Female entrepreneurs' personal characteristics and motivation: a review of the Greek situation

The aim of this paper is to investigate the issue of women entrepreneurs in Greece by looking into personal characteristics and motivation of female Greek entrepreneurs in order to assist Greek policy makers in their future attempts to devise programs to support them in the start‐up phase.

The paper is a review of the entrepreneurial environment and female entrepreneurship in Greece, approached first through an analysis of the existing bibliography and then through the presentation and analysis of data exploring personal characteristics and motivation, drawn mainly from three similarly designed surveys (two of which were designed and carried out by the authors), covering the period 1990‐2000.

It is important that women entrepreneurs are not treated as a monolithic category: rather, policies and programs to support them should begin with a diagnosis of their personal characteristics and motives aimed at strengthening pull motives that comprise a base for more viable and innovative entrepreneurial activity.

The paper's originality lies in its review of the Greek situation, adding more evidence of the characteristics of women entrepreneurs in a different setting.