GENDER BIAS AND THE FINANCING OF ENTREPRENUERIAL
VENTURES: HOW NIGERIAN BANKS PERCEIVE MEN, WOMEN
AND SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS
BY
DR. (MRS) S. L. ADEYEMI
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, ILORIN
ABSTRACT
The literature suggests that women face more difficulty than men in obtaining capital to
launch and finance a new venture. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether women
entrepreneurs in Nigeria face gender-bias by examining the perceptions of the resource
provider.
The study is based on a questionnaire survey of bank loan officers from a major bank. As in a
similar study by Buttner and Rosen (1988), the loan officers were asked to assess either men,
women or successful entrepreneurs along eight personality dimensions often attributed to
successful entrepreneurs in the literature. The eight qualities attributed to successful
entrepreneurs are leadership, autonomy, prospensity to take risk, readiness for change,
endurance, lack of emotionalism and low need for support and persuasive.
The hypothesis for the study is that, owning to sex stereotyping, women are perceived to
possess less of the personal qualities associated with successful entrepreneurs than men. The
results of the survey does not confirm the hypothesis. While this is heartening, the limits
imposed by the small sample size of the research design and on the general applicability of
the findings must be borne in mind.
Further research is necessary to throw more light on the issue.
INTRODUCTION
Since 1990 which was designated the decade of women leadership internationally, the new
leadership position has been most notable in the entrepreneurial pursuits of women. Rather
than just climbing the corporate ladder of success, women are creating their own
1
corporations. Adeyemi S. L. (2004). However, the entrepreneurship rate among Nigeria
women, continues to lack behind than that of their male counterparts.
Notwithstanding the 33% growth in the number of female-owned business since 1980, only
6% of the female working population in 1991 were business owners whereas the
corresponding figure for the male working population was 14%. Only 20% of the business
owner in Nigeria in 1991 were women.
Chan (1992) showed that women manager like professional women in many part of the
world, face corporate barriers (the so-called “glass-ceiling”) to career advancements. A
number of women executives expressed frustration at the common perceptual bias among
Nigerian men regarding women’s physiological and emotional constraints which, the men
believe, affect women’s capabilities Chan, (1992).
Many successful women entrepreneurs in the United States reported that they had to work
harder than their male counterparts to prove their competence as business owners to
customers, suppliers and other resource providers Buttner and Rosen, (1988) In a report by
Licuaman (1993), many Asian women entrepreneurs cited difficulties in doing business
which are associated with sexual stereotyping and gender bias, for instance, the problem of
being taken seriously by business regulators and bankers. The success of any new business
depends initially on the entrepreneur’s ability to obtain support and assistance from bankers,
venture capitalists, suppliers, customers and other resource providers. Since debt is a major
source of financing for small businesses (Ghosh, Teo and Low, 1993), difficulty in obtaining
debt financing can be big obstacle for aspiring entrepreneurs. Gender bias on the part of bank
loan officers may therefore limit the entry of potential women entrepreneurs and hence on the
contribution of entrepreneurship to the society.
Literature on the subject of gender bias and entrepreneurship is largely limited to studies
asking women entrepreneurs about their characteristics and experiences, and their perceptions
of gender-based discrimination are assumed accurate (Adeyemi (1997), Licuaman, (1993),
Teo, (1993). There is little or on literature from the viewpoint of the resource providers; do
they view women entrepreneurs in term of sex stereotypes? The objectives of this study is
thus to examine whether bank loan officers in Nigeria perceive that women, as compared to
men, are lacking in the characteristics attributable to successful entrepreneurs.
2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Since the study examines perceptions of both feminine and masculine characteristics in
relation to the characteristics associated with successful entrepreneurship, the characteristics
of entrepreneurs are first discussed. This is followed by a review of previous literature on the
issue of gender-related discrimination, particularly with respect to the raising of finance by
women entrepreneurs.
