A STUDY OF SUCCESS FACTORS OF WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP IN E-COMMERCE

Women make up almost 50 percent of all workforce in the European Union countries, but their average hourly rate is 16,3 percent lower than men's (respectively, in Lithuania it is 14,2 percent). In 2016, only in 21 companies out of 500, which is 4,2 percent, women held executive positions. In entrepreneurship statistics based on the founder's gender, women make up only 34,4 percent of independently working employees and 30 percent of business founders. More women possess higher education than men, but only a small part of women hold executive positions or decide to establish their own business. Academic sources often analyze the success factors of women's leadership in the context of managing large international companies, politics, medicine, war industry and education, whereas the factors of successful women's leadership in small and medium-sized enterprises while establishing and developing e-commerce are rarely considered. That is why this study seeks to complexly evaluate the success factors of women's leadership and to create a structure of success factors of women's leadership in Lithuanian e-commerce. To achieve the objective of this study, such research methods as analysis of scientific literature, multiple criteria and expert assessment (structured survey and interview) were applied. While analyzing the success factors of women's leadership in e-commerce in the scientific literature, 95 primary assessment factors, specified with 21 female experts who have established businesses in Lithuania, were identified through the multiple criteria and expert assessment method.