Women?s entrepreneurship research and the understanding of factors influencing the growth of women-owned business have advanced significantly over the last decade. Yet, challenges remain. Women Entrepreneurs and the Global Environment for Growth provides wide-ranging insights on the challenges that women entrepreneurs face growing their businesses and how these may be addressed. This volume is rooted in research and considers growth challenges, provoking thought and enriching the current literature on gender and entrepreneurship. Part I highlights how contextual factors, and especially social and familial settings of entrepreneurs, have a differential impact on men and women. Part II examines strategies, constraints and enablers of growth and performance. The authors aptly demonstrate that a well-focused gender lens is necessary to better explain the phenomenon of women?s entrepreneurship. Extending previous studies about women?s entrepreneurship, this volume is unique in its application of research from the Diana Project, a path-breaking initiative dating from 1999 to study female entrepreneurial success. Contributions from an international cast of authors make this a comprehensive and broadly appealing reference work.Lending a fresh perspective to the field, this book will serve not only as a learning tool and teaching implement but will cultivate further progress in women?s entrepreneurship. As such, it is ideally suited for students and scholars of entrepreneurship and women?s studies, policy-makers, economic development analysts and gender researchers.

Contents: 1. Introduction: Women Entrepreneurs and Growth Candida G. Brush, Anne de Bruin, Elizabeth J. Gatewood and Colette Henry PART I: CONTEXTUAL FACTORS 2. Entrepreneurship, Gender and Job Creation: European Dynamics Marc Cowling 3. Gender and Entrepreneurship: Revealing Constructions and Underlying Processes - The Case of Norway Gry Agnete Alsos, Ragnhild Steen Jensen and Elisabet Ljunggren 4. Female Leadership and Company Profitability Annu Kotiranta, Anne Kovalainen and Petri Rouvinen 5. Influences on Women's Entrepreneurship in Ireland and the Czech Republic Lorna Treanor and Colette Henry 6. The Embeddedness of Women's Entrepreneurship in a Transition Context Friederike Welter and David Smallbone 7. Women Empowering Women: Female Entrepreneurs and Home-based Producers in Jordan Haya Al-Dajani and Sara Carter 8. Exploring the Heterogeneity of Women's Entrepreneurship: The Impact of Family Structure and Family Policies in Europe and the US Vartuhi Tonoyan, Michelle Budig and Robert Strohmeyer PART II: GROWTH STRATEGIES AND ENABLERS 9. The Work-Family Interface Strategies of Male and Female Entrepreneurs: Are There Any Differences? Jennifer E. Jennings, Karen D. Hughes and P. Devereaux Jennings 10. An Integrated View of Gender, Finance and Entrepreneurial Capital: Theory, Practice and Policy Eleanor Shaw, Sara Carter and Wing Lam 11. Growing a High-tech Business: Gender, Perceptions and Experiences in Northern Ireland Frances M. Hill, Claire M. Leitch and Richard T. Harrison 12. Male and Female Entrepreneurs' Networks at Four Venture Stages Kim Klyver and Siri Terjesen 13. Gender, Opportunity Recognition and the Role of Internal Networks Rodney Farr-Wharton and Yvonne Brunetto 14. 'All by Myself': The Female High-technology Entrepreneur Maura McAdam and Susan Marlow 15. Physician as Feminist Entrepreneur: The Gendered Nature of Venture Creation and the Shirley E. Greenberg Women's Health Centre Barbara Orser and Joanne Leck 16. Mentoring Women Entrepreneurs in the Russian Emerging Market Jill Kickul, Mark D. Griffiths, Lisa K. Gundry and Tatiana Iakovleva 17. Gender Differences in the Growth Aspirations and Technology Orientation of Slovenian Entrepreneurs Karin Sirec, Polona Tominc and Miroslav Rebernik Index