmental subsidy, advocacy and support it is difficult to get a new business going.

Empirical study - interviews

I made interviews with 5 women entrepreneurs – 2 clothes shop owners, one designer, one hairdresser and one book-writer - with ethnic background in Denmark.

The main questions were:

• What is your background and why you choose to start your own business? 
• How did you turn your dream into a business?
• What was the biggest barrier to getting the company off the ground? 
• Did you find it easy to access funds? 
• What could governments do to make it easier for entrepreneurs? 
• How have you balanced family life with the demands of life as an entrepreneur? 
• When you were growing up did you view entrepreneurship as a likely career option? 
• Is there anything that can be done to encourage entrepreneurship among women? 
• Finally, please rank the 5 most important problems for you as business women in Denmark.

Background, reason for being entrepreneur

3 out of the 5 women are holding a diploma from a university, and the other two are high-school graduated. Both of them had a salary job (part-time and fulltime) before they became self-employed. 3 of them got the motivation from the family, husband or some relatives are working or worked as an entrepreneur and 2 of them, because they would like to do something challenging. The main reason for both of them for becoming entrepreneurs was family and mostly their children. They would like to have a flexible job, which fits to their daily routine, so they can drive the kids to school and pick them up in the afternoons and to have more time with the family. Women mentioned money in the 2nd or 3rd rank.

Turning a dream into a business

2 of them are selling clothes, and basically it was not a dream for them, becoming entrepreneurs was a dream, and they thought this is the easiest way. It is a little boring to open a clothes shop, but the unique of these shops that these women stacked to their traditions, so they are selling traditional clothes. They had help from their families, as I mentioned below some of their relatives are entrepreneurs as well.  

One woman´s biggest dream was to designing clothes and of course selling them. She turned her sketches and drawings into smart and comfortable but designed clothes for women. She had a little knowledge from her home country about starting up a business, but she used the internet and her Danish husband to get familiar with the rules in Denmark according to entrepreneurship.

The woman, who owns a hair salon, had the biggest struggle. When she came to Denmark, she only knew, she would like to open her own hair salon. She had no friends in Denmark at that time, so she tried to contact the authorities one by one. She said, she still has problems with book-keeping, rules, and taxes, because she is still learning Danish, but she runes her salon.

The book-writer´s biggest problem was Danish; near little kids it was almost impossible for her to learn Danish. She searched the internet to get information in English. She attended to several entrepreneurial workshops in English.

Barriers

They think the biggest barrier for any new business is funding, unless you have lots of money.  It would have been great to have money to spend on huge brand awareness campaign, but they can not afford it.

For lack of money, they used their networks to collect more customers. Some of them made an own homepage, and advertised their business through networking sites.

Funds

Nothing is easy but hard work and determination does get them there in the end. They are very lucky to have hugely supportive families, and have also taken advantage of all the funding. 

They also take loans from the bank, and searched for found on offer from government.

Governmental help

The Danish government already does a lot – Væksthus, Københavns Erhvervscenter– they offer advice and support. Now there are several centers where newly entrepreneurs can get help, so the women I asked, they recommend to the new self-employees to go to one of them. It is really good to know the basics from a governmental office. They struggled a lot with taxes and laws, and they will highly recommend for business centers to focus more on these subjects.

At the moment, the obvious thing the government can do to support new entrepreneurs is make it easier to access funding from the banks. It is very difficult right now for anyone to get credit, which makes it doubly hard for a start a business.

Balance between work and family

Anyone who has attempted it knows how difficult it is. They knew there would be times or when they would be unavailable. Obviously, they have their individual strengths and weaknesses, but try to create a good plan which fits both job and family.

Keeping the balance between family life and running a business is only possible if you are realistic about your own abilities, and you have to be very organized and able to prioritize efficiently and effectively. But now that we do all this, we are able to put our children first and always believed that a lifestyle business can be every bit as successful.

Female Entrepreneurs

These successful entrepreneurs I have met said that they would have ended up doing their own thing eventually. 

They are opposed to the idea that women are less entrepreneurial than men – but perhaps they are more encouraged to act in different circumstances. As we all know there is a huge number of highly qualified professional women who gave up high flying careers, in order to have children. Most part-time roles are not aimed at senior management level – but that is where these women's skills lie. And so many women get frustrated – and decide to go it alone. And many of them are very successful, because they have the skills, knowledge and ability to make a business work. So government should focus more on female entrepreneurs and invest into them.

Encourage female entrepreneurs

Having the opportunity to meet and speak to entrepreneurs who have been successful is very inspirational to people. 

