Over the last twenty years female entrepreneurs have been increasing in numbers in economies of developing and developed nations across the world. But although female entrepreneurship participation rates have increased worldwide, it appears that economic and socio cultural patterns still prescribe whether a female can become or want to become an entrepreneur in her society. Some reasons are obvious such as lack of employment and opportunities; other are disguised in patriarchal culture that deters female entrepreneurship. Against this backdrop it appears that in less developed countries necessity and informal entrepreneurship are more prevalent than opportunity entrepreneurship. An explanation from economic nature for this phenomenon is perhaps the fact that with less job opportunities available in developing nations, the ‘need’ to become an entrepreneur seems to be the answer for females to make a living by creating their own jobs. At the socio cultural level, the motivation to become an entrepreneur out of need surfaces because of the socio cultural structure of certain nations that hinder females from finding work that brings them independence, self actualization and flexibility for work-life balance. This qualitative exploratory study investigates the phenomenon of female entrepreneurship comparing female entrepreneurship in two contexts: Brazil and the United States. The economic differences on a macro level between these two countries have been well documented and national socio cultural differences have been discussed. But very little has been focused at the individual level of the female entrepreneur per se, that is, how they perceive and experience the economic and the social cultural macro environment with their businesses. This research attempts to fill this gap. This was done by first reviewing the literature and then by analysing the responses from face to face and telephone interviews with 34 female entrepreneurs in Brazil and 26 in the United States. The findings indicated that female entrepreneurs in Brazil and the United States share similarities in motivation for starting the business in terms of pull factors, such as search for financial independence, want to be one’s own boss, need for autonomy, and self actualization. The women from both groups also identified customer satisfaction and recognition from society as key elements for their business success. But business informality was a phenomenon only found among the Brazilian enterprises (the informais) a factor found to be directly related to economic necessity and the scarcity of waged jobs and opportunities. The perception of gender barriers was shared by both groups of entrepreneurs but other factors such as religion and the importance of faith to succeed in business were emphasized only by the Americans. Higher education was perceived by both groups as an instrument to gain recognition from society, but not important to grow their businesses; vocational training was perceived as more important. Networking was perceived as important, but different patterns of networking emerged among the Brazilians and the Americans. Definitions of success also differ among the women independent from their nationality. Some were more inclined to define success in financial terms, others simply define success in terms of flexibility and the ‘got to be in control’ syndrome. This research contributed to an increased understanding of the processes of female entrepreneurship as it related to how economic and socio cultural forces influence these processes. The findings indicated that the female entrepreneurship process becomes a combination of two processes: a person driven process and a response to environment process. Mentoring and coaching programs that assist women finding their path to entrepreneurship along with their own passions should be emphasized by local agencies. Although policy development was not the specific objective of this study, a number of issues have arisen that have implications both for future research and female entrepreneurship policies. For instance, in Brazil, higher taxes and the high cost of starting a business were perceived by the women as barriers to their businesses. It is suggested that Brazilian authorities and legislators continue with their efforts to streamline the business start process by introducing innovative and cost effective ways to formalize a business.

