The gender gap in Ph.D. entrepreneurship: How do students perceive the academic environment?

Abstract

This paper investigates gender issues in Ph.D. entrepreneurship. The empirical analysis is based on data from a questionnaire survey run in 2014-15 in Italy. We analyse how Ph.D. students perceive the institutional entrepreneurial environment, the drivers and the factors hindering entrepreneurship and gender-equality among faculties at the parent institution. We find evidence of a gender bias in Ph.D. entrepreneurship and that the perception about the factors either hampering or supporting entrepreneurship is deeply different between sexes. The academic environment can have a fundamental impact on students' decisions to start new ventures and on the probability that they will abandon their entrepreneurial intentions. Female student entrepreneurs particularly benefit from the opportunity to engage with a gender-balanced work environment.