The Influence of Proactive Personality and Stereotype Threat on Women's Entrepreneurial Intentions

The primary goal of this study was to examine the role of proactive personality in moderating the influence of the widely-held `masculine' stereotype about entrepreneurs on intentions to become an entrepreneur. Manipulating stereotype threat, results from eighty young women indicated that women with more proactive personality were more significantly affected by exposure to the commonly known stereotype about entrepreneurs and had a significant decrease in entrepreneurial intentions compared to women with less proactive personality. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical significance and practical relevance.

[1]  Claude M. Steele,et al.  Stereotyping and its threat are real. , 1998 .

[2]  Jane D. Parent,et al.  Gender and Managerial Stereotypes: Have the Times Changed? , 2002 .

[3]  P. M. Podsakoff,et al.  Self-Reports in Organizational Research: Problems and Prospects , 1986 .

[4]  Poh Kam Wong,et al.  An Exploratory Study of Technopreneurial Intentions: A Career Anchor Perspective , 2004 .

[5]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research , 1977 .

[6]  C. Steele.  A threat in the air. How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. , 1997, The American psychologist.

[7]  Barbara Bird,et al.  A Gendered Perspective on Organizational Creation , 2002 .

[8]  Crystal L. Hoyt.  The Role of Leadership Efficacy and Stereotype Activation in Women's Identification with Leadership , 2005 .

[9]  J. Michael Crant,et al.  The Proactive Personality Scale and objective job performance among real estate agents. , 1995 .

[10]  J. Michael Crant,et al.  The Proactive Personality Scale as a Predictor of Entrepreneurial Intentions , 1996 .

[11]  T. S. Bateman,et al.  The proactive component of organizational behavior: A measure and correlates , 1993 .

[12]  B. Orser.  Sex Role Stereotypes and Requisite Management Characteristics , 1994 .

[13]  Paul H. White,et al.  An Examination of Implicitly Activated, Explicitly Activated, and Nullified Stereotypes on Mathematical Performance: It's Not Just a Woman's Issue , 2002 .

[14]  N. Ambady,et al.  Stereotype Susceptibility: Identity Salience and Shifts in Quantitative Performance , 1999 .

[15]  M. Heilman.  Description and prescription: How gender stereotypes prevent women's ascent up the organizational ladder. , 2001 .

[16]  M. Heilman,et al.  Has anything changed? Current characterizations of men, women, and managers. , 1989 .

[17]  E. Marcus,et al.  Perceptions of the Sex-Role Stereotypic Characteristics of Entrepreneurs: Women's Evaluations , 1991 .

[18]  M. Heilman.  Sex Discrimination and the Affirmative Action Remedy: The Role of Sex Stereotypes , 1997 .

[19]  Booncharoen Sirinaovakul,et al.  Introduction to the Special Issue , 2002, Comput. Intell..

[20]  Laura M. Graves,et al.  Women and Men in Management , 1989 .

[21]  Catherine Good,et al.  When White Men Can't Do Math: Necessary and Sufficient Factors in Stereotype Threat , 1999 .

[22]  Jerome A. Katz.  A Psychosocial Cognitive Model of Employment Status Choice , 1992 .

[23]  M. Heilman,et al.  Penalties for success: reactions to women who succeed at male gender-typed tasks. , 2004, The Journal of applied psychology.

[24]  S. Spencer,et al.  Clearing the air: identity safety moderates the effects of stereotype threat on women's leadership aspirations. , 2005, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[25]  Madeline E. Heilman,et al.  Sex bias in work settings: The Lack of Fit model. , 1983 .

[26]  M. Inzlicht,et al.  Do High-Achieving Female Students Underperform in Private? The Implications of Threatening Environments on Intellectual Processing , 2003 .

[27]  Stephen L. Mueller,et al.  A Case for Comparative Entrepreneurship: Assessing the Relevance of Culture , 2000 .

[28]  Jessi L. Smith.  Understanding the Process of Stereotype Threat: A Review of Mediational Variables and New Performance Goal Directions , 2004 .

[29]  R. Baron,et al.  Perceptions of women and men as entrepreneurs: evidence for differential effects of attributional augmenting. , 2001, The Journal of applied psychology.

[30]  Jill R. Kickul,et al.  Prospecting for Strategic Advantage: The Proactive Entrepreneurial Personality and Small Firm Innovation , 2002 .

[31]  William B. Walstad,et al.  Entrepreneurship and female youth: knowledge, attitudes, gender differences, and educational practices , 1998 .

