Innovative and Technology-Based Women Entrepreneurs in Turkey: Capital and Performance
Mehmet Cansız, Pelin Deniz TekneciThis study explores the association of social, cultural, and economic capital with the performance of women entrepreneurs established in Turkey’s technoparks. It contributes to the limited set of women’s entrepreneurial studies in developing countries such as Turkey. In addition, it seeks to understand the relative role of different capital factors in women’s success as entrepreneurs. This has two major implications: the first is that the findings will provide empirical evidence supporting the theories suggested in the entrepreneurial literature on the relationship between different capital factors and entrepreneurial performance. The second is that the findings will inform the decision makers who provide entrepreneurial support. We will address these factors within the framework of Bourdieu’s concept of social, cultural, and economic capital classifications. The data in this paper comes from surveys conducted in 2015 on 196 women entrepreneurs operating in 24 technoparks in 13 of Turkey’s provinces. The statistical model employs logistic regression because the outcome variable “being successful” is binary. We defined a successful entrepreneur as one who has either achieved high growth performance within the last three years or who is currently exporting their products or services. The model includes two control variables and twelve independent variables as proxies of cultural, social, and economic capital. The results show that some of the proxies selected for social and cultural capital are statistically associated with successful women entrepreneurs. Having previous work experience, having three or more partners, and the age of the venture are found to be positively associated with success, whereas having a doctorate-level education is negatively related to it. It is interesting to note that previous entrepreneurship experience has no statistically significant association with entrepreneurial success. Furthermore, none of the selected proxies for economic capital has a statistically significant relationship with being a successful entrepreneur. Moreover, operating in ICT and software sectors is found to be negatively associated with successful performance. This study will contribute to closing gaps in the existing literature that analyzes women entrepreneurs in non-western developing countries and non-traditional industries and to providing a better understanding for developing policies to promote successful women entrepreneurs.
Türkiye’de Yenilikçi ve Teknoloji Tabanlı Kadın Girişimciler: Sermaye ve Performans
Mehmet Cansız, Pelin Deniz TekneciBu çalışma, sosyal, kültürel ve ekonomik sermaye ile Türkiye’deki teknoparklarda iş yapmakta olan kadın girişimcilerin performansı arasındaki ilişkiyi araştırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Türkiye gibi kalkınmakta olan ülkelerde gerçekleştirilen kadın girişimciliği çalışmalarına katkı sağlamanın yanı sıra, kadın girişimcilerin girişimcilik başarılarıyla farklı sermaye faktörlerinin ilişkisini anlamak iki temel çıkarımı ortaya koyacaktır: Birincisi, bu konuda mevcut girişimcilik literatüründe yer alan teoriler açısından ampirik bulgular elde etme, ikincisi ise girişimcilik alanında kamu desteği sağlayan karar mercilerinin kararlarına ışık tutmaktır. Söz konusu sermaye faktörleri açısından Borudieu’nun sosyal, kültürel ve ekonomik sermaye sınıflandırması uygulanmıştır. Çalışma kapsamında, 13 ilde kurulmuş bulunan 24 teknoparkta işyeri sahibi olan 196 kadın girişimciye anket uygulanmıştır. Çalışmanın bağımlı değişkeni başarılı olmak olarak seçilmiş ve son üç yılda hızlı büyüyen ya da ihracat yapan girişimci kadınlar başarılı olarak tanımlanmıştır. Lojistik regresyon modeline iki adet kontrol değişkeni ile sosyal, kültürel ve ekonomik sermaye kapsamında 12 adet bağımsız değişken dahil edilmiştir. Analiz sonuçları sosyal ve kültürel sermaye kapsamında seçilen değişkenlerden bir kısmının istatistiksel olarak kadın girişimcilerin başarısıyla ilişkisi olduğunu göstermektedir. Bu çerçevede, iş tecrübesine sahip olmak, üç ya da daha fazla ortağa sahip olmak ve firmanın yaşının başarıyla pozitif yönde ilişkisi olduğu tespit edilmiştir. İlginç bir şekilde, daha önce girişimcilik deneyimine sahip olma ile başarı arasında bir ilişki saptanmamıştır. Diğer yandan, doktora derecesine sahip olmanın başarıyla negatif yönde ilişkisi olduğu görülmüştür. Ekonomik sermaye kapsamında seçilen değişkenlerin hiçbirinin, girişimcinin başarısıyla istatistiksel olarak anlamlı düzeyde ilişkisi bulunmamıştır. Ayrıca, bilgi iletişim teknolojileri ve yazılım sektöründe iş yapmanın başarıyla ters yönlü ilişkisi olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Bu çalışmanın gelişmekte olan ülkelerde ve geleneksel olmayan sektörlerde çalışan kadın girişimciler konusunda mevcut literatürdeki eksikliği kapatmaya katkı sağlayacağı ve yüksek teknoloji sektörlerde çalışan kadın girişimcilere yönelik destekleme politikalarının tespitine ışık tutacağı düşünülmektedir.
