Nätverk och förebilder
en studie om betydelsen för entreprenöriella kvinnor
Background: Of those who start companies, only about 30 % are women. Women's companies also often have both fewer employees and lower turnover. Several efforts are therefore being made to try to influence and encourage more women to start businesses and to get them to expand. Two of these ventures are special network for women and about women entrepreneurs as role models, something that also the theories believe is very important for a more egalitarian business. While entrepreneurship is encouraged for growth in the community, it also has a male character, something that needs to be considered.Purpose: As both the EU and the Swedish government through measures such as Tillväxtverket, is investing large sums to promote networking and role models, we intended to analyze the importance of networking and role models for entrepreneurial women. We also intended to study entrepreneurship in women and as a minor part in the study, also examined the investments which the entrepreneurs themselves would like to see in order to promote female entrepreneurship in Sweden.Research method: We conducted the study based on a qualitative method with a deductive approach. We have chosen to do so since we wanted to be close to the theories and at the same time allow for a deeper analysis. In total, we retrieved information from seven respondents as a primary source through interviews which were transcribed and then worked upon together to try to keep a high level of credibility.Conclusion: The entrepreneurs in the study have loosened up the entrepreneurship definition to include a broader more multi-dimensional image of the entrepreneur. The entrepreneurs also felt that the role models certainly could be useful to counter the invisibility of women entrepreneurs, but they themselves made no use of any particular role models. They were all in consensus with the positive effects of networks but also in that these would ideally be composed of both women and men. The entrepreneurs would not like to see any special initiatives for just women, but rather for all entrepreneurs, and in particular efforts to provide better understanding and greater security for the entrepreneurs.