The Academy of Management Honors Bocconi Research

FRANCO MALERBA AND STEFANO BRESCHI'S PAPER ON GENDER BIAS AGAINST WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS WINS A DIVERSITY AWARD

A paper by Franco Malerba and Stefano Breschi, both of Bocconi’s Department of Management and Technology, has won the Best Paper Award for Gender, Diversity, and Entrepreneurship conferred by the Academy of Management (AoM).
 
The paper, “Back to Drawing Board: An Investigation of the Gender Effect on the Entrepreneurial Failure Stigma”, looks at the extent to which women entrepreneurs face a gender-based prejudice after they have experienced a failure. In other words, Professors Malerba and Breschi, with their colleagues Luca Pistilli and Alessia Paccagnini (from University College Dublin, and former Bocconi PhD students) have shown that among those who have previously gone through a failed entrepreneurial activity, women are disadvantaged against men in getting financial support for a new startup. This disadvantage, however, does not apply to women who have not failed in the past. This suggests the existence of a gender bias, which sees failed women entrepreneurs as less competent than failed men entrepreneurs.
 
The award is meant to give recognition to “innovative research on gender and diversity questions related to entrepreneurship, that is relevant to entrepreneurs, their firms and employees, labor markets, the resources and the environment in which they operate.”
 
“The Academy of Management is the preeminent professional association for management and organization scholars,” reads the AoM website. “Our worldwide members are professors and Ph.D. students in business schools at universities, academics in related social science and other fields, and practitioners who value knowledge creation and application. Founded in 1936, our global community today is nearly 18,000 strong and spans over 120 countries.”
 

by Andrea Costa