Gender perspectives on university education and entrepreneurship: A conceptual overview

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to direct attention to recent research on women’s entrepreneurship with a focus on university education. A literature review and a summary of authors’ selected papers provide both a context for and an introduction to the articles in this special issue. Design/methodology/approach – This introduction provides an overview of the literature on female entrepreneurship with specific reference to the context of university education. Searches on Web of Science and in this journal were conducted to provide a systematic overview of the area of research. This introductory article ends with a set of propositions for future research engagement. Findings – This paper finds that the quantum of past research endeavours remains limited despite the growing significance of the subject. This paper also finds that developing a focused approach that is based on a female ontology of entrepreneurship, and one that identifies specific contexts, and appropriate methodological considerations that enable enquiry at different levels, are of value to future research. This paper offers four different propositions that address key areas or fields of entrepreneurship research. Research limitations/implications – This paper provides a unique set of propositions together with a framework which helps to both explore new knowledge creation and locate new research within the main fields of entrepreneurship while providing room for extending those fields. Practical implications – This overview provides a framework for universities and policymakers to enable them to take into consideration the critical issues of entrepreneurship in general, and female entrepreneurship in particular, when developing programmes and tools for university education. Originality/value – This paper provides a summary of the trends in research on women’s entrepreneurship with reference to university education. This leads to the development of a set of propositions and a framework for identifying and exploring new research questions that need to be addressed to close important research gaps in the field of entrepreneurship.