Title: Gender risk preference in entrepreneurial opportunity: evidence from Iran

Authors: Amir Emami

Addresses: Department of Management and Production Engineering (DIGEP), University of Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, IN 10129, Italy

Abstract: This paper examines how different representations of entrepreneurial opportunity can influence the risk preference of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, and whether this differs between men and women. A survey methodology was used with a random sample of 135 entrepreneurs and 126 non-entrepreneurs. The methodology was presented through a new risky choice framework containing five entrepreneurial opportunities. The first results indicate that framing information of opportunity caused significant differences in risk preferences between the entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs and also between the males and females. In negative situations, except for the lowest risk level of the experiment, the male entrepreneurs tended to choose higher risky opportunities than the female entrepreneurs. However, neither group showed a preference for the lowest opportunity return in certainty. In addition, a comparative analysis showed that there were more differences between the four groups in the negative situations than in the positive situations. The detailed differences and risk preferences of each of the four groups were also analysed. The results have been discussed with emphasis on entrepreneurship.

Keywords: entrepreneurial opportunities; gender differences; opportunity evaluation; risky framing; Iran; risk preferences; entrepreneurship; entrepreneurs; non-entrepreneurs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2017.081435

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2017 Vol.30 No.2, pp.147 - 169

Received: 13 May 2015
Accepted: 20 Aug 2015
Published online: 08 Jan 2017 *

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