Innovative and Technology-Based Women Entrepreneurs in Turkey: Capital and Performance

This 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