Online Event

Karl Wennberg
Linköping University, Sweden

Abstract:
Gender homophily remains a key driver of female underrepresentation as e.g. directors or employees in new ventures, leaving the study of how gender homophily may be dislodged by and large unexplored. Based on March’s logic of appropriateness, we theorize on and examine the stimuli of vicarious vulnerability, arguing that family members’ vulnerability to gendered norms predisposes male entrepreneurs to view gender egalitarianism as a more appropriate decision-making logic, with implications for hiring women. We test this hypothesis in the quasi-experimental setting of the naturally-random assignment of a child’s sex to a male founder. Analyzing over 50,000 Swedish male-founded ventures show that, conditional on the total number of children, fathering an additional daughter as opposed to a son is associated with a 20% (4%) increase in the probability of hiring a female director (employee). We discuss theoretical implications for the gendered entrepreneurship literature, the family origins of entrepreneurial decisions, and for managerial practice and policy.

Karl Wennberg is professor and University Chair of organization and entrepreneurship at Linköping University in Sweden, where he co-founded the interdisciplinary Institute for Analytical Sociology (www.liu.se/ias). He previously held academic posts at the Stockholm School of Economics and Imperial College London Business School, and has been a visiting researcher at Stanford University, Universidad Pablo Olavide, and Griffiths University. His research deals broadly with entrepreneurship and industry dynamics (entry, exit and growth), macro outcomes from entrepreneurship, and as of late, work group diversity and organizational outcomes.

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