Abstract

Research on entrepreneurship has a strong tendency to see value creation solely as an economic outcome. However, this tendency limits how we envision entrepreneurship, and who is performing well, according to this standard. Women entrepreneurs almost always come out as second best in this comparison and are thus labelled as underperforming. Consequently, this chapter aims to challenge the underperformance hypothesis surrounding women entrepreneurs. To do this, I draw upon the narratives of two women entrepreneurs from a rural Swedish community, whose experiences and successes are in direct juxtaposition with the familiar notion of the underperforming woman entrepreneur. Their stories allow us to see value created in processes that are usually neglected or missed in more conventional research and policy. Two main observations are discussed: 1) On a business level, value accrued is used to create new value, and 2) that there is a circular flow between value adding and creating. As a result, women entrepreneurs are cultivating various forms of value. This chapter provides an example of moving beyond the economic measures of entrepreneurship, through focusing on value as a process and not solely as an outcome. With this expanded view of the concept of value, the underperforming hypothesis surrounding women entrepreneurs is challenged.

Published in

Book title: Research Handbook of Women’s Entrepreneurship and Value Creation
ISBN: 9781789901368, eISBN: 9781789901375
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

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