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A!qualitative!study!on!strategic!media!management!by!female!entrepreneurs!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Student!Name:! Nina!Kotterik! Student!Number:! 2607229!(VU)!&!10003595!(UvA)! ! Supervisor:!! ! Dr.!Marco!van!Gelderen! Second!Reader:! Dr.!Karen!Verduijn! ! Master!Entrepreneurship!(Joint!degree)! Vrije!Universiteit!Amsterdam!(VU)! University!of!Amsterdam!(UvA)! ! ! Master!Thesis!! 18.782!words! ! July%1st,%2017% !2
Media portrayal of female entrepreneurs: shattering stereotypes
A qualitative study on the media management of female entrepreneursABSTRACT
Recent studies have shown the stereotypical presentation of female entrepreneurs and revealed it is influencing the ability for women entrepreneurs to succeed in their line of work. A growing importance of women in business circles has encouraged further research into female entrepreneurship and their position in the working field. By conducting interviews with ten well-established female entrepreneurs from ‘the Next Women 100 list 2016’, this study has researched how female entrepreneurs manage their presentation in media and what their strategy is in doing so. Several strategies and reasons for media portrayal by female entrepreneurs have been discovered, such as using media for visibility and being a role model to other women. Additionally this research has found that female characteristics have a positive impact on the identity of the respondents, influencing the formation of their media management strategy as they experience an advantage over male entrepreneurs due to the scarcity of female
entrepreneurship. This study also shows that being a role model is important for female entrepreneurs since they feel they can empower other women or a future generation of women in several aspects. This study focuses on four themes: audacity, work-life balance, femininity and empowerment. Portrayal of audacity in media has shown to be of importance as female entrepreneurs argue most women are too modest to portray their success, which needs adjustment in their experience. Additionally, work-life balance has illustrated the shift that should be facilitated, especially in media, from a traditional portrayal of women in society to a more modern view where female entrepreneurs can also be professionally successful depicted. Femininity has shown a negative use of media in terms of portrayal of female entrepreneurs, where a need surfaced for more positive female role models to break this stereotypical and
conventional view. The female entrepreneurs manage their media portrayal with regard to reasons of portrayal and the message they want to convey.
KEYWORDS: Female entrepreneurs, media management, entrepreneurship, interviews, identity, perception of others, role models, audacity, work-life balance, femininity, empowerment, strategy formation.
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Table of Contents
ABSTRACT... 2
1. Introduction... 5
1.1 Research questions ...6 1.2 Research gap ...7 1.3 Structure...82. Literature review ... 9
2.1 The role of media in constructing entrepreneurship ... 10
2.2 Constructions of female entrepreneurship ... 11
2.3 Media strategy ... 13
2.3.1 Identity... 14
2.3.2 Perception of others... 16
2.3.3 The three forms of strategy ... 17
2.4 Themes in media on female entrepreneurship ... 20
2.4.1 Audacity ... 20 2.4.2 Work-life balance ... 21 2.4.3 Femininity ... 22 2.4.4 Empowerment ... 23 2.5 Conclusion ... 24
3. Methodology ... 25
3.1 Research design ... 26 3.2 Sample ... 27 3.3 Interviews ... 30 3.3.1 Measures ... 303.3.2 The strategies of female entrepreneurs ... 31
3.3.3 Factors in media strategy formation... 32
3.3.4 Themes in female entrepreneurial media ... 33
3.4 Data analysis ... 35
4. Results ... 36
4.1 Audacity ... 38 4.2.1 Media strategy ... 39 4.2 Work-life balance... 40 4.2.1 Media strategy ... 434
4.3 Femininity ... 44
4.3.1 Skills ... 44
4.3.2 Media strategy ... 45
4.4 Empowerment... 47
4.4.1 Role model & inspiration ... 47
4.4.2 Media strategy ... 48
4.5 Factors in media strategy formation ... 50
4.5.1 Identity... 51
4.5.2 Distinction of female entrepreneurs ... 54
4.5.3 Perception of others... 55
4.6 Media presentation ... 58
4.6.1 Reasons ... 58
4.6.2 Strategies ... 60
5. Discussion & conclusion ... 63
References ... 73
Appendix A: The Next Women List 2016 ... 77
Appendix B: Validity & reliability ... 81
Appendix C: Topic list interviews ... 83
Appendix D: Interview transcripts ... 85
1. Introduction
A recent article by Mälmstrom et al. (2017) reveals how stereotypical presentation of female entrepreneurs is influencing their ability to succeed as an entrepreneur. Differences in the description of male and female entrepreneurs were attributed to stereotypical characteristics as sensible versus too cautious, and promising versus inexperienced. Research as such suggests that stereotyping, in this case through language, underpins the image of a man as a true entrepreneur while undermining the image of a woman as the same (Mälmstrom et al., 2017).
This study aims to research how female entrepreneurs experience media coverage and address their strategies in media management. As described above, there are still cultural and social contradictions surrounding the role of female entrepreneurs, reinforcing the cycle of the traditional, more conventional view of women in
entrepreneurship. This research focuses on breaking that cycle and give insights into how female entrepreneurs manage such views in media.
Entrepreneurship, or the concept entrepreneur, has a broad range of definitions. Within this research, the entrepreneur is defined as an individual who operates or has operated, and/or started her own business (Stewart et al., 1999). In addition, this research tends to focus on (female) entrepreneurs whom are managing a business with multiple people and revenue of over two million. In other words, this research focuses on well-established female entrepreneurs whom have had (some) experience with media over time.
To focus on well-established female entrepreneurs, this research uses The Next Women as a source (www.thenextwomen.com). The Next Women is a business
accelerator for female entrepreneurs, who’s mission it is to promote and strengthen female entrepreneurs, professionals and investors. It is a platform for women with ambition, optimism, and perseverance (The Next Women, 2017a). The Next Women (2017b) argues that there are several advantages to being a female entrepreneur, such as emotional intelligence, ability to collaborate and even financial benefits. However, research such as Mälmstrom et al. (2017) argues the opposite by stating the portrayal of women in entrepreneurship is disadvantageous. This research tends to give insight into the matter by researching the experience of female entrepreneurs themselves and their strategies in media management in terms of media portrayal.
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1.1 Research questions
As stated above, a tension was found between articles stating the benefits of being a female entrepreneur and the negative drawbacks of being a female entrepreneur. Essers and Benschop (2007) argue that being female and being entrepreneur requires various strategies to negotiate identities. The media plays an important role in constructing such identities by transmitting the values of a society and reflecting public perceptions (Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011). The construction of female entrepreneurship is implicitly constructed as diverging from the male norm of entrepreneurship within media (Bruni et al., 2004). Therefore, this study has found a research gap when it comes to the experiences of female entrepreneurs with media portrayal and their strategies regarding the management of media.
