A cross-country comparison of EU countries in terms of women entrepreneurship determinants: a statistical analysis

Abstract

Women's participation in the labor force and entrepreneurial activity has a strategic importance for the emerging economies. Increasing the effectiveness of women in the work is seen as crucial to both society and women . Although women’s labor force participation is not at the desired level, they are becoming more active in economic life every day. Many studies are made in order to increase women entrepreneurs in the EU. In this study, it is intended to establish the determinants of women entrepreneurs among the EU countries according to economic and cultural indicators. The economic indicators are the unemployment rates, the welfare (GDP per capita), foreign direct investment and government expenditure; the cultural indicators are power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation and indulgance. In order to make cross-country comparisons, research was performed by multivariate statistical analysis of the clustering. By analyzing EU countries with each other, it is intended to put forward how similar or differentiated these countries are in terms of women entrepreneurship.