Information support in the assessment of female students as potential entrepreneurs

Poznań University of Technology, Faculty of Engineering Management, ul. Strzelecka 11, 60-965 Poznań, Poland

^* Corresponding author: jakub.pawlak@put.poznan.pl

Abstract

On world’s average, every third business is run by a woman. Typically, these businesses are small and limit their growth, they rarely employ staff, have shorter surviva[l rates, lower level of capitalization, and are financed with foreign capital to a lesser extent in comparison with businesses run by men. In addition, women are motivated to start their own business due to the phenomenon of a “glass ceiling”, problems finding a job after returning from parental leave, and the need to balance work and parental duties. Running their own business opens up many opportunities for women. It seems, therefore, appropriate to examine the factors that will help the next generation of women realize their entrepreneurial potential. The article presents the opinions of management students on the usefulness of different measures in supporting the initiation and conduct of business in the SME sector. The results were compared with assessments made by female entrepreneurs. This helped identify areas in which the expectations of students differed significantly from the reality. The authors of this article believe that such a discrepancy between the ideas and the realities of running your own business may be the cause of the lower survival rate of businesses run by women and their limited participation in the overall number of entrepreneurs. Based on these results, the authors propose directions for the education of potential female entrepreneurs.