Frontiers: Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Empowering Female Entrepreneurs Through Female Mentors

• Published in: Marketing science (Providence, R.I.) Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 244 - 253
• Main Authors: Germann, Frank, Anderson, Stephen J., Chintagunta, Pradeep K., Vilcassim, Naufel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Linthicum INFORMS 01.03.2024; Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
• Subjects: developing economies; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; female entrepreneurs; Females; Gender; Gender equity; gender gap; glass ceiling; Livelihood; Mentoring; Mentoring programs; Mentors; mentorship gender-matching; NGOs; Nongovernmental organizations; Profits; randomized controlled field experiment; Sales; small firm growth; Women
• ISSN: 0732-2399; 1526-548X
• DOI: 10.1287/mksc.2023.0108

Female entrepreneurs perform significantly better when guided by a female—as opposed to a male—mentor. Among the millions of entrepreneurs in developing economies, few are able to earn a decent livelihood. To help these entrepreneurs succeed, governmental and nongovernmental organizations invest billions of dollars every year in providing training programs. Many of these programs involve providing entrepreneurs with mentors. Unfortunately, the effects of these programs are often muted, or even null, for woman-owned firms. Against this backdrop, we tested whether gender matching, where female entrepreneurs are randomly paired with a female mentor, could help address the gender gap. Findings from a randomized controlled field experiment with 930 Ugandan entrepreneurs show that mentor gender has a powerful impact on female entrepreneurs. Firm sales and profits of female entrepreneurs guided by a female mentor increased by, on average, 32% and 31% compared with the control group, and these estimates are even larger for female entrepreneurs with high aspirations. In contrast, female entrepreneurs guided by a male mentor did not significantly improve performance compared with the control group. We provide suggestive mechanism evidence that female mentor-mentee arrangements were characterized by more positive engagements. History: Catherine Tucker served as the senior editor for this article. This paper has been accepted for the Marketing Science Special Section on DEI and through the Marketing Science : Frontiers review process. Conflict of Interest Statement: All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or nonfinancial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. Funding: This research was supported by grants from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) joint Growth Research Program, the Deloitte Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (DIIE), and the universities the authors were affiliated with when the research was conducted. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2023.0108 .