The above-mentioned elements lead to the following research question: “How do female entrepreneurs manage their presentation in media and what is their strategy in doing so?” In other words, how do female entrepreneurs manage their media
presentation and what is the intent behind their actions. The following sub-questions have been formulated:
What are media management strategies?
How does identity form the strategy of female entrepreneurs in the management of media?
How does the perception of others form the strategy of female entrepreneurs in the management of media?
To give an elaborate view on the topic, this research has focused on four specific themes in female entrepreneurial media to give an in-depth view on the strategies used for media management. Essers & Benschop (2007) argue that different strategies can be used in different situations and regarding differing topics. Therefore this research has chosen four themes in female entrepreneurial media to discuss media strategies
regarding different topics, and elaborates on how these strategies differ. In this way the research gives an elaborate view on the way female entrepreneurs manage media and what their intent is with this management, as different views on differing topics will be discussed. With that goal, the following sub-question has been formulated:
In what ways do female entrepreneurs experience media in terms of occurring themes (audacity, work-life balance, femininity and empowerment) in
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Answering these questions will lead to an understanding of how female entrepreneurs manage media. Additionally, by discussing the experience of female entrepreneurs regarding several topics this study aims to elaborate on the importance of media portrayal of female entrepreneurs.
To answer the proposed questions, a qualitative research design has been constructed employing interviews as method of data collection. Using interviews is deemed a sufficient way to investigate the phenomenon of media management by female entrepreneurs, leading to a meaningful interpretation of this phenomenon.
1.2 Research gap
An ambivalent image of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in media has the ability to reinforce a, sometimes, reluctant attitude of women towards entrepreneurship. In most Western cultures, entrepreneurship and business activities have been and still are attributed with male characteristics (Fernandes and Cabral-Cardoso 2003; Bruni,
Gherardi, and Poggio, 2004; Ahl, 2006; Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011). In the Netherlands the amount of female entrepreneurs is rising. According to the Chamber of Commerce, the percentage of female entrepreneurs was 31,9% in 2010, and has increased to 35,1% in 2016 (Kamer van Koophandel, 2016). However, despite extensive attempts to
enhance female entrepreneurship a gender gap continues to exist. This might be attributed to images transported in media due to their ability to contain information about ‘typical’ and ‘socially desirable’ behavior of women as well as entrepreneurs, which might regulate the nature of female entrepreneurship. Some research has found that there is mythologizing and ideologizing at play when it comes to entrepreneurial efforts of ethnic minority women in the Netherlands, and that the ideal of
entrepreneurship needs to be shaken op (Verduijn & Essers, 2013).
This study will contribute to research in the field of entrepreneurship, but is also important for media research as it gives insight into the presentation of female
entrepreneurs and their experience with media portrayal. Entrepreneurial research has, so far, mainly focused on differences in characteristics and motivation when it comes to female entrepreneurship. The growing importance of women in the business circles is encouraging further research into female entrepreneurship (Baughn et al., 2016). When related to media, studies mainly research the perspective of media using a content analysis approach. Therefore, this research tends to broaden that view by looking at this topic from the female entrepreneurial perspective, and using an in-depth interview approach to examine the experiences.
From a theoretical perspective, the answer to the proposed research question has implications for the area of female entrepreneurship as well as media management.
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As stated there is a growing importance for women in business, especially in terms of entrepreneurship. This research can help gain insight into the experiences of female entrepreneurs creating a theoretical perspective towards strategies of female entrepreneurs for media management. As this research focuses on the point of view from the female entrepreneur, this will be valuable for the theoretical perspective of entrepreneurship literature as well as literature on media management.
1.3 Structure
First, the literature review of the proposed research will be described, discussing the role of media in the construction of entrepreneurship and the construction of female entrepreneurship. The literature review will then elaborate on media strategies, discussing identity, the perception of others and three forms of strategy emerging in literature. Additionally, themes in media on female entrepreneurship will be discussed in the literature review, focusing on entrepreneurial audacity, the work-life balance, femininity and empowerment.
Secondly, in chapter three the methodology of this research will be discussed, starting with the research design. The methodology will also elaborate on the sample and the choice of interviews as a method. The sub-chapter on interviews will also elaborate on the measures and operationalization, which is divided into three sections: (1) the strategies of female entrepreneurs; (2) the factors on media strategy formation; and (3) themes in female entrepreneurial media.
In the fourth chapter the results of the research will be presented, starting with the results on the four themes related to media strategy. First, audacity will be discussed after which work-life balance will follow. The third sub-chapter will focus on femininity by discussing skills and media strategy regarding the theme. Following, empowerment will be discussed by focusing on role models and the media strategy. In the fifth sub-chapter, the factors in media strategy formation will be discussed, presenting the results on identity, the distinction of female entrepreneurs and the perception of others in a more general sense as well as regarding the four themes. Last, the results on media presentation will be presented by elaborating on the reasons for media presentation on its strategies.
The fifth chapter of this research contains the discussion and conclusion. The findings will be summarized by answering the sub-questions and related to the theory discussed in the literature review. This will lead to an answer on the main research question. Further, the relevance of the research, limitations, the role of the researcher and future research will be elaborated on.
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2. Literature review
In this research, several theories will be applied to give an in-depth view on the topic of female entrepreneurship and their strategies of managing media. The literature
discussed in this chapter will be used in the shaping of the interviews and data analysis. There are several important concepts that need to be elaborated on with regards to the proposed research question. This chapter is structured as follows: first, the role of media in constructing entrepreneurship will be discussed. Second, this chapter will discuss the construction of female entrepreneurship and the way it diverges from the male norm. Next, the literature review will focus on the formation of media strategies by discussing two influential factors: identity and the perception of others. This section will also discuss three forms of strategy that may be used by female entrepreneurs when managing media. Last, this chapter will discuss occurring themes in media on female entrepreneurship. This research has chosen to focus on four themes that often occur in media reports of female entrepreneurs: audacity, work-life balance, femininity and empowerment. This chapter will result into insights with regards to female
2.1. The role of media in constructing entrepreneurship
Prevailing images of female entrepreneurs in a society are of great importance for the decision of women whether to become an entrepreneur or not, but are also to a great extent influential on the way entrepreneurs manage these images and how others perceive them. Therefore media assist in transmitting, but also create and reinforce the accepted values of a society since they reflect public perceptions of what is desirable and tolerated within a society (Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011). With that, media have an impact on these public perceptions (Habermas, 1991).
Media contribute to the social construction of female entrepreneurship (Baron, 2004). Because of this powerful construction, media has the ability to either help or hinder female entrepreneurs to accomplish their goals. Media representations shape how key stakeholders such as bankers or clients view and interact with female business owners, with that impacting female entrepreneurs’ business relations and opportunities (Eikhof et al., 2013). Mälmstrom et al. (2017) argue that being a female entrepreneur, in comparison to males, hindered them to get financing from venture capitalists1.