Characteristics of Entrepreneurs
The bulk of the studies on the characteristics of entrepreneurs centre on their inherent
personality characteristics; for example entrepreneurs have been variously characterized as
possessing, amongst others, internal locust of control, high achievement needs, high tolerance
for ambiguity and moderate risk-taking propensity (see summary in Chew and Koh, 1993).
The emphasis in this study, however, is on the personal qualities attributed to successful
entrepreneurs. In their summary of previous work in this area, Buttner and Rosen (1988 pp.
251) noted that entrepreneurs are found to possess (a) “leadership skills and attributes that
include an ability to inspire others, autonomy and a high level of endurance”, (b) “social
skills such as persuasiveness, low need for support, low conformity, and lack of
emotionalism”. In addition, their propensity to take risks is manifested in their readiness for
change. Subsequent studies also linked entrepreneurial success to characteristics, Chell
(1992) and Ghosh, Teo and Low (1993) highlighted a number of personality characteristics
associated with successful entrepreneurs, such as energy and drive, intelligence, initiative,
creativity, inquisitiveness, assertiveness and the ability to persuade others.
Entrepreneurship and Gender-related Discrimination
Finance is commonly identified as a “problem” area by women entrepreneurs, both at the
entry and operational levels. In study of women entrepreneurs in Nigeria, Adeyemi (2004)
reported that 50% of the respondents cited discrimination and prejudice on the part of lending
officers as an obstacle in obtaining start-up finance and 20% cited this as a problem in
obtaining finance at operational level.
This perception of discrimination of the part of the women entrepreneur is consistent with
findings in other countries (Klein, 1993; Licuaman, 1993; Riding and Swift, 1990).
Discrimination may take the form of lower rates of approval for loan applications,
requirements for co-signature (Klein, 1993) or higher collateral requirements and higher
3
interest rates on loans and lines of credit (Riding and Swift, 1990). Women entrepreneurs
often commented that they had to prove that they “mean business” and faced the problem of
not being taken seriously by bankers (Licuaman 1993).
As evident from the above studies, many women entrepreneurs perceive gender-bias as a very
real obstacle in the raising of venture capital. Before examining the literature from the
bankers’ viewpoint, it is interesting to note that studies which looked at a range of
psychological characteristics of women and men entrepreneurs found few significant
differences between men and women in relation to the personality characteristics associated
with entrepreneurship. Sexton and Bowman- Upton (1990) found no significant differences
on five of the nine traits examined, including conformity, interpersonal skills, social
adroitness, harm avoidance, and succorance; while the female business owners scored lower
on energy and risk-taking, they scored significantly higher on autonomy and change.
Kalleberg and Leicht (1991) found no difference in either the self-confidence or the
internality of locus of control between the male and female entrepreneurs in their study.
Notwithstanding the results of the above studies, which indicated greater similarities than
differences between males and females in terms of entrepreneurial characteristics, the
existence of gender-bias is evident in a number of studies. Gender-bias arise from sexstereotyping, that is from the perception that women are, by nature, less suited to
entrepreneurial (or managerial) roles. Schein (1973 and 1975) found that successful managers
were perceived to possess characteristics associated with commonly held stereotypes of men,
as opposed to women. Buttner and Rosen (1988) found evidence of similar negative sexstereotyping in relation to the perceived lack of suitability of females to entrepreneurial roles.
The results of their study indicated that bank loan officers perceived men (as compared to
women) to be significantly more like (that is, to possess attributes which are closer to)
successful entrepreneurs. Female entrepreneurs were evaluated significantly lower on
leadership, autonomy, risk-taking propensity, readiness for change and endurance; and were
rated as more emotional and more in need of support. A later study with identical business
plans, are more likely to extend loans to hypothetical male rather than female entrepreneurs.