As they said, it could be a good idea to visit schools and hold a little speech about entrepreneurship. There are too many young people who don't achieve their full potential, simply because they were never told about all avenues open to their particular set of talents. 

Confidence is something that is needed for any entrepreneur, and the only reason I can see why women need more encouragement than men is because generally there is less confidence in females than males at school leaving age. 

Important services

From their answer, I made a ranking. Tax problems stay in the first place. They find it really hard to get in contact with the tax office, and also have difficulties with book-keeping.  In the second place comes the language. Hard to communicate in Danish and also hard to find answers in English, and we can not talk about their mother tong languages. In the third place come entrepreneurship courses. Even though, most of them are entrepreneurs, they would like to know more about entrepreneurship, municipality actives for female entrepreneurs and governmental funds for female entrepreneurs. On the forth place communication problem stays between the municipality and ethnic female entrepreneurs. They are all would like to know more about rule changes, before they get a fine. In the last place come funds. Money is always a problem.

Recommendation

After reading books and understanding entrepreneurship and female entrepreneurs I can say there are things that can be improved in Denmark. Focusing on the ethnic female entrepreneurs, the most important is to understand their culture and their way of thinking. They are all coming from different countries with different traditions. Second of all they have problems with the language. In that case my recommendation would be to hire business advisers, mentors with ethnic background, so they can support and understand the ethnic female entrepreneurs better. The government should offer language courses, but in the beginning, materials for starting-up a business in several different languages. Furthermore these women need to learn the Danish system, so workshops and entrepreneurial courses are almost compulsory for them.  To improve the communication between municipalities and the entrepreneurs, a weekly or monthly newsletter could be a solution. Offices, that serving entrepreneurs should use a little bit more media. There are still a lot of entrepreneurs, especially the ethnic female entrepreneurs who do not about the existing business centers.  Continuations courses and fresh-up courses would be also a great offer for them.  The government should invest more money into the entrepreneur field.

Conclusion

Entrepreneur is action oriented and highly motivated. He has the ability to evaluate business opportunities, to gather the necessary resources to take advantage of them and to initialize appropriate action to ensure the success.

Entrepreneruship does not have a long history, but it fulfill our lives more and more. Globally and also centrally there is a great focus on entrepreneurs. Most of the EU country´s government includes entrepreneurship into their programs, that´s why we can see from the data that the numbers of entrepreneurs are increasing.

The level of entrepreneurship in Denmark is as typical for developed countries. Denmark ranges slightly below the middle of the countries in the volume of entrepreneurship relative to the size of the country. Furthermore, Denmark is slightly below the middle in the rate of ex-owner-managers, and slightly above the middle in the rate of investors. The trend in entrepreneurship in Denmark was one of decline if the early years of the decade, but then it turned. The values in Danish culture therefore get reflected in the evaluation of the entrepreneur, education, and skills, and they all place Denmark slightly below the middle among the developed countries. Nevertheless, several of these cultural conditions are increasingly oriented toward entrepreneurship. The Danish culture is less entrepreneurial than typical can well explain that Danish entrepreneurship is below the typical. That Danish culture is shifting to become more entrepreneurial can well explain the current turn upward in entrepreneurship. This may also be explained by other changes, perhaps in the economy.

Denmark is on the right way to change their thinking about entrepreneurship. Ethnic female entrepreneurs have a different culture, so they need a different service. Ehtnic women entrepreneurs need to be motivated, and take the risk to be self-employed. Denmark should give them the motivation and show them the way to the labour market and especially the entrepreneur field. More and more initiatives came to support ethnic female entrepreneurs in Denmark. As I mentioned in my recommendation part, some services needs to be improved, such as materials in other languages then Danish. The European Union is trying to put entrepreneurs in the highlight, and support them with several initiatives in all of the member countries. I do believe that Denmark can change the situation of ethnic female entrepreneurs and become the best country to be an entrepreneur in.

Literature

Burns, P. 2001. -Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave Macmillan.

Acs Zoltan J., and David B. Audretsch 2003. - Handbook of Entrepreneurship

Richard Daft 2006. – New era of management

Rajan Saxena 2006. – Marketing management

Stephen C. Harper 2003. – Starting your own business

Simon Bridge and Ken O'Neill and Stan Cromie 2003. – Understanding enterprise, entrepreneurship and small business

Niels Bosma , Zoltan J. Acs, Erkko Autio, Alicia Coduras, Jonathan Levie - Global Entrepreneurship Monitor ; 2008 Executive report

Global entrepreneurship monitor – 2007 report on women entrepreneurship – Elaina Allen, Amanda Elam, Nan Langowitz, Monica Dean

Appendix

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