This social construction influences to which extent female entrepreneurs are a tolerated, accepted or encouraged by social attitudes to a certain extend (Welter, 2004; Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011). It can be said that society legitimizes or restricts
entrepreneurial actions (Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011). Rindova, Pollock and Hayward (2006) show the powerful role of mass media in creating public discourse. Next to this, Bruni, Gherardi and Poggio (2004) argue that the role of media in the social
construction of entrepreneurship is important as they replicate themes and notions in the specialist literature, which they merely popularize – the audience must participate in the news by personal identification.
Culturally accepted role models have an influence on the recognition of
entrepreneurship as a viable career option, as well as on the types of entrepreneurship (Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011). Therefore in order for readers to fully understand the news within media, they must find a familiar foothold in the story that is often supplied to them using metaphors and stereotypes (Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011). With that, media can give the readers a clue to certain identification of oneself (Lippmann, 1999). Even though the sense of personal identification on itself might not have the decisive impact on the propensity of entering entrepreneurial behavior, a typical reaction of individuals that is triggered by a sense of personal identification is a desire to repeat those personal characteristics or that behavior (Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011).
1 A venture capitalist is a person or company who invest in a business venture, providing capital
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2.2 Constructions of female entrepreneurship
As stated in the previous sub-chapter, media might have a powerful role in the construction of a discourse within society. Social constructivism analysis refers to the way individuals relate to reality and how they generate this knowledge about reality (Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011), in this specific case that of entrepreneurship. Berger and Luckmann (1969) state that this knowledge is created in a social context. This implies that the people can construct knowledge and act based on their perceptions and experiences (Berger & Luckmann, 1969; Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011).
From this social constructivist point of view, entrepreneurship is an ‘enacted’ phenomenon that is emerging through social interactions (Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011). Individuals make sense of information and their actions, which in the case of entrepreneurs leads to the discovering and recognition of an idea for a business
(Fletcher, 2006). Because this development of sense making and information acquiring within society, stereotypes are created. Through the development of overall accepted stereotypes, social identities as well as individual self-identities evolve (Watson, 2005). Idealized role images are crucial as they govern the individual’s behavior as expected by society – creating identities on the extent to which an individual is recognized by society and accepts this (Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011). Regarding female entrepreneurship, such images contribute to regulation as they contain information about typical and wanted behavior of a woman as well as that of an entrepreneur (Ogbor, 2000; Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011).
Currently, the public discourse on entrepreneurship is still dominated by the masculine and normative model of the male entrepreneur (Ogbor 2000; Bruni, Gherardi, & Poggio, 2004). This has been shown by Longowitz and Morgan (2003) who found that media profiles in the US-business press provide messages about social norms for female entrepreneurs that reinforce the idea that female entrepreneurs ‘are not really serious’. Next to this, Hyrski (1999) found in a study on Scandinavian countries that
entrepreneurship was generally connected to the traditional view of a man making a fending for himself and making sacrifices whilst female entrepreneurs perceived entrepreneurship as a way to reduce the time and effort required to pursue other important avenues (Hyrski, 1999), leading to women that assign controversial and negative metaphors to entrepreneurship.
In short, the literature on the construction of female entrepreneurship shows that female entrepreneurship is implicitly constructed as divergent from the male norm of entrepreneurship. Women can overcome this construction by for example adhering to the male stereotype or distancing themselves from the predominant norm if they
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perceive the image as negative for themselves and their identity (Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011). However, Lewis (2006) has shown that female entrepreneurs have increasingly portrayed themselves as being similar to the male norm of entrepreneurship: refusing to accept the prevailing image of female entrepreneurship and with that acting ‘gender blind’ (Achtenhagen & Welter, 2011). Sub-chapter 2.3 will further elaborate on
strategies that might be used by female entrepreneurs to manage their media presentation.
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2.3 Media strategy
This research focuses on the strategies of female entrepreneurs when managing media, therefore this sub-chapter will these media strategies. The strategy and responses regarding media used by female entrepreneurs might be influenced influenced by two important factors: (professional) identity and the perception of others. These might influence how female entrepreneurs manage media with regards to different themes. In other words, three core theoretical concepts will be discussed in this sub-chapter: identity, perception of others, and media strategies.
Being female and being an entrepreneur requires various strategies to negotiate identities with different constituencies (Essers & Benschop, 2007). Using these
strategies of identity varies in the degree of conformity: it could be to mainly adhere to conventional images of femininity, to denounce femininity situationally or to resist the masculine connotation of entrepreneurship by disconnecting it from masculinity. This will be elaborated on further in the section discussing the three strategies of managing media presentations.
Previous studies regarding female entrepreneurship mainly focus on the motivations, barriers and characteristics, or make typologies of female entrepreneurs (Ahl, 2004; Essers & Benschop, 2007). There are few studies that have a feminist perspective on the matter and that have addressed the issue of identities of female entrepreneurs explicitly (Essers & Benschop, 2007). Bruni et al. (2004) show how gender and entrepreneurship are enacted as situated practices. Therefore, gender and business identities are intertwined practices that go beyond the conventional
entrepreneurial identities. Aalten (1990) discusses how female entrepreneurs connect entrepreneurship and femininity, whereas Ahl (2003) shows that in reviewed texts on women entrepreneurs they were positioned as secondary to men.
The results of the research by Ahl (2003) showed three different strategies in reporting the results between male and female entrepreneurs. First, the ‘Making the mountain out of a mole-hill’, where the researcher is overemphasizing the differences that are actually found between male and female entrepreneurs. The second strategy is called ‘the self-selected woman’ where the strategy is to explain the lack of differences by stressing that women entrepreneurs are actually different from “ordinary” women (Ahl, 2003). The last strategy is ‘the good mother’, where the small differences are cherished and combined with general knowledge on women and women their life situations, and with that turned into an alternative female entrepreneurial model. The latter strategy turns women’s proposed differential disadvantages into advantages,
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however this does not challenge the gendered understanding of entrepreneurship (Ahl, 2003).
The following section will first discuss the factor of (professional) identity and how this might influence the strategy used by female entrepreneurs to manage media. The following section will elaborate on the perception of others. The concepts ‘identity’ and ‘perception of others’ will lead to the final core theoretical concept that will be discussed in the last section of this sub-chapter: three forms of strategy.
2.3.1 Identity
Self-image can be defined as ‘the total set of beliefs and attitudes towards the self as an object of reflection (Morgan and Schawelbe, 1990). These beliefs can either be positive or negative, actual or ideal and in the present, past or in the future (Markus & Wurf, 1987; Kautonen et al., 2015). The constructionist approach sees identity as a discourse that is socially constructed through language and embedded in power relations. Essers and Benschop (2007) derive from this approach that identities are multiple and produced in dialogue with others.
