Encouraging female entrepreneurship potentially has huge benefits for society, but efforts to date have often floundered due to a misunderstanding of both the motivation and the challenges female entrepreneurs face.  New research from Carnegie Mellon aims to help bolster our understanding of one aspect of that, by exploring some of the motivations of female entrepreneurs.

The analysis reveals that female entrepreneurs are more likely to be motivated by the potential of their startup to make a positive social impact than they are by any ambition to become rich.

“Our results provide insights into the role of different motivations that affect the entrepreneurial process,” the researchers say. “Understanding the impact of motivations can help firms identify and create strategies to develop competitive entrepreneurial advantage.”

Entrepreneurial motivation

The researchers conducted three field experiments to understand fully just what motivates entrepreneurs.  In total, they quizzed 15,000 or so entrepreneurs who had participated in the Inclusive Innovation Challenge (IIC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a bunch of entrepreneurs from the AngelList website.

Each of the entrepreneurs was sent either a social impact message (related to the social impact of IIC projects), a financial message (related to the financial benefits of participating in IIC), or a neutral message focused primarily on technology.  The motivation of each entrepreneurs was inferred from the response each gave to their particular message.

The feedback revealed clear differences between respondents, with women far more responsive to the social impact message than they were the financial message, with men typically the reverse.  The authors believe this difference is likely to be driven by the differences in the social impact message specifically.

“Our findings suggest that it’s important to have a broader conceptualization of the motivations of innovative entrepreneurs that focuses on motivations beyond profit, and that accounts for fundamental dimensions of heterogeneity such as gender and culture,” the researchers conclude. “The results can inform interventions that foster innovative entrepreneurship policies and programs.”