Role of gender identity in business owner satisfaction

According to Kim Eddleston, a Ph.D. and Assistant Professor, Riesman Research Professor and Tarica-Edwards Fellowship, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group at the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University, female entrepreneurs are often criticized and classified as being “less successful” then their male counterparts for not growing their businesses as fast or aggressively. Yet her research recently published in The Journal of Business Venturing found that despite earning less and owning businesses that grow more slowly than male entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs are just as happy as men. Why? Because they measure success differently. Below are some excerpts from her published research, entitled “The role of gender identity in explaining sex differences between business owners’ career satisfier preferences:”

“Although women-owned businesses tend to be smaller, slower growing, and less profitable than those owned by men, research suggests that women business owners are as satisfied with their entrepreneurial careers as men. Women business owners may be satisfied with their entrepreneurial careers, despite achieving relatively less business success in objective terms, because they value different sources of career satisfaction than men. While men are often depicted as prizing status-based career satisfiers derived from financial success and business growth women are depicted as placing greater emphasis on socioemotional career satisfiers derived from interpersonal relations with employees and customers and the pursuit of social goals, Prof. Eddleston writes.

“Male business owners prefer satisfiers associated with status attainment to a greater extent and satisfiers associated with employee relationships and making a contribution to society to a lesser extent than female business owners. The masculinity dimension of gender identity completely mediates the relationship between business owner sex and preferences for status-based satisfiers. In addition, the femininity dimension of gender identity completely mediates the relationship between sex and preferences for employee relationship satisfiers, partially mediates the relationship between sex and preferences for contribution to society satisfiers, and significantly predicts preferences for customer relationship satisfiers. These findings suggest why some women emphasize status-based satisfiers and why some men emphasize socioemotional satisfiers: Gender identity is a better predictor of business owners' career satisfier preferences than their biological sex,” Prof. Eddleston continues.

Below is Dr. Eddleston’s bio.

Kimberly Eddleston, Assistant Professor, Riesman Research Professor and Tarica-Edwards Fellowship, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group. Professor Eddleston received her PhD in Management from the University of Connecticut and her graduate degree from Cornell University and Groupe Essec (IMHI). Her research has appeared in journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Executive, Academy of Management Perspectives, Human Resource Management Review, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Venturing, and Journal of Applied Psychology. Professor Eddleston has recently been selected as a Family Owned Business Institute Research Scholar by the Family Owned Business Institute of the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University.