This research has chosen to regard self-image and identity as one and the same due to the closely related definitions of the concepts and the similar effect on media presentation. Therefore, within this study the concepts could be used interchangeably but identity will mainly be used to indicate the use of this concept. However, as this research treats identity and self-image as one and the same, it is important to note that the literature is not always clear as to the distinction between these two notions. The study of Kautonen et al. (2015) follows Turner (1968) and Burke (1980) in
distinguishing these concepts. In their research, self-image can be seen as the current working copy of the identity and therefore they are subject to a constant change, revision, edition and updating as a function of variations in situation, and situational demands (Burke, 1980). Identities can be seen as comparatively stable and rather unaffected by moment-to moment interaction and situation demands (Turner, 1968).
Different images of the self can affect the intention to act on an entrepreneurial opportunity or become an entrepreneur (Mitchell and Shepherd, 2010). Moreover, media has to deal with images of vulnerability and images of capability, which also has a great impact on the person in question. The potential of an individual to perform a particular behavior is influenced by the sense of identity.
In general, past research on identity has indicated that women tend to underrate their scale or performance as compared to men (Lindeman et al. 1995; Verheul et al., 2005). This underrating can be attributed to the fact that women often do not take
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credit for their success, but attribute this success to external sources or luck rather then their self as their effort or ability (Rosenthal et al., 1996; Verheul et al., 2005). Within the area of entrepreneurship, Fagenson and Marcus (1991) have found that women are more likely to assign more weight to masculine attributes in their profile as a successful entrepreneur. This shows that entrepreneurship is still to be associated with more masculine characteristics such as autonomy, perseverance, high energy levels, self-confidence and decisiveness (Chaganti, 1986; Hisrich & Brush, 1983; Verheul et al., 2005), and thus likely to negatively affect the entrepreneurial identity of women. This is partially confirmed by the research of Gupta (2013; 2014), who finds consistently that men attribute male characteristics to entrepreneurs. Women also attribute male characteristics to entrepreneurs, but additionally attribute female characteristics to entrepreneurs. Gupta’s research indicates that stereotypes play an important role within the notion of entrepreneurship (Gupta, 2014).
From this perspective, multiple identities can come forth in this research as a personal identity and a professional identity. Social constructionist approaches do call attention to entrepreneurial identities. These studies discuss entrepreneurial identities as produced through dialogues with clients, employees and family (Steyaert & Hjorth, 2003; Essers & Benschop, 2007). With that entrepreneurial identities thus become, instead of are, as their becoming is negotiated with various constituencies (Essers & Beschop, 2007). The mainstream entrepreneurial literature focuses mostly on identities of entrepreneurship as an archetypical entrepreneur who is creative, innovative, strives for achievement and exhibits risk-taking behavior (McClelland, 1987).
Community and social construction play a key role in the gender socialization, as they have the power to decide the appropriateness of behaviors and actions within society (Raffaelli & Ontai, 2004). The system of social structures and practices in which men generally dominate, influences this construction of a gendered identity. Earlier it was already noted how entrepreneurial studies contribute to the construction of the archetypical white male entrepreneur (Essers & Benschop, 2007), which can be of great influence within the construction of identity of female entrepreneurs. For instance, Aalten (1990) affirms that the Dutch traditional cultural system forces the female entrepreneur to develop strategies to retain a ‘feminine’ and ‘business-like’ identity at the same time, as it is not self-evident that these two go together. In line with that, it is shown previously and confirmed by Ogbor (2000) that women who construct their entrepreneurial identity often go through a process of masculinization as this is seen as more successful when it comes to entrepreneurial behavior.
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identity work that is performed by subjects in relation to dominant discourses,
structural constraints and relevant others (Essers & Benschop, 2007). These identities have to be socially negotiated and produced in relation to the existing conceptions of gender and entrepreneurship (Essers & Benschop, 2007). As entrepreneurship is still associated with masculine characteristics, it is more likely this negatively affects the female entrepreneurial identity. With that, it is also likely this appears in the strategy of female entrepreneurs when it comes to managing media and how they are perceived within media.
2.3.2 Perception of others
An important theme in the previously discussed literature is how social construction is evidently an important factor within the identity creation of female entrepreneurs. In that case, a last important factor on the strategy of female entrepreneurs when it comes to media is the perception of others on female entrepreneurship. Identity, as previously described, is constructed by not only oneself but is subjective to the influences of others and therefore fluid (Haraway, 1991). In this sense, identity might be influenced by the perception of others making this a reinforcing concept. This is especially important when looking at media presentation, as presenting oneself in media leads to others perceiving a media product or presentation in a certain way.
When looking at previous studies on entrepreneurial competencies of female business owners, most of these studies have focused on specific aspects of their competencies or skills (Mitchelmore & Rowley, 2016). Specifically, these studies
consider female competencies relative to male competencies, which has been described by Ahl (2003) in the three strategies of researches to express female entrepreneurship. In a review of the literature on entrepreneurship, Jennings and Cash (2006) state that there is a solid base of empirical research demonstrating that for the most part male and female entrepreneurs do differ in some fundamental ways or characteristics with respect to their: social and human capital; motivations; goals and success criteria; growth orientations; strategic choices; and the use of financial capital (Mitchelmore & Rowley, 2016). Bird (1995) defines these entrepreneurial competencies as underlying characteristics such as specific knowledge; motives; traits; self-images; social roles and skills which result in venture birth, survival or growth. This definition suggest that not only self image influences the characteristics of entrepreneurial competencies, but also the social role and with that the portrayal of society when it comes to female
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Keeping these studies in mind, female entrepreneurs might be in a disadvantage according to Mitchelmore and Rowley (2016) given their personal backgrounds,
employment experiences and the socio-economic and cultural context in which their businesses operate (Carter & Shaw, 2006). Beyer and Bowden (1997) argue that when (managerial) tasks and roles are perceived as more masculine than feminine, women are more likely than men to underestimate their competencies in these areas (Verheul et al., 2005).
In short, if society sees or portrays female entrepreneurship in a certain way, chances are that female entrepreneurs base their strategy for media portrayal on this perception of others. They form themselves or their media portrayal according to the status quo of female entrepreneurs as society expects.
2.3.3 The three forms of strategy
In their research, Essers & Benschop (2007) found that there are three strategies of identity work as they vary in the degree of conformity. Within this research, these three strategies are used as a guiding framework and can be seen as a starting point to find and analyze strategies of media management by female entrepreneurs. As the strategies are a point of reference, this research aims to either confirm these strategies in terms of media management of female entrepreneurs or to contribute to the three strategies in the form of differing strategies or an alternative classification of the strategies.
