How to empower women’s entrepreneurship? An analysis of women’s sport employment and contextual variables in European Union countries using a fuzzy approach

Issue title: Fuzzy systems and applications in innovation and sustainability

Guest editors: Ernesto Leon-Castro, Fabio Blanco-Mesa, Victor Alfaro-Garcia, Anna M. Gil-Lafuente and Jose M. Merigo

Article type: Research Article

Authors: González-Serrano, María Huertas^a | Llanos-Contreras, Orlando^b | Calabuig-Moreno, Ferran^{c; *}

Affiliations: [a] Department of Teaching and Learning of Physical Education, Plastic and Music Education, Universidad Católica de Valencia, 46110 Valencia, Spain | [b] Departamento de Administración-Facultad de Cs. Económicas y Administrativas, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Concepción, Chile | [c] Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. Ferran Calabuig-Moreno, Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain. E-mail: ferran.calabuig@uv.es.

Abstract: Although the number of women entrepreneurs has increased in recent years, it is still lower than that of men. In addition, although the sports sector has been characterized by its growth in recent years and contributes to the GDP of the countries by generating employment, the role that this has within female entrepreneurship has never been analysed. Therefore, the objective of this study is to know the combinations of conditions (female employment in sports, government support, financing for entrepreneurs, perception of entrepreneurial opportunities and capacities, glass ceiling index and masculine values in society) that generate high levels of female entrepreneurship in the countries of the European Union, as these values are closer to the male TEA (Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity). A total of 13 European countries were analysed using the fsQCA methodology. The results show that, for high levels of female TEA, the main combination is high levels of government support*high levels of glass ceiling index*low levels of masculinity*low levels of opportunities perception and high levels of female employment in sport, explaining 45% of the cases. The results present a series of implications for improving female entrepreneurship in the European Union countries.

Keywords: Female entrepreneurship, European Union countries, sport, glass-ceiling index, economic variables, contextual variables

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-189181

Journal: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 1739-1749, 2021