p. 1-123 / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2013-03-26T18:12:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 11111.pdf: 1065331 bytes, checksum: 433b17e47e141509ab82ff3319251b0d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lima(tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2013-04-08T18:29:46Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 11111.pdf: 1065331 bytes, checksum: 433b17e47e141509ab82ff3319251b0d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-04-08T18:29:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 11111.pdf: 1065331 bytes, checksum: 433b17e47e141509ab82ff3319251b0d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003 / O tema "empreendedorismo e empreendedor" vem ocupando lugar de destaque nos estudos e pesquisas de vários campos da ciência, notadamente na administração. Nas duas últimas décadas, universidades, organizações e governos, têm se debruçado sobre esse objeto de pesquisa na procura por um melhor entendimento, abordando-o como uma das variáveis importantes na busca pelo desenvolvimento. O Brasil elegeu a difusão do empreendedorismo como uma das formas de dinamizar alguns segmentos de mercado do País. Este trabalho busca acrescentar uma contribuição ao entendimento do empreendedorismo, no que se refere à habilitação e emergência de novos empreendedores. Esta capacitação, contudo, é um assunto controverso, não existindo ainda uma aceitação consensual quanto a ser factível. Na primeira parte deste trabalho, o tema "empreendedorismo e empreendedor" é apresentado, e a seguir é discutida a possibilidade de capacitação empreendedora. Na segunda parte, é feito um estudo de caso do Programa IES/SOFTEX, onde é abordada a exeqüibilidade do modelo de capacitação adotado por esse programa. O IES/SOFTEX foi implementado com a missão de capacitar os alunos de graduação, dos cursos superiores de informática e ciência da computação, a serem empreendedores. Um modelo de capacitação foi criado, associando uma disciplina de capacitação empreendedora a uma incubadora, para acolher e materializar os planos de negócio oriundos desta disciplina. O referido programa é uma complementaridade ao Programa SOFTEX, criado pelo governo brasileiro com o objetivo de acelerar o crescimento da indústria de software. Na parte final do trabalho estão reunidas as conclusões decorrentes deste estudo, onde constata-se a difusão gradual do conceito empreendedor. Nesta estão assinalados a validade do modelo adotado, alguns fatores críticos e limitantes e sua aplicabilidade a outros segmentos de indústria. Estes elementos estão ali registrados e comentados, sendo também sugeridas possíveis melhorias. / Salvador

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:33:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Hovani_Luiz_Cortiz_Argeri.pdf: 622870 bytes, checksum: 761e3301de9e53bb01307cfd416ffc92 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-03 / This study explores the feminine microentrepreneurship and their financial management practices. The theme of this work has gained importance in academic and business level, among other factors, by the growth in the number of women landowners ventures. In addition, nationwide, there are few developed research on the female microentrepreneurship. Another important fact is the emergence of public policies that have achieved microenterprises, which reflects the importance of this issue to the national stage. In this sense, this study aims to discuss how the micro-entrepreneurs make the financial management of their business. To achieve this goal, the research, which has qualitative and exploratory character, has systematic literature review and semi-structured script research, which builds on a non-probabilistic intentional sample. Ten micro-entrepreneurs were interviewed. The main results point to the following propositions: (i) the micro-entrepreneurs interviewed have good notions of financial management tools; (ii) the micro-entrepreneurs interviewed have access to banking services, however the vast majority of respondents make use of basic banking credit and debit services; (iii) the micro-entrepreneurs have notions of finance, financial, accounting, interest rates, these notions that are directly related to the characteristics of microentrepreneurs interviewed. / Esse estudo explora o microempreendedorismo feminino e suas pr??ticas de gest??o financeira. O tema do trabalho tem ganhado import??ncia em ??mbito acad??mico e empresarial, entre outros fatores, pelo crescimento do n??mero de mulheres propriet??rias de empreendimentos. Al??m disso, em ??mbito nacional, h?? poucas pesquisas desenvolvidas sobre o microempreendedorismo feminino. Outro fato de destaque ?? o surgimento de pol??ticas p??blicas que t??m alcan??ado microempreendimentos, o que reflete a import??ncia dessa tem??tica para o cen??rio nacional. Nesse sentido, o presente estudo se prop??e a discutir como as microempreendedoras fazem a gest??o financeira de seus neg??cios. Para atingir esse objetivo, a pesquisa, a qual tem car??ter qualitativo e explorat??rio, conta com revis??o sistem??tica da literatura e com roteiro de pesquisa semiestruturado, que toma como base uma amostra n??o probabil??stica e intencional. Foram entrevistadas dez microempreendedoras da amostra pr??-selecionada. Os principais resultados apontam para as seguintes proposi????es: (i) as microempreendedoras entrevistadas t??m boas no????es das ferramentas de gest??o financeira; (ii) as microempreendedoras entrevistadas t??m acesso aos servi??os banc??rios, entretanto, a grande maioria das entrevistadas se utiliza de servi??os banc??rios b??sicos, tais como d??bito e cr??dito; (iii) as microempreendedoras possuem no????es de finan??as, riscos financeiros, contabilidade e taxas de juros, no????es estas que est??o diretamente relacionadas ??s caracter??sticas das microempreendedoras entrevistadas.