Legitimacy is essential to ensure the continued existence of companies. Depending on whether stakeholders consider entrepreneurs’ behavior to be appropriate, they decide whether to provide entrepreneurs with resources. Women entrepreneurs in an environment with a traditional understandig of roles such as Germany have to make more efforts to gain and maintain legitimacy than men entrepreneurs. Based on how women and men entrepreneurs deal with bureaucracy in Germany, this study investigates whether women and men entrepreneurs respond differently to expectations. Results indicate that women entrepreneurs behave less rebelliously than men entrepreneurs. They are less likely to circumvent rules and expectations. When the rules of the game in a society change, for example in times of crises, strict adherence to rules to maintain legitimacy may block renewal processes.
External publication | 2024 Legitimacy of women entrepreneurs: forced to behave according to rules?
Schlepphorst, S.; Brink, S.; Welter, F. (2024): Legitimacy of women entrepreneurs: forced to behave according to rules? In: C. Henry, J. Ballantine, S. Yousafzai, R. Narendran (Hrsg.), Women’s Entrepreneurship in a Turbulent Era, S. 169–188.