Fay and Williams (1993) found that where both male and female loan applicants were
university graduates, both sexes were equally likely to obtain a loan to finance a business
venture. Where both male and female loan applicants were non-graduates, however, the
female applicant was less likely to obtain a loan than the male applicant of equal merit. It was
suggested that the loan officers viewed women as having fewer of the traits needed for
4
successful entrepreneurship, and “without the benefit of some differentially acting mediating
factor, a female applicant of objectively equal merit to a male applicant was likely to be
judged a poorer risk…. Education could have been viewed as an additional intangible form of
security… (in the evaluation of the female applicant)” (Fay and Williams, 1993, pp.372).
In summary, the literature appears to indicate a gap between the traits of women in business
and resource providers’ perception of these traits. The objective of this research is to
examine, in the Nigeria context, resource providers’ (specifically, bank loan officers’)
perceptions of the characteristics of men, women and successful entrepreneurs so as to
determine the existence (or otherwise) of overt gender bias that may influence the availability
of finance to women entrepreneurs.
METHODOLOGY
Based on the literature review, the hypothesis for this study is that men would be perceived
by bank loan officers to have characteristics closer to those of successful entrepreneurs than
women. The methodology adopted in this study closely parallels that used by Buttner and
Rosen (1988).
Measurement Instrument
Eight attributes identified in previous research to be characteristics of successful
entrepreneurs constitute the eight dimensions used in this study. These attributes are:
leadership, autonomy, propensity to take risk, readiness for change, endurance, lack of
emotionalism, low need for support and persuasiveness (Buttner and Rosen, 1988). Items for
each attribute are developed from descriptions of the characteristics of successful
entrepreneurs used by Sexton and Bowman-Upton (1986) (see Buttner and Rosen, 1988) and
by reference to the Adjective Checklist Manual (Gough and Heilburn, 1980).
A test questionnaire was first designed, thirty sets of which were distributed to
undergraduates at the University of Ilorin in a pilot survey. The questionnaire comprised of
60 items: 50 items assessing perceptions of entrepreneurial characteristics and 10 filler items.
The filler items described unrelated personality attributes and were included study.
Respondents rated each item for each attribute from 1 for “not characteristics at all” to 6 for
“very characteristic”. Some to the items were negatively scored (those marked with and “* ”
below) in order to minimize response set bias.
5
Based on the response received in the pilot survey, the questionnaire was validated using an
alpha-correlation test. The questionnaire was then modified to take into account responses
and feedback from the pilot study. The final questionnaire comprised of 50 items: 44 items
assessing perceptions of entrepreneurial characteristics and 6 filler items. The alphacoefficients for the final questionnaire are as follows: leadership – 0.8802; autonomy- 0.7512;
propensity to take risks – 0.8983; readiness for change – 0.8472; endurance – 0.5314; lack of
emotionalism – 0.6099; low need for support – 0.6460; and persuasiveness – 0.9219.
The items included in each attribute were:
1.
Leadership: self-confident, demonstrates leadership abilities, has the ability to
inspire others, intelligent, forceful, non-assertive*, dominant, resourceful, clearthinking.
2.
Autonomy: self-reliant, easily influenced by the opinion of others*, goes along
with the crowd*, independent in thought and action, individualistic, egotistical,
hard-headed, strong-willed
3.
Propensity to take risk: able to handle risk, able to evaluate risk, copes well with
uncertainty, dislikes taking risk*
4.
Readiness for change: adapt readily to change, unafraid of new and different
experiences, easily bored by routine, considers security to be of primary
importance*
5.
Endurance: high energy level, not capable of sustained effort*, persistent, tires
easily*, capable of intense work for extended periods, determined, persevering
6.
Lack of emotionalism: not aware of others’ feelings, compassionate*, prefers
impersonal to personal relationships, emotionally aloof
7.
Low need for support: needs constant reassurance*, high need for support*, low
need for sympathy
8.
Persuasiveness: persuasive, manipulating, has the knack for getting the most out
of people, has the talent for getting people to talk about themselves, able to get
people around to one’s viewpoint.
