Gender and the use of external business advice : A Swedish study

Purpose – The aim of this study is to examine whether there are significant differences betweenfemale and male entrepreneurs’ use of consultation during business start-ups.Design/methodology/approach – Using several statistical tools, including ANOVA and seeminglyunrelated regressions, empirical analyses are conducted on a unique and firm-level panel database of837 female- and 1926 male-owned active small firms.Findings – The results indicate that gender may be an important variable in the use of advice amongsmall business owners in Sweden. Female owners in this study are shown to be more eager than maleowners to use external business advice, and do so to a higher extent.Practical implications – One implication of this study is that firms may not be able to use allbusiness advice types simultaneously during their start-up stage, so an ordered list of consultancyservices would help them prioritize and adjust their needs accordingly. Because the use of businessadvice is context-based, the findings of this study may not be generalized to firms in othercountries. This paper shows some gender-based attributes/features relating to the use of businessadvice, which need to be better integrated into policymaking for the future assistance of smallbusinesses.Originality/value – This article focuses on an important issue and is unique partly because fewstudies have examined the relationship between gender and external business advice. By explicitly andempirically examining this issue, this article makes a contribution to the small- and medium-sizedenterprises’ literature