Purpose – The purpose of this master thesis is to offer a number of illustrations of Russian female entrepreneurs in order to identify potential motivational factors that make Russian women launch their own business start-ups. Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative research method is applied within the master thesis based on information received from secondary (case studies) and primary (semi-structured interviews) data collection methods. The actor view and combination of directed and summative approaches of the qualitative content analysis update the information gathered within the theoretical studies of peer-reviewed articles on female entrepreneurship in general and particularly in Russia. Findings – Female entrepreneurs are not a homogenous group. Motivational factors can be divided in two groups: both applicable to male and female entrepreneurship; exclusively female motivations. “The glass ceiling effect” is a common problem that pushes women into self-employment. “Internal-stable reasons” encourage women entrepreneurship as an opportunity to achieve work-life balance and be one’s own boss. The desire of social contribution is a driver of female entrepreneurship, too. Marriage and birth of children make females think about starting their own businesses as well. Female entrepreneurship discrimination in Russia still exists up to now, in particular: sexism and dalliance. The principle motivational factors for women entrepreneurs in Russia are: wholesome family relationship and family support. One can behold a developing positive trend inside the boundaries of various discrimination problems that used to frustrate the majority of females determined to embark on entrepreneurial activity. Still the majority of females who are determined to launch entrepreneurial projects consider marriage to be a significant and useful social institution. Research limitations/implications – The research studies on women entrepreneurship in the world are at the infancy stage, much less in Russia. Thus, the number of articles on female entrepreneurship is willing to be broaden. The only conduction of interviews in terms of empirical analysis is not enough and could be supported by surveys and focus groups in the future. The authors are limited in time and resources for the analysis of such a vast topic as well as restrictions in the regional context (central regions – Moscow) disallow to apply findings in relation to the whole Russian Federation. Practical implications – The findings of the master thesis could be used by researchers to replicate the study of motivational factors in a multiregional sample and to know whether the results are similar in all regions of Russia; and policy makers to motivate women to become entrepreneurs as it is a source of new jobs and allows women to be active participants in the country’s economy.

The Bergslagen region in Sweden has a history of iron and steel production, and in the small industrial towns in the region, one large employer has often held a strong position. Although the region has gone through structural change since the 1970’s, in previous research, becoming self-employed is perceived of as difficult, since it implies going against a strong working culture. The image of Bergslagen is that of a non-entrepreneurial region. Furthermore, in previous research, the gender contract in the region is characterized as traditional. In this thesis light is shed on women in the region who are self-employed. Topics that are focused on are work experience, role models, family situation and networks. The study builds on qualitative interviews and longitudinal registry based statistics (1993-2003). The interviews were carried out in the municipalities of Norberg and Fagersta with self-employed women in the fields of health and business services. Conclusions drawn concern both the region Bergslagen as an entrepreneurial region and the lives of self-employed women. The situations and conditions under which women become and remain self-employed displays a complex interaction between different areas of life, both in relation to the start-up phase and the subsequent running of their businesses. The idea of the region as non-entrepreneurial is scrutinized. For one, the share of self-employed in the Bergslagen municipalities only differs among men, compared to the national average. The share of self-employed women in the region, however, is similar to the national average. Furthermore, the share of self-employed men and women varies among the municipalities within the region. Thus, it is problematic to speak of the region as non-entrepreneurial and as homogenous when it comes to self-employment and entrepreneurship. These findings indicate that the idea of the region as non-entrepreneurial is an expression of both the region being male coded and women entrepreneurs being subordinated.

xv, 111 p. : ill. / Despite numerous legislative and programmatic efforts, individuals with disabilities continue to experience greater difficulties gaining employment and poorer outcomes of employment than individuals without disabilities. These disparities negatively impact society. My review of the U.S. empirical research literature suggests, however, that self-employment could improve employment opportunities and outcomes for individuals with disabilities, and their success is most influenced by individual characteristics, level of supports, and accountability systems. In this dissertation study, I used a nonexperimental research design to investigate six research questions with Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) statistical analyses. Extant data on more than a million clients of vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies from the 50 states and District of Columbia for fiscal years 2003 to 2007 were obtained from the Rehabilitation Services Administration. Results of the HLM analysis indicated that among the significant (<italic>p</italic><.001) predictors of self-employment closure across the fiscal years, ethnicity had the strongest effect. The initial SEM analysis produced an inadmissible solution; the respecified model of individual characteristics, level of supports, and accountability systems produced a reasonable model fit in each fiscal year. The model invariance testing across the four U.S. Census Regions indicated a reasonable fit in each fiscal year when model parameters were freely estimated for each region, but very poor fit and significant differences were indicated when some parameters were fixed to be equal across the regions. The major limitations of this dissertation study are model misspecification in HLM and SEM and the small number of RSA fiscal years that were analyzed; causal inferences cannot be made. The primary implication of this study for researchers is using the results of the statistical analyses to develop and test theories about self-employment of individuals with disabilities through VR. The primary implication for VR is using the results to make decisions about services and agency policies. Recommendations for further research include (a) using Laplace estimation in HLM, (b) analyzing other HLM random effects and predictors, (c) testing a SEM model of different indicators and factor structure with Bayesian estimation, and (d) conducting empirical longitudinal studies given the complex developmental processes of self-employment. / Committee in charge: Richard Albin Chair; Deanne Unruh, Member; Deborah Olson, Member; Lauren Lindstrom, Member; Patricia Gwartney, Outside Member