Sample Selection and Administration of the Questionnaire
Bank loan officers, from one of the “Big Four” local banks, responsible for the evaluation of
loan applications from small and medium sized firms, were selected for the survey. The
sample was divided into three groups of equal numbers: the first group was to evaluate the
characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, the second to evaluate the characteristics of men
6
and the third to evaluate the characteristics of women. Respondents were not aware of the
existence of other versions of the questionnaire, nor of the objective of this study.
To help the loan officers make their evaluations, the instructions suggested that they imagine
that they were about to meet a successful entrepreneur, a man, or a woman, for the first time
in a business setting and that they were to evaluate each item based on their expectations
prior to the meeting.
In addition, the respondents were told that the successful entrepreneur (or man, or woman) is
a graduate in his or her thirties. The inclusion of these two factors – education level and age –
was in response to the feedback arising from the pilot survey. Respondents in the pilot survey
indicated that their responses would, to a large extent, depend upon the age and education
level of person they were meeting, for example their expectations of a young, woman fresh
out of high-school would be quite different from their expectations of a female graduate in
her forties. Moreover, Fay and Williams (1993) found that where both sexes of loan
applicants were university graduates, both sexes were equally likely to obtain a loan for a
business venture but where both sexes of loan applicants were non-graduates, the female
applicant was less likely to obtain a loan than the male applicant. Since the majority of
entrepreneurs in Nigeria fall in the “30-40” age group and the entrepreneurial decisions was
often made in his or her thirties (Adeyemi, 1997), and a high percentage of entrepreneurs are
graduates, hence the qualification that the person the respondent was to evaluate is a
“graduate in his or her thirties”.
The initial intention of the study was to differentiate the questionnaires into six categories
(instead of the present three) that is, graduate man, woman and successful entrepreneurs and
non-graduate man, woman and successful entrepreneurs so as to provide further evidence (or
otherwise) of Fay and William’s (1993) observation. However, given the small sample size,
the number of respondents in each cell would be too small for meaningful analysis. Hence the
brief profile included in the questionnaire was designed to match that of the typical graduate
Nigeria entrepreneur in a business situation; the bank loan officers’ perceptions of the
representative non-graduate man, woman and successful entrepreneur will have to be
evaluated in further studies.
A total of 150 questionnaires were distributed. Fifty-two (52) of the questionnaires were
returned properly completed, giving a usable response rate of 35%. A summary of the survey
response is given below:
7
Type of questionnaire
No. distributed
No. of respondents
% response
Men
50
21
42%
Women
50
15
30%
Successful entrepreneurs
50
16
32%
Total
150
52
35%
RESULTS
Comparisons of the bank loan officer’s evaluations of successful entrepreneurs, men and
women for each of the attributes associated with entrepreneurial success are shown in table 1
and illustrated in figure 1. Items measuring each attribute were added and averaged to obtain
an overall mean score for each of the attributes for successful entrepreneurs, men and women
respectively. Differences between the means for these groups (men vs. women, men vs.
successful entrepreneurs, and women vs. successful entrepreneurs) were then evaluated using
t-test procedures.
The hypothesis for this study is that bank loan officers perceive women, as compared to men,
to posses less of the qualities attributable to success as an entrepreneur. The null hypothesis is
that there are no significant differences between bank loan officers’ perceptions of men and
women in relation to the attributes for success as an entrepreneur. A comparison of the mean
evaluations across the eight attributes show that men are rated closer to successful
entrepreneurs only for “readiness for change” and “low need for support”. The differences
between men and women in these two attributes are, however, not significant (at p = 0.01).
Women rated higher than men (and closer to successful entrepreneurs) for all the other
attributes; of these, three (“propensity to take risk”, “lack of emotionalism” and
“persuasiveness”) are significant (at p = 0.01). The results are contrary to expectations, and to
the results of Buttner and Rosen’s (1988) study where men, compared to women, were
consistently seen as closer to successful entrepreneurs on six out of the nine attributes
examined.
