cross tabulation analysis of women and men entrepreneurs in the

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4According to NFWBO’s (1998) research, 85% of women give greater importance totraining in business related issues compared to 78% men. Therefore, women entrepreneursin technical fields may consider participation in professional forums as an importantelement in their entrepreneurial pursuits and recognition of opportunities more than men inorder to compensate for the weaknesses coming from their lack of technical or businesstraining. This suggests the next hypothesis:Hypothesis #3: Women entrepreneurs in technology domains perceive the influenceof participation in professional forums more than men entrepreneurs in theirrecognition of entrepreneurial opportunities.Figure 1 presents an overview of the conceptual framework.FIGURE 1A model of gender difference in entrepreneurial opportunity recognitionReliance on informalNetwork ties in theindustryGenderOpportunityRecognitionReliance onMentorsParticipation inprofessionalforumsMETHODSSampleA sample was chosen from the information technology industry. Potentialparticipants were identified from the One Source Corp Tech Profiles Database (OSCT,2002), which contains information on technology-based firms and from membership listsof various IT associations. The initial questionnaire was pilot tested on 29 founders of newventures in the information technology sector. The final sample constituted 201 individualswho founded information technology companies in the United States.4
5MEASURESOpportunity RecognitionThe five point three item “opportunity recognition” scale from Singh (2000).Measures were: “I see potential new venture ideas all around me.” “I have special alertnessor sensitivity toward new venture opportunities.” “Recognizing opportunities come verynatural to me”. (alpha=.8)Informal network of acquaintances in the industryFive point three item measures were adopted from Reynolds (1999). The measureswere contacts or discussions with potential or existing customers, investors, suppliers,distributors or manufacturers. (alpha= .77)MentorsThe present research scale developed the three five point items. The measures werehaving a mentor who provides advice, support, guidance, knowledge and coaching inopportunity recognition. Five point Likert scale measured the variable (alpha=.85)Participation in Professional ForumsThe present research scale developed the three five point items. The measureswere: getting information or feedback from instructional seminars, workshops, trainingprograms and technical publications. (alpha= .82).Control VariablesIndividuals’ age, education (Davidsson, 1991; Shepherd and DeTienne, 2001) andfirm location (Keeble and Walker, 1994; Armington and Acs, 2002) were included ascontrol variables.Cross TabulationRESULTSCross tabulation analysis was conducted to show the relationship between male andfemale entrepreneurs and how they differ in recognizing entrepreneurial opportunities.Performing cross tabulation with continuous data that has been categorized providevaluable information on how genders vary in entrepreneurial opportunity recognition in ITindustry.Although both men and women entrepreneurs agreed the importance of informalnetwork ties in the industry, within gender relatively more women (63.3%) than men5
Page 1 and 2: 1CROSS TABULATION ANALYSIS OF WOMEN
Page 3: 3Hypothesis #1: Women entrepreneurs
Page 7 and 8: 7Yet despite these limitations the
Page 9 and 10: 9REFERENCESAldrich, H.E., Brickman,
Page 11: 11Ozgen, E., Baron, R.A. (2007). So

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