This study aims to analyse women’s self-employment in five regions of Europe, namely Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, North-West Europe and Western Europe in two years, 2002 and 2016. To assess the factors affecting women’s self-employment in Europe we base our analysis on push and pull theory and as far as the quantitative part is concerned we estimate a probit model. Our research questions are the following: What socio-economic factors influence women to enter self-employment in the five regions of Europe? How are these factors related to the push and pull theory? Is there a trend of convergence over time in the five European regions studied? The main findings are that being women decreases the probability to become self-employed in the five European regions, except in the Northern part of Europe. The result suggests that women more often than men are pushed into self-employment as they have to balance work with family. Being young (18-35) also decreases the probability of being self-employed compared to middle age individual (36-50) in the year 2002 and 2016. Individuals with low and medium-skill level have a lower probability of being self-employed in comparison to the individual with high skill. Regarding the research questions, this study found that variable age (18-36), age (51-65), married, children, medium education, high education, low skill and high skill are factors that influence women in their decision to become self-employed. Observing the change over time of self-employment, we found that the probability increases being selfemployed in Southern Europe whereas it decreases in Northern Europe.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-11T13:41:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Raquel_Salgado_Marques.pdf: 6909693 bytes, checksum: 4538981a4e5d6aa9aac1b4dd67836bae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-27 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The world of work in the city of Manaus started and goes through many changes that are detected mainly by increasing the number of workers who fall within the informal market daily, occupying spaces in the city as an area of work. Among these spacesis the port of São Raimundo, included among the 57 ports along the waterfront of Manaus, which extends from the mouth of the river to the mouth of Tarumã Puraquequara River, an area of 43 km, located on the left bank Negro River in the west of the city of Manaus, and that makes the crossing to the port of Cacau District Pirêra. These ports are manifestations of multiple places of work. Have a significant number of men and women who use the space port, the ferries and boats for their livelihoods. This dissertation deals with the precarious and informal subject oftransporting people and goods sold in an intense shuttle between the port and the port of São Raimundo Cacau Pirêra. Our goal is to characterize the daily work ofstreet vendors and taxi drivers of sea-freight, operating in informality, precariousness and Girded by the neglect of the public. / O mundo do trabalho na cidade de Manaus passou e passa por inúmeras transformações que são constatadas, principalmente, pelo acréscimo do número de trabalhadores que se inserem no mercado informal cotidianamente, ocupando espaços da cidade como território de trabalho. Entre esses espaços está o porto do São Raimundo, incluído entre os 57 portos ao longo da beira-rio de Manaus, que se estende desde a foz do rio Tarumã até a foz do rio Puraquequara, numa área de 43 Km, localizado à margem esquerda do rio Negro, na zona Oeste da cidade de Manaus, e que faz a travessia até ao porto do Distrito do Cacau Pirêra. Esses portos são lugares de múltiplas manifestações de trabalho. Apresentam um número significativo de homens e mulheres que utilizam o espaço do porto, das balsas e dos barcos como meio de subsistência. Essa dissertação versa sobre o trabalho precário e informal desses sujeitos que transportam pessoas e vendem mercadorias num intenso vaivém entre o porto do São Raimundo e o porto do Cacau Pirêra. Nosso objetivo é caracterizar o trabalho cotidiano dos vendedores ambulantes e dos motoristas de táxi marítimo-frete, que atuam na informalidade, cingidos pela precarização e pelo esquecimento do poder público.

This thesis focuses on tax burden including social security contributions of employment and self-employment in selected countries as Czech Republic, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. The aim of the thesis is to compare differences in taxation and social security contribution of employees and entrepreneurs. The first part of the thesis is focused on the main differences in taxation and social security contributions between selected countries, then each chapter is describing rules for tax and contributions calculation of employment and self-employment. In the end of the each chapter there are examples of tax burden including social security contributions of different tax payers with different incomes. And finally in the end of the thesis there is comparison of all selected countries. The results of analysis show that in all selected countries are entrepreneurs advantaged compared to employees and Czech Republic has the most significant differences in tax burden including social security contributions than other selected countries.