8
Table 1: Loan Officers’ Evaluations f Men, Women and Successful Entrepreneurs
Dimension
Mean Evaluation
Men (M)
Women (W)
Ents. (E)
Leadership
4.13
4.36
4.67
Autonomy
4.01
4.18
4.21
Propensity to take risk
3.98
4.12
4.38
Readiness for change
3.74
3.62
4.06
Endurance
4.34
4.42
4.65
Lack of Emotionalism
3.29
3.68
3.64
Low need for support
3.78
3.89
3.67
Persuasiveness
3.78
4.12
4.09
t-Test
Dimension
M vs. W
A or R
M vs. E
A or R
W vs. E
A or R
Leadership
6.55
A
1.12
A
0.56
A
Autonomy
2.17
A
1.60
A
0.38
A
Propensity to take risk
5.72
R
21.73
R
8.90
R
Readiness for change
1.47
A
3.64
R
4.54
R
Endurance
2.64
A
6.82
R
4.49
R
Lack of Emotionalism
8.51
R
7.58
R
1.24
A
Low need for support
2.16
A
3.29
R
5.10
R
Persuasiveness
8.54
R
9.72
R
0.59
A
* reject null hypothesis if t-value > 2.73 (at 1% significance level);
Where A = accept null hypothesis; R = reject hypothesis
9
Loan Officers’ mean evaluations of men, women and successful
Figure 1:
entrepreneurs.
persuasive
low need for support
lack of emotion
endurance
readiness for change
propensity to take risk
autonomy
leadership
3.00
Men
3.20
3.40
3.60
3.80
Women
4.00
4.20
4.40
4.60
4.80
Successful entrepreneurs
The difference between the results of this study and that of Buttner and Rosen (1988) could
be due to differences in research deign: the respondents in this study were evaluating men,
women or successful entrepreneurs who were specified as graduates in their thirties, and the
evaluation was specifically defined in a business context. These specifications were absent in
Buttner and Rosen’s (1988) study. It is possible that while loan officers perceive women in
general, as compared to men in general, to be lacking in entrepreneurial characteristics, they
do not view highly educated, matured business women in the same light. In fact such women
may be seen as having more of the traits required for success in business endeavours
(consistent with the results of this study) to get where they are in a world traditionally
dominated by men.
10
GENDER OF RESPONDENTS
The study further investigates whether perceptions of men and women, in relation to the
attributes for entrepreneurial success, vary with the gender of the bank loan officer. The
results of Buttner and Rosen’s (1988) study indicated that female bank loan officers rated
women significantly higher on leadership, autonomy and endurance, and significantly lower
on need for support than did the male respondents; hence suggesting that female
entrepreneurs might receive more favourable treatment from female loan officers. The
hypothesis that female respondents would rate women higher (on the qualities associated with
entrepreneurial success) than would their male counterparts, is therefore adopted in this
study. The null hypothesis is that there are no significant differences in the ratings of women
by male and female bank loan officers.
A comparison of the mean ratings of women by gender of respondent is given in table 2
below.
Table 2:
Mean Ratings of Women as a Function of Respondents’ Gender
Dimension
Male
Female
t-Tests
A or R
Respondents
Respondents
Leadership
4.25
4.40
0.52
A
Autonomy
4.34
4.11
0.83
A
Propensity to take risk
3.69
4.27
7.18
R
Readiness for change
3.25
3.75
2.28
A
Endurance
4.32
4.57
1.21
A
Lack of Emotionalism
4.06
3.77
1.56
A
Low need for support
3.92
3.88
0.19
A
Persuasiveness
3.80
4.24
2.70
A
Where A = accept null hypothesis; R = reject null hypothesis
While female loan officers, as compared to male loan officers, rated women higher on five
out of the eight attributes, the differences between the ratings are not significant (p = 0.01) for
all but one (“propensity to take risk”) of the attributes. The null hypothesis, that there are no
significant differences in the perceptions of male and female respondents with respect to the
Entrepreneurial qualities of women, is therefore accepted.
