“Off stage‐on stage”: men and women entrepreneurs leading change and business growth

Purpose - The gender gaps found in research in the growth of businesses headed by men or women may be the consequence of their different change‐oriented strategies. The purpose of this paper is to explore the premise that each genders' use of strategies associated with leading change in their businesses determines those businesses' growth. Findings based on the responses of 260 Israeli entrepreneurs revealed that men and women lead change in their businesses differently, and that the use of these strategies by each gender group is indeed echoed in their businesses' growth. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Design/methodology/approach - Questionnaires were delivered by e‐mail to 190 entrepreneurs participating in non‐academic programs at five centers for entrepreneurial support in Israel (three university‐based centers and two government‐based centers). The respondents were asked to suggest other entrepreneurs for this study; this procedure produced 100 contact details of entrepreneurs which the author approached by snowball sampling procedure. The 260 completed questionnaires were from 171 (66 percent) entrepreneurs participating in the non‐academic programs and 89 (34 percent) of their suggested colleagues. T‐tests showed no significant differences between these groups in gender, age, educational level or years of experience as entrepreneurs. Findings - Strategies that emerge as most relevant to business growth are associated with empowering the staff to use more creative and innovative practices and embracing change on a routine basis. While it is common knowledge that “change” should be exhibited by the entrepreneur, the findings suggest that providing the platform or delegating the power to the staff to initiate changes in the business, as well as supporting the staff, are useful to business growth, and therefore in line with the DC framework. Practical implications - These findings promote knowledge in this area by showing that empowerment is actually a way of implementing change in the business and that the action of change exhibited by the entrepreneur is not the only way to accomplish change and consequently, growth. Such findings are most important for research that is lacking in empirical studies in this respect, as well as being of vast significance for women entrepreneurs who may lack confidence when applying empowerment to achieve change and business growth. These findings clearly demonstrate the relevance of empowerment to the business's growth. Originality/value - One main implication of this study is in the area of training and higher education in entrepreneurship: developing programs that advance strategies aimed at leading change in the business can assist entrepreneurs and affect their businesses' growth. It is important that local governments and private agencies serving entrepreneurs are aware of these findings and build on them to develop appropriate programs, assess the programs' outcomes and initiate policy measures.