Gender specifics in entrepreneurs’ personal characteristics

This paper explored Slovenian entrepreneurs’ personal characteristics to understand the existing gender gap in transitional countries, testing the proposed model among small and medium-sized company owners (N = 201; 32.3% female, 67.7% male). The research operationalized entrepreneurs’ characteristics according to psychological and non-psychological motivation factors; the former resulted in four types of Slovenian entrepreneurs while the latter was divided into human and social capital. Significant differences emerged among genders related to certain psychological motivation factors and social capital categories, but not human capital. Women remain an unexploited source of entrepreneurship; thus, Slovenia should establish effective mechanisms to promote female entrepreneurship.