Not as different as you'd think - An empirical study on SMEs in East Africa with a gender perspective

Abstract: Africa, Entrepreneurship and Gender all make interesting subjects for academic research individually but more importantly when investigated collectively. Entrepreneurship in Africa is fuelled by rapid development and offers plenty of undiscovered areas such as the effect of gender for conducting business. This paper examines the growth intention, success definition and motivation of owners and founders of small and medium-sized businesses in East Africa. The focus lies on determining whether and which differences between female and male entrepreneurs exist within this context. It aims at contributing to existing research about entrepreneurship in developing countries as well as to the field of gender studies within a business environment. The study applies a mixed-method approach, combining self-completion questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to answer the research questions. Data was collected by the authors in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania during a four week period. The findings of this study suggest that although gender-specific differences can be discovered within certain areas, the subject and the people investigated are too complex to explain the variation in the results solely based on gender.