Gender differences in entrepreneurship in a South Korean context: convergence, divergence, and ambiguity

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine how Korea's institutional environment – drawing on Scott's (1995) regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive pillars – shapes gender differences in entrepreneurship, using Jennings and Brush's (2013) four themes as an organizing lens: how is entrepreneurial activity gendered? How is entrepreneurial activity embedded in families? How does entrepreneurial activity result from necessity- and/or opportunity-based motives? And how do entrepreneurs pursue goals beyond economic gain? Design/methodology/approach To answer the four research questions, we chose an interpretive qualitative study design and conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 women and 19 men entrepreneurs and analyzed the interview data, following two stages of coding: the initial stage of identification and the second stage of refining categories. Findings Analysis of men and women entrepreneurs' narratives provided qualitative details about business startup and development during their long tenure in their own words. We report on the findings in line with four themes: (1) gendered beliefs and relations; (2) family factors; (3) necessity: and/or opportunity-based motives, and (4) goals beyond economic gain, along with participants' direct quotes as evidence. Research limitations/implications This qualitative study suggests that Jennings and Brush's (2013) four themes are not uniformly gendered in a Korean context but are differently conditioned by Scott's (1995) regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive pillars: divergence was most pronounced where normative and cultural-cognitive forces shape entrepreneurial experiences, while convergence surfaced where both genders faced the organizational-level pressures (e.g. market competition). This institutional-pillar perspective extends Jennings and Brush's framework by showing which institutional forces explain patterns over themes, bound to the Korean Confucian, patriarchal, and collectivist context. Practical implications At the organizational level, participants' family-friendly culture for business success can be used for HR interventions for entrepreneurs. At the institutional level, entrepreneurship education for aspiring entrepreneurs should consider five questions: for whom (the target group), what (the content), why (the course objectives), how (pedagogies), and for what results (course evaluations). At the national level, the government should provide gender-sensitive support, reflecting men and women's similar but different needs. Originality/value First, this study extends Jennings and Brush's framework by showing, through the institutional pillars, which regulative, normative, or cultural-cognitive forces explain when both genders' motives, family factors, and business development diverge, converge, or remain ambiguous; second, it provides details on how culture shapes entrepreneurship, moving beyond the general claim that culture “may influence” entrepreneurship to identifying particular institutional pillars in a non-Western (Korean) context; and third, this study exerted an effort to capture qualitative details from both genders' lived experiences in their own words.