For a better understanding of the embeddedness of women student entrepreneurs into the entrepreneurial ecosystem
Résumé
For several decades, entrepreneurship education has developed on the basis of a rich set of programmes, structures and measures, particularly in the United States and Europe. More and more universities are offering their students, courses, training and extra-curricular support to increase their motivation and skills to create a business, especially in view of their low social and human capital. However, this support facilitating insertion of student entrepreneurs into the entrepreneurial ecosystem is provided as if the entrepreneur were sexless and genderless even though academic research has been interested in the specificity of women's entrepreneurship for about forty years, with an acceleration over the last decade.
Drawing on the concepts of entrepreneurial ecosystems, sub-ecosystems, gender and social capital theory, we propose a conceptual model of the embeddedness of women student entrepreneurs in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. This model highlights the embeddedness of this population in a global entrepreneurial ecosystem formed by the mainstream entrepreneurial ecosystem as well as two sub-entrepreneurial ecosystems, the women-only sub-ecosystem and the academic sub-ecosystem. Each of these entrepreneurial or sub-entrepreneurial ecosystems allow women student entrepreneurs to benefit from complementarials resources.