The first strategy is to mainly adhere to the conventional images of femininity. This can be seen as strategy number one: using femininity for their own benefit. This strategy, conventionality, includes the way people perceive female entrepreneurs, and use this perception for their own benefit. A second strategy is to denounce femininity depending on the situation. This strategy, denounce, contains the ignorance or
acceptance of the difference. The third identity found by Essers and Benschop (2007) is to resist the masculine connotation of entrepreneurship by disconnecting it from masculinity. This strategy, resistance, includes the resistance or countering of the way female entrepreneurs are depicted. These three forms of strategy can be found in figure 1 below.
As discussed above, identities are discursively produced in relation to the tensions that exist between conceptions of gender and entrepreneurship (Essers & Benschop, 2007). The identity and perception of others can come together leading to a certain presentation, or a strategy, when portraying oneself in media. In other words, the way a female entrepreneur sees herself and the way they experience how others perceive them, might be highly influential to the way they decide to portray themselves
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in media, as the media portrays the identity or image that is discursively produced. There are several ways in which the identity of a female entrepreneur and the perception of others might influence their strategy for presentation in media. These three strategies from literature will be further elaborated on below.
Figure 1. The strategies used by female entrepreneurs to manage media.
First, adhere to conventional images of femininity, means that the entrepreneur uses femininity for their own benefit. Within this strategy, the entrepreneur uses the specific qualities attributed to female entrepreneurs and uses this for their own advantage. In other words, femininity and entrepreneurship are used in a positive way. Within
conventionality, the female entrepreneurs stay within the gendered limits prescribed by the community or society. This might to a large extend be influenced by conventional identity due to the traditional role of a women in society, or the perception of how others see the conventional role of a women in society. Foucault’s term ‘conformist selves’ highlights the self-disciplining impact of surveillance systems, which ties individuals to their identities (Collinson, 2003; Essers & Benschop, 2007) might apply here.
Secondly, the ignorance or acceptance of the difference means that the
femininity is used as a form of critique in some situations. Masculinization -in the sense that female entrepreneurs denounce their femininity in business negotiations- may be
Strategy used by female entrepreneurs 1. Conventionality Adhere to conventional images of feminininity Using femininity (identity as a benefit) Spin perception of female enterpreneurshi p for benefit 2. Denounce Ignorance or acceptance of the difference Denounce femininity situationally 3. Resistance Resisting the way female entrepreneurs are depcited Disconnecting from masculinity
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used in these situations, but can only be used temporarily and in certain settings (Essers & Benschop, 2007). Within the strategy of denounce, the femininity of female
entrepreneurs is either used or countered in certain situations (or e.g. specific clients). This might be related to the differences in identity – professional or personal. The juggling of these identities is a way for female entrepreneurs to cope with gendered limits and demands (Essers & Benschop, 2007). Within this strategy, the entrepreneur switches between the different identities seeking legitimization for the simultaneous existence of gender and entrepreneurship. Within this strategy, the female entrepreneur is likely to have closely reflected on her and identity, to attribute those qualities deemed most important for being a successful entrepreneur and use that to strengthen her professional identity. These qualities might be either identified as masculine or
feminine. Again, perception of others might be of great importance in this strategy due to the ability of the female entrepreneur to adjust to situations or a certain perception of others in a specific setting.
Thirdly the resistance or, in other words, countering the way that female entrepreneurs are depicted includes completely disconnecting their (professional) identity from masculinity and embrace the femininity as either an advantage or disadvantage. In both ways, no strings are tied to masculinity in any situation. By dissociating themselves from archaic men, they resist the masculine connotation of entrepreneurship, claim responsibility for themselves and stretch the existing boundaries of entrepreneurship (Essers & Benschop, 2007). Within this strategy, a strong sense of identity is likely to be of great importance for the female entrepreneur. Perception of others on the other hand is possibly of much less importance as the female entrepreneur is stretching the boundaries of entrepreneurship and likely to be less influenced by the perception of others due to a strong sense of identity and how this must be portrayed.
In short, there are different strategies that can be used by female entrepreneurs regarding the management of media. The way these female entrepreneurs manage media is influenced by their identity and the perception by others. These three factors are important in the strategy that is chosen by female entrepreneurs for the way they want to cope with female entrepreneurship with regards to others, in this case media. In the following sub-chapter, four important themes regarding female entrepreneurship in media will be discussed which will give focus on how strategies might be used in
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2.4 Themes in media on female entrepreneurship
Within media there are several themes that often occur with regards to female entrepreneurship. As has been argued in the previous sub-chapters, differing media strategies can be used in different situations and with that regarding different topics. This study has therefore chosen four themes occurring in female entrepreneurial media, to discuss identity, perception of others and media strategies regarding these different topics and how these might differ per theme. The themes found in female
entrepreneurial media that have been chosen as for this study are: (1) audacity; (2) work-life balance; (3) femininity and (4) empowerment. These four themes are relevant topics for female entrepreneurs in the current society and are all, to a certain extent, influenced by a sense of identity and the perception of others. Therefore, they might ask for different strategies regarding management in media as will be further elaborated on in the following sections. Focusing on these four themes, this study has the ability to elaborate on the way female entrepreneurs manage media regarding different topics and the intent with this management in several situations. In others words, discussing these four themes give the ability to this study to go deeper into the strategies as different views and experiences on differing topics will be elaborated on. The four themes will be discussed in relation to the three core concepts discussed previously: identity, perception of others and media management strategy.
2.4.1 Audacity
Entrepreneurial audacity can be defined as daring behavior triggered by a certain attitude of an entrepreneur in which social and regulative boundaries are pushed. In the most positive sense, audacity is the willingness to take bold risks or push boundaries. These boundaries can refer to social as well as regulative boundaries. As not much is yet known about entrepreneurial audacity, it can relate to several concepts. In this case, these concepts are boldness, risk-taking and assertiveness. As entrepreneurs have a crucial role in the process of innovation, entrepreneurship often requires the disruption of what others have come to see as comfortable familiarity or old-fashioned way of doing things (Kirzner, 1999). Innovation is risky as it calls for the change of existing situations – therefore, it can only by done by types of individuals who are willing to undertake these risky innovations. Boldness, risk-taking and assertiveness are therefore often seen as essential characteristics of an entrepreneur.
The before mentioned characteristics are all seen as positive when it comes to entrepreneurship. However, audacity is chosen for this research as an important concept since it also includes the factor of norms. Norms can be seen as boundaries in
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which innovation and entrepreneurship is acceptable and when it is going too far. Norms can contain actions that are regarded normal in a certain situation. It can also regard perceptions of what is commonly approved or disapproved within a culture – morally approved behavior.