This paper contributes to the field of research on entrepreneurship and self-employment. More explicitly, it contributes to the research regarding heterogeneity by studying the ‘necessity’ self-employed. In this paper, we question the notion of ‘necessity’ and its connection to weak labour market attainment by measuring individual’s human capital in relation to local labour market structures. The used data derives from relevant labour market data combined with data from a postal survey study conducted in 2011, containing self-employed between the age 25–64. The results show no connection between labour market attainment and ‘necessity’ self-employment. The results however indicate a correlation between sociodemographic-aspects and ‘necessity’ self-employment.

The main goal of the thesis was to create a business plan for the purpose of the Tennis Academy foundation and to consider objective conditions (of the foundation) and profitability of the business plan. The business plan contains these main parts: the introduction of the firm's activities and strategies, total market analysis (includes information about the particular market, competition, customer analysis), promotion (the way how to affect and attract new customers), detailed 2 years financial projection (including real and pessimistic modifications of the projection) and risks identification and evaluation (within pessimistic modification of the financial projection). The conclusion of the business plan confirmed the profitability and consider objective conditions mentioned above as accepted. The final decision is to set up the business.

The thesis consists of three empirical essays on the topics of self-employment, happiness and international trade. Essay 1 studies how immigrant self-employment entry is affected by the local business cycle in Sweden. Using the unemployment rate at the local labour market level as a proxy for the local business cycle, our study shows that the self-employment entry behaviour for native men and immigrant men is negatively affected by the unemployment rate, except for immigrants from Middle East. However, such a negative effect is quantitatively weaker among the non-European immigrants. Further, the result shows that immigrants from the Middle East are positively affected by the unemployment rate, meaning they are more likely to be pushed into self-employment in recessions. For women, we also find the unemployment rate has a negative impact on the self-employment decision of native women and immigrant women, except for the Middle East group. However, compared with men, the quantitative size of the unemployment rate effect on self-employment is smaller among women, implying the less important role of business cycle in determining females’ entry into self-employment. Essay 2 investigates the non-pecuniary return of self-employment in China. The results show that the life satisfaction of self-employed men is significantly higher than that of wage-employed men; the life satisfaction of self-employed women is not statistically significant different from that of wage-employed women. Moreover, we show that the life satisfaction of self-employed men in the informal sector is significantly higher than that of wage-employed men in the formal sector. The life satisfaction of wage-employed men in the informal sector is not significantly different from that of wage-employed men in the formal sector. For women, we find that there is no significant life satisfaction disparity between workers in the formal and informal sector. Finally, our job satisfaction data also concludes that self-employment in China is not inferior to wage employment. Essay 3 evaluates how Swedish manufacturing employment is affected by the increasing import competition from China. The results show that the growth of manufacturing employment is not statistically significant affected by the increasing import competition from China. Moreover, in general, the increasing import exposure from China does not significantly affect the employment growth of non-manufacturing sector either. Regarding the earnings, the analysis shows that the low wage earners in the manufacturing sector is not significantly affected by the increasing import penetration from China while median and high wage earners are positively affected.

This dissertation explores how economic, organizational, and personal factors affect self-employment transitions, occupational decisions, and firm formation activities of individuals at different positions in the skill distribution. The first essay of my dissertation studies how local unemployment rates differentially affect entry into self-employment by individuals at different places in the skill distribution. The empirical results show a positive correlation between local unemployment rates and entry into self-employment for low-ability workers, but not for high-ability workers. Including employer size to eliminate possible distortions showed that the positive association between unemployment and self-employment among low-ability workers is in fact driven by the small firm effect. Controlling for firm size yields a negative association between unemployment and self-employment among high-ability workers. Effects of organizational capital, human capital and physical capital, on the firm formation activities of people at distinct skill levels depend on the type of the industry which is chosen for the new firm. Two types of industries, capital-intensive and ability-intensive, are utilized to explore this hypothesis in the second essay. A capital-intensive industry requires more physical investment, and consequently more funds, whereas, an ability-intensive industry requires more human capital. It is shown that high human capital requirements are associated with higher earnings among the most able individuals, and therefore makes them more likely to found firms in an ability-intensive industry. Wealthy people are more likely to establish both capital-intensive and ability-intensive firms, even though the amount of funds necessary for two industry types differs. Moreover, entry into both industries is predicted to happen later in life due to the removal of entry barriers constituted by required investment spending using savings when old. Empirical mixed results are observed. The third essay investigates earning differentials between future entrepreneurs and their non-entrepreneurial colleagues. Results show that high-ability firm-owners in an ability-intensive industry were earning more than those that remained in wage-work, whereas, low-ability firm-owners in a capital-intensive industry were earning less than those remaining in paid-work.