Innovative Entrepreneurs in Health Care : Gender and Entrepreneurship Perspectives on Self-employed Women and Men in the County of Stockholm.

This is a study on entrepreneurs in the healthcare sector in Sweden viewed from a gender and entrepreneurial perspective. In the study both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to answer the main research questions: what characterizes health care entrepreneurship in Sweden, and why and how do the entrepreneurs perform the related tasks? In the quantitative study it is concluded that women make up a large part (68 percent) of the sector. Disaggregated by region, we demonstrate that the female entrepreneurs in this sector are most prevalent in the county of Stockholm, the Swedish capital region, and that the men in this sector are mostly found in the county of Uppsala, but to a relatively large extent also in Stockholm. The capital region thus seems to be well suited for entrepreneurship in the health care sector. The qualitative study is an interview study of 11 women and 8 men in the county of Stockholm. The results indicate that the main driving force behind starting businesses in this sector is an ambition to help people in one way or another. Another main conclusion is that the entrepreneurs in the health care sector are innovative, both in that they start-up a business in order to realise their ideas and ways to produces services, and through the constant development of these ideas and services. The study also concludes that entrepreneurship in healthcare can be understood as a collective process performed in relation to other people, often through the personal networks of the entrepreneurs