Women’s entrepreneurship shaped by participation in global value chains and its interactions with female empowerment: A macro-level perspective of European Union countries

Given the growing significance of global value chains in shaping national economies, the paper investigates the impact of countries’ participation in these chains on female entrepreneurship and the role of women’s empowerment in mediating this impact at the macro level. We use macro-panel data for all 27 countries of the European Union. Based on panel regressions, our results show the negative effect of both backward and forward global value chain (GVC) participation on women’s entrepreneurship, implying that the extent of a country’s participation in the international division of labour acts as an obstacle for women to become entrepreneurs. Moreover, women’s empowerment interacts with GVC linkages in shaping female entrepreneurship by reducing the adverse effects of GVCs. The mechanism of interaction differs between the two types of GVC participation. Women’s empowerment interacts with backward GVC participation by mitigating its negative effects on women’s entrepreneurship. In contrast, its interaction with forward GVC participation reverses the initial relationship, making forward GVC participation beneficial for women’s entrepreneurship. This study contributes to the theories of entrepreneurship and international business by adding a gender perspective to discussions on globalisation.