Understanding factors that foster successful entrepreneurs in high-tech sectors is critical to realizing structural changes in an economy. Turkey introduced Technology Development Centers (TEKMER) in 1990, and Technology Development Zones (Technoparks) Law in 2001 in pursuit of promoting knowledge-intensive and high-tech sectors. As of 2017, 65 technoparks have been established in Turkey, of which 53 are active and 12 are in the establishment phase. There are 4,308 firms operating in the technoparks, with 42,015 people employed by them.
On a global scale, the proportion of women entrepreneurs in high-tech sectors is very small and their development prospects are not optimistic. Although the total number of women entrepreneurs doing business in Turkey’s technoparks has not officially been provided, GEM’s 2017 survey reported that among early stage entrepreneurship activity, there are approximately three female entrepreneurs for every ten male entrepreneurs in Turkey. With this ratio, Turkey holds the highest gender gap in terms of entrepreneurship.
To achieve sustainable social and economic growth, Turkey needs to promote technology-based sectors and diminish the entrepreneurship gender gap. Encouraging more women to open new businesses in high-tech sectors can positively influence both targets.
Studies about women’s entrepreneurship in Turkey are still in the early stages, similar to what is reported to be the case in several other developing economies. The focus of the available literature is on identifying the characteristics and problems experienced by women entrepreneurs. There is a significant need to perform empirical studies that link the performance of women entrepreneurs with their characteristics and with other elements of the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Our motivation in this study is to understand a set of social, cultural, and economic factors that are linked to successful women entrepreneurs who are doing business in Turkey’s technoparks. We use Bourdieu’s concept of social, cultural, and economic capital classification as the framework for our analyses. This study will contribute to closing gaps in the existing literature that analyzes women entrepreneurs in non-western developing countries and non-traditional industries and to providing a better understanding of how to develop policies aimed at promoting successful women entrepreneurs. In addition, studying the relative roles of different capital factors in women’s entrepreneurial success has two major implications: the first is that the findings will provide empirical evidence supporting the theories suggested in the entrepreneurial literature on the relationship between different capital factors and entrepreneurial performance. The second implication is that the findings will inform the decision makers who provide entrepreneurial support, such as the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology or KOSGEB (Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization of Turkey).
Within the context of this study, we selected being successful as the dependent variable and defined successful entrepreneurs as those who have either achieved high growth performance within the last three years or who are currently successfully exporting their products or services.
Since our dependent variable, being successful, is a binary measure, we constructed a logistic regression model. Twelve independent variables and two control variables are included in the logistic regression model as proxies of cultural, social, and economic capital. Parents’ education level, having a successful entrepreneur within the close family, the age of the entrepreneur at the time of start-up, whether or not the entrepreneur had attended a private school, the entrepreneur’s education level, previous work experience, and previous entrepreneurship experience are selected as cultural capital proxies in our model. Number of partners, age of the venture, and whether or not the venture was involved in any joint research and development (R&D) projects with other firms or universities are selected as social capital proxies in the model. Finally, the amount of savings before starting a venture, the scope of financial support received from family, and whether or not the venture received support from the TEKMER program funded by the SME Development Organization are selected as economic capital proxies. Performance scores of the technoparks and the sector that the venture is operating in are the two control variables used in this study.
Data used in this study comes from a larger survey that was conducted in 2015 on 1,112 firm owners who were selected from firms located in 26 active technoparks using simple random sampling with replacement method. To prevent small-scale bias, we included firms from technoparks that host at least 50 firms. Of those involved in the survey, 196 turned out to be women working in 24 technoparks located in 13 different provinces. This study covers data pertaining to these women entrepreneurs.
Our results indicate that some of the proxies selected for social and cultural capital are statistically associated with successful women entrepreneurs. In this regard, previous work experience, having three or more partners, and the age of the venture are positively associated with success, whereas having a doctorate-level education is negatively related to it. Of interest is the fact that previous entrepreneurship experience does not have any statistically significant association with entrepreneurial success. Moreover, none of the selected proxies for economic capital is found to have a statistically significant relationship with being a successful entrepreneur. In addition, operating in the ICT and software sectors is also found to be negatively associated with successful performance.