Additionally, entrepreneurial audacity is often seen as a masculine trait. As described above, the media strategies are built around constructed femininity and masculinity, involving certain traits that are attributed to these identities. Therefore, looking at a perceived masculine trait can give interesting insights into the management of such a theme by female entrepreneurs. From a strategy perspective, it might be that female entrepreneurs use audacity as an entrepreneurial trait in certain situations, they do not engage in audacity at all or they feel like it is part of their personal as well as their professional identity. This might also be influenced by the female entrepreneurial perception of audacity, or the perception of others regarding audacity of female entrepreneurs.
In short, entrepreneurship and innovation are focused much on pushing boundaries. However, to push these boundaries certain norms are in order.
Characteristics that are needed for entrepreneurship are risk-taking, boldness and assertiveness. Together, all these factors form audacity. Not much is known about the difference in audacity between male and female entrepreneurs, however research indicates that male entrepreneurs are generally seen more assertive and risk-taking compared to female entrepreneurs (Mälmstrom et al., 2017). Therefore, this research tends to focus on audacity as an important theme within media regarding
entrepreneurship and how female entrepreneurship manage information regarding this topic.
2.4.2 Work life balance
Work-life balance is an occurring theme within media reporting entrepreneurship, in the sense that media often promotes a domestically centered form of entrepreneurship for women. This mirrors the existing trends towards using the home as a workplace (Eikhof, 2012). Previous research has found that in the case of female entrepreneurs, the relocation of work into the domestic sphere often plays a key role (Eikhof et al., 2013). The wider consequences of such a family embedded perspective on female
entrepreneurship imply that researchers need to include family dimensions in their conceptualizing and modeling, their sampling and analyzing, and their interpretations and implications (Aldrich & Cliff, 2003).
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regards male entrepreneurship. Results supported feminist theories that depict entrepreneurship as a gendered process. Female entrepreneurs tend to nurture
satisfaction with work–family balance by creating work–family synergies, whereas male entrepreneurs tend to nurture satisfaction with work–family balance by obtaining family support at home (Eddleston & Powell, 2012). It is therefore likely that the perception of others is influential regarding this theme and the way female
entrepreneurs are managing media portrayals regarding work-life balance. Additionally, the difference between personal and professional identity might be of influence as social construction plays a role in this matter. Since female entrepreneurs are much more often then male entrepreneurs asked about work-life balance, this is a reoccurring social construction playing a large role in the formation of a certain identity for the female entrepreneurs. This might influence their identity, influencing the portrayal in media regarding this theme. Therefore, work-life balance was chosen as a major theme when it comes to female entrepreneurship in the media.
2.4.3 Femininity
Femininity is of importance since women’s entrepreneurship is often comprised of activities traditionally perceived as female and centering on female skills (Ahl, 2007; Banyard, 2010). Such representations are likely to compound inequalities arising from women business ownership already concentrating on sectors in which ‘skills are an extension of what has been naturally learnt through gender socialization’ (Bruni et al., 2004) and therefore being regarded as less valuable than entrepreneurship in sectors with higher entry barriers (Eikhof et al., 2013).
Lewis (2006) argues that distancing behavior is engaged in so that women who ‘do’ individualized entrepreneurial femininity will not be perceived as being different from the (unacknowledged) masculine norm of entrepreneurship. Women who ‘do’ individualized entrepreneurial femininity are trying to forge a way of being an
entrepreneurial woman who is not associated with the domestic, private world of home and conventional femininity (Lewis, 2014).
Following this line of thought by Lewis, this would mean that in order to address the theme of femininity, the female entrepreneur would have to make use of the
‘ignorance or acceptance of the difference’-strategy in which the entrepreneurs switches between different identities. In this case, those identities would be that of the
entrepreneurial professional and the identity of a woman. Therefore, the theme of femininity was chosen as an important theme within entrepreneurial related media.
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2.4.4 Empowerment
In general, the entrepreneurial environment captures considerations beyond the market, including factors such as expectations of society and cultural norms, for
example reflected in media representations of female entrepreneurs. Overall, media has the possibility to present the transitions from corporate careers into entrepreneurship as a liberating move towards empowerment, independence and self-fulfillment (Eikhof et al., 2013). Next to this, if women were to pursue the specific nature of female
entrepreneurship, the effect could possibly even lead to emancipation, empowerment or gender equality. With that, women pursuing entrepreneurship do not only have the possibility to empower a next generation of women, but they might also have the option create more social possibilities for women in general.
When taking the strategies to manage media into account, this theme can be much influential as it reinforces the social construction of female entrepreneurship in society. By portraying themselves in media, female entrepreneurs have the ability to empower a future generation for entrepreneurship and function as a role model. However, on the other hand this might also have had an influence on themselves, being empowered by the portrayal of other female entrepreneurs. With that, the perception of others might be an influential factor regarding this theme. Additionally, a strong image of self or identity might be an important factor, as to be a role model means to have certain strength of identity (Boehm et al., 2015). As in media regarding
entrepreneurship, the theme of female empowerment often surfaces this has been chosen as an important surfacing theme for this study.
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2.5 Conclusion
This chapter has first shown the important role of media in the construction of entrepreneurship and how female entrepreneurship is generally constructed as divergent from the male norm.
Most importantly, this chapter has discussed three possible strategies of media management by female entrepreneurs and the way they might be influenced by the concept of identity as well as the concept perception of others. The identity and perception of others lead to a certain presentation in media, or strategy when
portraying oneself in media, due to the image that is discursively produced. Therefore, within this study they are seen as two core theoretical concepts that are taken into account in researching the construction of a media strategy. Literature discusses three possible strategies from a female entrepreneurial perspective when managing media: (1) adherent to the conventional images of femininity; (2) ignorant or acceptant of the difference between male and female entrepreneurs; and (3) resistant or countering the way female entrepreneurs are depicted. As described previously, these three strategies are all in different ways and to different extents influenced by identity and the
perception of others. Therefore, media strategy is also seen as core theoretical concept of this study.
Additionally, four occurring themes in female entrepreneurial related media were covered. As these four themes are to a large extent socially constructed, they might be greatly influenced by identity and the perception of others when it comes to the point of view of female entrepreneurs. With that, every specific theme might generate a certain strategy regarding the management of media, depending on the specific social construction, the strength of identity of the female entrepreneur and the extent to which the perception of others has an effect. Therefore, the four occurring themes are of importance as they discuss topics relevant for female entrepreneurs in the current society; they also look at identity and perception of others from several perspectives and might ask for different discussed strategies by female entrepreneurs.
3. Methodology
To answer the proposed research question: “How do female entrepreneurs manage their presentation in media and what is their strategy in doing so?” a qualitative approach is adopted in researching the media representation of female entrepreneurs and their strategy in handling this representation. Answering this question has an exploratory and descriptive function, due to the focus on how certain strategies are being used as dealing with media publicity and why these strategies are being implemented. The qualitative approach that was be used for this research consisted of ten cases, in which an interview with the female entrepreneurs in question was conducted.
