Gender differences in the entrepreneurial ladder: evidence for Latin America

Purpose The main objective of this paper is to identify the factors associated with a successful transition through the entrepreneurial ladder for both men and women in a sample of nine Latin American countries. Design/methodology/approach The authors classify individuals according to five categories of increasing entrepreneurial engagement and estimate separate generalized ordered logit models to account for possible gender differences. Compared to previous literature, this is a more efficient methodology that allows us to identify the factors that have a significant and persistent relationship across stages and those that are only significant to specific engagement levels. Findings The authors find that factors such as parent business ownership, access to loans and autonomy increase the probability of progressing in the entrepreneurial ladder for both men and women and through all the stages. The authors also find that span of activity and the proxy for income increase the likelihood of moving to the next stages only for men, while higher education and autonomy do so only for women. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to identify the factors promoting progress through the different stages of the entrepreneurial ladder in Latin America. Separate regressions for women and men provide insight into the differential role of each variable by gender. Results from this study suggest that the gender dimension, currently absent in most policies, should be incorporated or strengthened in the design of entrepreneurship promotion programs in Latin America.