11
EDUCATIONAL LEVEL OF RESPONDENTS
Ideally education should have a positive effect in reducing gender-bias. The more highly
educated respondents are expected to perceive women to be more of men’s equal in terms of
the characteristics associated with entrepreneurial success. Hence the null hypothesis for this
study is that there are no significant differences in the perceptions of women by respondents
of different educational qualifications.
A dichotomous classification (graduate vs. non-graduate) is used to measure educational
level. Table 3 lists the three attributes for which there are significant differences in the
perceptions of women by graduate and non-graduate respondents; there are no significant
differences for the other five attributes. The results indicate that non-graduate bank loan
officers, as compared to their graduate’s counterparts, view women as being more emotional,
more in need of support and less inclined to take risks. This suggests that education could be
a useful tool to counter gender-biased perceptions of women.
Table 3:
Mean Ratings of Women as a Function of Respondents’ Educational
Level
Dimension
Educational Level
t-Tests
Non-graduates
Graduates
t-values
Results
Lack of Emotionalism
4.38
4.01
3.14
R
Low need for support
4.00
3.66
11.46
R
Propensity to take risk
4.18
3.91
2.87
R
In summary, the results generally run counter to this study’s hypothesis that bank loan
officers perceive women, as compared to men, to possess less of the qualities necessary for
successful entrepreneurship. This is true whether the bank loan officers are themselves male
or female. The educational qualification of loan officers, however, appear to have some
bearing on their views of women, with the more highly-educated being more favourable in
their perceptions of women’s traits.
DISCUSSION
The findings in this indicate little or no evidence of stereotypical perceptions of women, on
the part of bank loan officers, which may unfairly bias the latter’s evaluations of the
12
suitability of women for entrepreneurial roles and hence affect the availability of funding to
women entrepreneurs.
The results are, however, limited by the small size of the sample and the fact that only one
major bank was surveyed. To lend more credence to the findings, the study is being extended
to cover another major bank in Nigeria.
The difference between the results of this study and previous research (for example, Buttner
and Rosen, 19988; Riding and Swift, 1990) may reflect cultural differences between Nigeria
and the other countries in which similar studies were done; there is, however, no reason to
believe that gender-bias is less prevalent in Nigeria.
The apparent contradiction between the results of this study (indicating no gender-bias on the
part of loan officers) and (i) the perceptions of the women entrepreneurs themselves (many of
whom cited gender-bias as a serious obstacle in obtaining finance), and (ii) the results of
previous studies on resource providers’ perceptions (many of which indicated the existence of
gender-bias), may also be attributable to the research design. This study narrowed the scope
of the respondents’ evaluation to a specified age group (thirties) and educational
qualifications (graduates). As suggested by Fay and Williams (1993) “university education is
a differentially acting mediating factor that moves the loan officers’ gender stereotype of
“female” from gentle nurturance towards achievement and dominance” (pp 372). If
“education…..(is) viewed as an additional intangible form of security” (Fay and Williams,
1993 pp 372), then the results of this study would be insufficient to support lack of gender
bias on the part of bank loan officers. The original intention of the study was to divide the
sample into six groups: three to evaluate graduate men, women and successful entrepreneurs
(as in the present study) and an additional three to evaluate non-graduate men, women and
successful entrepreneurs. This was, however, not possible in view of the small sample size.
Extension of the study to cover the latter three groups should throw more light on the issue.
The results also indicate that loan officers with lower levels of education tend to perceive
women to possess less of the qualities attributable to successful entrepreneurs. This suggests
that (i) women entrepreneurs may receive more favourable treatment from loan officers who
are graduates and (ii) education may be a useful tool to counter gender-biased perceptions of
women.
Since the existence of gender-related discrimination amongst resource providers may limit
the entry of aspiring women entrepreneurs, and hence their potential contribution to the
economy, further research on this issue is necessary in the local context.
13
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