This methodological chapter will first describe the research design of this study. Second, it will further elaborate on the sample. Third, this chapter will discuss the method of interviews, in which the measurements and the operationalization of the study are explained. Fourth, the analysis of the data will be further elaborated on.
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3.1 Research design
The goal of this research is to provide an exploratory and descriptive view on the topic of strategies used by female entrepreneurs to cope with media publicity. The theory of this topic can be seen as relatively mature, as several researchers have conducted research on the presentation of female entrepreneurs in media using content analysis. However, this research researches the topic from a different point of view – that of the female entrepreneur herself. This makes the proposed research more nascent and with that an explanatory study seems fitting, as its purpose is to contribute to theory
development (Yin, 1989). A comparative study was conducted, whereby the aim is “to investigate a phenomenon, population, or general condition” (Stake, 2000). Stake (2000) claims that this research design permits a more meaningful interpretation of a
phenomenon and more generalizable results. As for the explanatory function of this research, questions regarding differing strategies and answers given will be compiled – leading to an answer of what strategies are implemented regarding media presentation of female entrepreneurs and why.
3.2 Sample
By selecting a sample of female entrepreneurs, a deeper insight into the strategies used regarding media presence will be provided. As previously discussed, the research has an exploratory character and using qualitative data collection will be useful to develop propositions in an unknown field such as this research aims to study, since it has the ability to offer insights into a complex phenomenon (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). A sample of ten female entrepreneurs is deemed to be sufficient for this research to find generalizable results. As this research focuses on the presentation of female
entrepreneurs in media, it seems sufficient to the research to women that have quite established ventures and with that most probably have more experience regarding strategy to cope with their media presentation or image. Because of this reason as units of analysis, ten women from of ‘The Next Women 100 list 2016’ have been interviewed. The Next Women focus on ambitious and innovative female entrepreneurs in a cross-sector approach, fitting the definition of entrepreneurship used for this research. The list with all the women approached to participate can be found in Appendix A. The descriptive statistics of the ten participants can be found in table 1 below.
Table 1. Descriptive sample statistics (N = 10) of the participants
Participant Age Time as
Entrepreneur
Sector Experience
with media
(Highest) education
Participant 1 51y 26y Market
research
Yes Drs. Communication
Participant 2 49y 20y Media &
publishing
Yes Secondary school
Participant 3 52y 23y Communication Yes (mainly
discipline related)
MSc Communication Science
Participant 4 46y 9y (25y as
freelancer)
Education Yes MSc Clinical Psychology /
Macro economics
Participant 5 47y 13y Finance &
governance
Yes MSc Business Economics /
Accountancy
Participant 6 34y 9y Sustainable
business
Yes MA Communication &
Information science
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Participant 8 53y 25y Consumer
electronics
Yes BBA Business school
Participant 9 55y 16y Property -
estate
Yes Unknown
Participant 10 48y 19y Construction Yes (mainly
local) MSc Economics / Chemical engineering Variable Category N % of 10 Gender Female 10 100% Male 0 0% Sector Production 2 20% Retail 1 10% Business services 4 40% Consumer services 3 30%
Variable M SD Min Max
Age of respondent 47.3 6.63 34 55
Time as entrepreneur 17.2 6.36 9 26
Number of business founded 1.4 1.17 0 4
Number of businesses still being owned
1.4 1.07 0 4
Out of ‘The Next 100 Women list 2016, all the female entrepreneurs in the list aside from the serial and exit entrepreneurs were approached for an interview. Out of the other 85 women in the list (Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze), no point of contact was found for 15 women in the list. In other words, 70 female entrepreneurs out of the Next Women 100 list were approached using e-mail or LinkedIn messaging. Only three female entrepreneurs stated they were not willing to participate reasoning they had no experience with media or due to time constraints at that moment. 23 female
entrepreneurs have indicated they were willing to participate in the research. However due to time constraints and complications with scheduling, a final number of ten female entrepreneurs of this list were interviewed. The other 44 female entrepreneurs from the list did not react to the e-mail or LinkedIn message. As the amount of participants between 8 to 12 was deemed sufficient, the 44 female entrepreneurs that was not heard
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from were not contacted a second time. In other words, the response rate was 37.14%, out which 88.46% was willing to participate.
Even though quite some female entrepreneurs were willing to participate, some difficulty was experienced regarding the planning of this interview. Due to the often-full schedules of the participants and the limited time of the researcher to conduct the interviews, this sometimes led to difficulty in scheduling. Therefore, some of the
interviews were conducted by phone instead of face-to-face. In total five interviews have been conducted face-to-face, and five interviews were conducted by phone.
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3.3 Interviews
To gain a complete insight into the strategies used by female entrepreneurs regarding media presence it was chosen to conduct interviews as it allows to discuss several themes with the interviewees, but also discuss reactions and what it means having a certain image that is presented in media.
The in-depth, semi-structured interviews have been conducted with the female entrepreneurs in question. In this way, insights into the respondents’ point of view and perceptions on the topic can be found (Cooper & Schindler, 2011). The interviews had a flexible format to enhance diversity, although an interview guide will be used to ensure that all questions are asked similarly to all interviewees. The interview guide that will be used will include questions that are theory driven (Flick, 2009). These questions and topics were derived from the literature review. The validity and reliability of this study can be found in Appendix B. A semi-structured interview approach was chosen so the researcher is open to other factors that have not yet been considered in literature, which might lead to themes that were not yet disclosed in the literature review (Blumberg, Cooper & Schindler, 2014).
3.3.1 Measures
This section on measurements elaborates on how the core concepts mentioned in the literature review were operationalized in the interviews. Additionally, it explains how the questions have helped answering the main research question. First, the questions are discussed in terms of how the main research question relates to these sub-questions, after which these are related to the research concepts. The main research question of this research is: “ How do female entrepreneurs manage their presentation in media and what is their strategy in doing so?” In order to answer the research questions, this question was divided into four sub-questions, which on themselves were divided into core theoretical concepts. The sub-questions are focused on: the strategies by female entrepreneurs, factors of strategy formation and four occurring themes in media (on female entrepreneurship).
As this research focuses on strategies regarding media management, it is important to define what these strategies are. Therefore the first sub-question is formulated as: “What are media management strategies?” Second, the literature review has elaborated on how the theoretical concepts of identity and the perception of others might influence the strategy chosen by female entrepreneurs. This has resulted in the following two sub-questions: “How does identity form the strategy of female
entrepreneurs in the management of media?” and “How does the perception of others form the strategy of female entrepreneurs in the management of media?” Last, four themes
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occurring in female entrepreneurial media were discussed in the literature review, to specifically look at the strategies of female entrepreneurs regarding these themes. This was translated into the following sub-question: “In what ways do female entrepreneurs experience media in terms of occurring themes (audacity, work-life balance, femininity and empowerment) in entrepreneurship-related media?”
