There was an interesting article in Forbes recently, Women Ascendent: Where Females are Rising the Fastest, showing where in the world women are making the greatest strides. As the article points out, most of the gains for women in the past few decades have come from the wealthy countries. However, the tides are turning in favor of women in developing countries. Dressmakers, fruit sellers, hairdressers and other women entrepreneurs are the new frontier of women's progress. They are pushing the boundaries of their traditional roles while supporting their families, creating jobs and contributing to the wave of innovations coming out of the least likely places.
Reading about these women and the opportunities they are creating, I can't help but think about the role GBSN's member business schools are playing in supporting small business owners all across the world. From our initial pilot project supporting the Enterprise Development Center in Lagos Nigeria, to our current collaboration with the Chandaria School in Nairobi Kenya to support local agribusiness entrepreneurs (predominantly women!), and everything in between, GBSN has been involved in building the capacity of entrepreneurs and small business owners across the globe.
But I can't help but wonder, as the share of women-owned businesses grows greater, are we doing enough to support them? A recent study looking at the constraints to growth for small business owners in Tanzania shows management capacity can be a much greater constraint than access to financial capital. This fits in well with our approach of building human capital through training and education programs. However, the study showed something else that was even more interesting. The researchers found that management training had a positive impact on profits of male-run firms, but no impact on those run by females!
This is where all of us interested in developing small business owners should sit up and listen. Digging a bit further into the data, the researchers showed that while there was a positive transfer of knowledge to both men and women and that both male and female business owners changed their business practices because of this increased knowledge, the training had no impact on the business owner's willingness to compete. The males started and ended with a significantly higher willingness to compete and when coupled with their increased business and management competency, pursued more aggressive business strategies. These strategies often led to higher sales and increased profits.
So, the question remains, why did the increased knowledge and new business practices not translate into increased profits for the women too? The researchers from NHH Bergen who conducted this study suggest the external environment may have a lot to do with it. In this case, the female entrepreneurs did not have a decrease in their domestic responsibilities as their businesses demanded increased attention from them. Additionally, some of the women reportedly had less decision making authority in their households and suggested that their husbands often intervened in the decision making process in their businesses as well. These external factors may very well have contributed to the different outcomes of the training program on their businesses. This also suggests that simply training entrepreneurs without taking a closer look at the external environment in which they work may prove less fruitful than hoped.
As the business school community engages further in training and supporting small business owners, I hope we pay attention to how our efforts are impacting the very beneficiaries we hope to serve. Looking at the bigger picture, understanding cultural issues, gender roles, and the general operating environment is crucial to delivering the kind of small business growth we all hope to be a part of.
Nora Brown is the COO of the Global Business School Network.
