The gender gap in PhD entrepreneurship: Why balancing employment in academia really matters
基于意大利9062名博士生的调查数据，研究发现学术界的性别平衡影响女博士生的创业意愿，性别更平衡的环境有助于缩小创业性别差距。
We use original data from a questionnaire survey of 9062 individuals enrolled in PhD programmes in Italy between 2008 and 2014 to conduct an empirical investigation of gender issues in PhD entrepreneurship. The analysis focuses on the influence of the gender balance among academics at the parent university, to measure the opportunities available to female students to engage with same-sex role models and the effect of such engagement on female students' attitudes to applied research and entrepreneurship. Our evidence shows that there is a gender gap in PhD student entrepreneurship and suggests that the gender composition of the academic faculty has a significant impact on female students' attitudes to business-oriented research and its commercialisation, which, in turn, affects their entrepreneurial intention and probability of starting a business. Our results indicate that female students' entrepreneurship would benefit from the opportunities offered by a more gender-balanced work environment and reinforces arguments calling for equality in the academic workplace.