One main topic list was created (Appendix C) which was slightly adjusted for every interview, depending on the interviewee. The topic list involved some general questions for the interviewee about themselves and background. The three core themes discussed above will each separately be operationalized in the upcoming sections with terms of insights obtained from the literature review, in which is explained how they were translated into a topic list for the interview.
3.3.2 The strategies of female entrepreneurs
The literature shows that there are three strategies of identity work that vary in the degree of conformity. These strategies are likely to be similar or the same as strategies to manage media for female entrepreneurs. Three different strategies have been discussed in the literature review, on how female entrepreneurships manage their entrepreneurial identity. Therefore, these three strategies will be leading when researching the strategies that are becoming evident regarding the way female entrepreneurs are managing media.
These strategies or concepts were operationalized in the interviews, by asking the female entrepreneurs about their experience with media, how they generally were depicted with media, if they thought this was similar to their own perceived identity and differences between own media content and media content provided by others about the female entrepreneurs in question. This has lead to questions as:
Could you tell me a bit more about media in general?
What is your opinion on how other female entrepreneurs are portrayed in media?
How do you feel about the content in media about yourself, is that similar to the content you provide yourself (e.g. on social media)?
Additionally, their experiences and descriptions in media were specifically focused on regarding the four occurring themes, which will be discussed in the third section of this chapter. When discussing a specific theme, the entrepreneurs were asked about their media management about such a topic and their opinion on this topic in media.
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As there might be other strategies regarding media management by female
entrepreneurs, the questions in the interviews are asked open-ended. In this way, the female entrepreneurs have the possibilities to share their own insights on the topic(s). This might lead to new strategies that have not been found in literature before, or a hybrid between certain previously discussed strategies.
3.3.3 Factors in media strategy formation
As this research focuses on the strategies of female entrepreneurs when managing media, an important concept to discuss is how these strategies might be formed. Two influential factors have been found in literature: identity and perception of others. These theoretical concepts were operationalized in the interviews by discussing identity and the perception of others as individual topics.
Questions were asked regarding for example the identity as an entrepreneur, reflection on their self-image and their opinion on the perception of others and its influence on their own identity. Within the interview, respondents were asked in the warm-up questions to tell something about themselves, to state important factors the entrepreneurs attributed to themselves. Additionally they were asked about their entrepreneurial spirit and female entrepreneurship, so their point of view on the topic could be established and their view on their identity as an entrepreneur. In terms of identity, the entrepreneurs were asked to define their identity as an entrepreneur and if this identity corresponded with their personal identity. To get a clear overview the entrepreneurs were asked to reflect on their self-image, to see the positive as well as the negative aspects they would attribute to themselves.
To get insight into the influence of the perception of others on their media appearance and strategy, the entrepreneurs were first asked if they felt the perception of others contributed to their identity, either personal or as a female entrepreneur. To be more specific the entrepreneurs are asked if the opinion of others influenced their behavior in different situation, after which the conversation concretely focuses on influence of others on their media portrayal.
To see how these concepts were formational for managing media strategies, throughout the interview the concept of identity and perception of others were loosely reflected back on in different topics. While discussing a specific theme, the
entrepreneurs were for example asked if the perception of others was influential for their opinion regarding that theme, or if they had any specific past experience with a certain topic that formed their opinion (relating back to their identity).
3.3.4 Themes in female entrepreneurial media
The last important concepts are the occurring themes in media discussing female entrepreneurship. Four themes have been identified and chosen for this research: audacity; work-life balance; femininity; and empowerment. They were also asked about how the media normally described these topics in their specific case, if this was the case, and how they would handle this information. Lastly, for all the topics some specific questions were asked to go gain deeper insights into the perception of the female entrepreneurs regarding those topics.
First, the entrepreneurs were asked about their experience in general with media, and their opinion on the presentation of female entrepreneurs in media. To be more specific and relate media back to the previous described section, the female entrepreneurs were asked about their experience with media and if their media presentation in general corresponded with their own sense of identity. Examples of questions asked regarding media experience are:
Could you tell me a bit more about your experience with media?
What is your opinion on how female entrepreneurs are presented in media? To operationalize the four themes in the interviews, the interviewees were specifically asked about their experiences with every topic and their own perceptions regarding the topics.
With regards to entrepreneurial audacity, the interview started by stating there are researches that argue there is a difference in perception when it comes to
entrepreneurial audacity between man and women. The respondents were asked for their view, if they would describe themselves having entrepreneurial audacity and what their opinion was about this trait. Additionally they were asked to their experience with the portrayal of entrepreneurial in media with questions as:
Do you feel you are described by or in media as having entrepreneurial audacity? Would you like to?
In terms of work-life balance, the interview first stated that women are often asked about their balance between work and their private life. Respondents were then again asked for their opinion on this matter and if they had experienced such questions in media. They were also asked about how they dealt with questions regarding this matter. Last, they were asked about their opinion between men and women with regards to work-life balance, how they felt this was portrayed in media and their opinion on this topic. Questions as following were asked:
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What is your opinion on work-life balance and the difference in portrayal in media?
How do you manage work-life balance and such questions about the topic? Femininity was operationalized in the interview by focusing on the identity of the respondents as a women as well as an entrepreneur, after which the questions focused more on femininity in media with questions as:
Do you feel like media portrayals do justice to your femininity?
Is there something you would like to see or present differently in media in terms of your femininity?
Last, the female entrepreneurs were asked questions regarding the topic of
empowerment, focusing on civil and social possibilities. These questions were mainly focused on the portrayal of female entrepreneurs to motive other women for
entrepreneurship. Questions regarding this topic started off more broad as: Do you think that portrayal of female entrepreneurs can encourage other women to start as an entrepreneur?
Do you feel as a female entrepreneur you would have the possibility to facilitate change for women in society through media?
The female entrepreneurs were after asked more specifically to their experience with media regarding this topic. Additionally, they were asked about the elements they would like to see more in media and how they would manage media regarding this topic. The aim of these interviews was to see how the female entrepreneurs manage media, how they would form a specific strategy managing media and their opinion regarding specific themes. The interviewees were asked to share their experiences and to come up with examples if this was seen necessary. Open-ended questions were asked to gather as much information by the interviewees themselves without any bias. Sometimes the order of the discussed topics did not match the topic list, as the interviewees drifted to the next topic in advance or to a topic later on the topic list. In order not to interrupt or guide the interviewee in any way, some of the first topics were discussed in the last part or the other way around. Sometimes it happened that the interviewees already started a certain topic themselves, this was encouraged to keep the flow of the conversation going. Therefore, none of the interviews followed the topic list exactly, but in the end it was verified if all the topics on the list were discussed to ensure the completeness of the data.