[32]  V. E. Schein.  A Global Look at Psychological Barriers to Women's Progress in Management , 2001 .

[33]  B. Rosen,et al.  Bank Loan Officers' Perceptions of the Characteristics of Men, Women and Successful Entrepreneurs. , 1988 .

[34]  E. Pinel,et al.  Stigma consciousness: the psychological legacy of social stereotypes. , 1999, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[35]  Todd A. Finkle.  TRENDS IN THE MARKET FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP FACULTY FROM 1989-2010 , 2011 .

[36]  Jim Blascovich,et al.  African Americans and High Blood Pressure: The Role of Stereotype Threat , 2001, Psychological science.

[37]  Ronald K. Mitchell,et al.  Are Entrepreneurial Cognitions Universal? Assessing Entrepreneurial Cognitions across Cultures , 2002 .

[38]  Linda Miller,et al.  The Development of Occupational Sex‐role Stereotypes, Occupational Preferences and Academic Subject Preferences in Children at Ages 8, 12 and 16 , 1999 .

[39]  Kelly G. Shaver,et al.  Attributions about Entrepreneurship: A Framework and Process for Analyzing Reasons for Starting a Business , 2001 .

[40]  Erik Jansen,et al.  Women business owners in traditional and non-traditional industries , 2000 .

[41]  S. Spencer,et al.  Consuming Images: How Television Commercials that Elicit Stereotype Threat Can Restrain Women Academically and Professionally , 2002 .

[42]  Fiona Wilson,et al.  Our Entrepreneurial Future: Examining the Diverse Attitudes and Motivations of Teens Across Gender and Ethnic Identity , 2004 .

[43]  Claude M. Steele,et al.  Race and the Schooling of Black Americans. , 1992 .

[44]  Richard C. Becherer,et al.  The Proactive Personality Disposition and Entrepreneurial Behavior among Small Company Presidents , 1999 .

[45]  I. Ajzen.  Attitudes, Traits, and Actions: Dispositional Prediction of Behavior in Personality and Social Psychology , 1987 .

[46]  T. S. Bateman,et al.  Charismatic leadership viewed from above: the impact of proactive personality , 2000 .

[47]  David L. Deeds,et al.  Trends in the Market for Entrepreneurship Faculty, 1989-1998 , 2001 .

[48]  C. Steele,et al.  Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[49]  Deborah V. Brazeal,et al.  Entrepreneurial Potential and Potential Entrepreneurs , 1994 .

[50]  N. Krueger.  The Cognitive Infrastructure of Opportunity Emergence , 2000 .

[51]  Bradley L. Kirkman,et al.  Beyond Self-Management: Antecedents and Consequences of Team Empowerment , 1999 .

[52]  Poh Kam Wong,et al.  Do others think you have a viable business idea? Team diversity and judges' evaluation of ideas in a business plan competition , 2005 .

[53]  N. Krueger.  The Impact of Prior Entrepreneurial Exposure on Perceptions of New Venture Feasibility and Desirability* , 1993 .

[54]  Elizabeth E. Wierba,et al.  Reading the wind: how middle managers assess the context for selling issues to top managers , 1997 .

[55]  A. Eagly,et al.  Gender-Stereotypic Images of Occupations Correspond to the Sex Segregation of Employment , 1999 .

[56]  Hao Zhao,et al.  The mediating role of self-efficacy in the development of entrepreneurial intentions. , 2005, The Journal of applied psychology.

[57]  Barbara J. Bird.  Implementing Entrepreneurial Ideas: The Case for Intention , 1988 .

[58]  Wee Liang Tan,et al.  Politico–Economic Factors Associated with Interest in Starting a Business: A Multi–Country Study , 2005 .

[59]  S. Spencer,et al.  Stereotype Threat and Women's Math Performance , 1999 .

[60]  J. Crant.  Proactive Behavior in Organizations , 2000 .

[61]  Helene Ahl.  Why Research on Women Entrepreneurs Needs New Directions , 2006, The Praxis of Diversity.

[62]  Friederike Welter,et al.  Introduction to the Special Issue: Towards Building Cumulative Knowledge on Women's Entrepreneurship , 2006 .

[63]  Maria L. Kraimer,et al.  Proactive personality and career success. , 1999, The Journal of applied psychology.

[64]  Toni Schmader,et al.  Gender Identification Moderates Stereotype Threat Effects on Women's Math Performance ☆ ☆☆ ★ , 2002 .