The Influence of Role Models on Women’s Entrepreneurial Intention and Behaviour
Lilo Seyberth/Anja Overwien
March 2024

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Abstract

Entrepreneurship is an important economic source for any country. However, the share of female entrepreneurs is still low with an entrepreneurial gender gap in most countries, meaning growth potential remains untapped. Relying on previous findings in the (women) entrepreneurship literature, we build on social learning theory (Bandura 1973) and argue that role models positively relate to an individual’s aim to become an entrepreneur. To broaden the current understanding of role models’ promotion of entrepreneurship, we distinguish different types of role models. We hypothesize that different role models have different effects on female students’ entrepreneurial intention and behaviour. To investigate these hypotheses empirically, we rely on cross-sectional survey data of 2,237 students from 127 higher education institutions in Germany. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurial role models can help reduce gender gaps, highlighting the importance of entrepreneurial role models for the intention of women to become entrepreneurs as well as them actually doing so. Investigating different role model types, we further find a larger effect for having entrepreneurial role models within the family, especially closer familial ties.