Professor JeanClaude Ettinger

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Professor Jean-Claude Ettinger
Womens Empowerment
State-of-the-art in female entrepreneurship in
Belgium

• Professor Jean-Claude Ettinger

ALFA Project on Womens Empowerment
Turin 15-21 November, 2004
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Presentation Outline

• Our country Belgium
• Our university Université Libre de Bruxelles
  (ULB)
• Our Entrepreneurship Center Solvay Entrepreneurs
• Female Entrepreneurship in Belgium
• Conclusion

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Our country Belgium

• Constitutional Monarchy since 1830
• 3 regions, 3 communities and one federal
  government
• Capital Brussels
• 10.3 millions inhabitants on 31100km²
• Languages French, Dutch and German
• Currency Euro
• GDP 233 billions USD
• GDP/inhabitant (2003) 22621 USD

• Antwerp

• Gand

• Brussels

• Liege

• Namur

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Our University ULB (Université Libre de
Bruxelles)

• Created in 1834
• Founded on the  Libre Examen   principle
• 7 faculties, 9 schools and institutes
• 20000 students, 4500 employees, 1500 researchers
• A budget of 200 millions euros
• 3 Nobels prizes, 1 Fields medal and several
  Francquis prizes

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Our Entrepreneurship Center Solvay Entrepreneurs

• Strong link with Solvay Business School (SOCO
  Fac.) and ULB
• Activities in every important dimension of
  entrepreneurship
• Promoting Entrepreneurship Start Academy, from
  Research to Business,
• Training programmes  Creation Croissance ,
  Administrateurs PME, Business Angels Academy,
• Incubation of new companies (Cap Innove in
  Nivelles)
• Coaching of entrepreneurs and consulting for
  SMEs

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Female Entrepreneurship in BelgiumOutline

• Structural approach of international literature
• Some figures
• Profile 
• Firms managed
• Barriers
• Supporting measures
• Networks

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Female Entrepreneurship in BelgiumStructural
approach of international literature (1/3)

• A large variety of characteristics have been
  tackled
• 3 levels of analysis general, company and
  individual
• At general level
• Analysis of global statistical data
• 3 Problems
• Definition
• Reliability of databases
• Adequacy for comprehensive survey

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Female Entrepreneurship in BelgiumStructural
approach of international literature (2/3)

• At company level study of companies created by
  women
• Wages level
• Starting investment
• Measure of performance
• Company size
• Resources
• Partnership

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Female Entrepreneurship in BelgiumStructural
approach of international literature (3/3)

• At individual level study of the female
  entrepreneur profile
• Personnality
• Risk aversion
• Motivation
• Level of independance
• Management behaviour
• Lifestyle
• Balance between work and family

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Female Entrepreneurship in BelgiumBelgian women
entrepreneurship in figures (1/2)

• Existence of an important potential of
  entrepreneurs
• 2 kinds of female entrepreneurship
  self-employment and incorporation
• 27 of self-employed and only 16 of
  entrepreneurs
• 75 of entrepreneurs are male
• 1 of top executives positions are occupied by
  women
• Between 1986 and 2002, the part of women in the
  total self-employed has increased only by 4
• Homogeneous geographical dispersion

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Female Entrepreneurship in BelgiumBelgian women
entrepreneurship in figures (2/2)

• Industry dispersion
• Concentration in service sectors and
  professionals (62 of female self-employed and
  25 of female entrepreneurs)
• Very few in industrial sectors (1 and 8
  respectively)

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Female entrepreneurship in Belgium Profile of
the Belgian women entrepreneur (1/2)

• Mature age (62.8 of women entrepreneurs are more
  than 40 years old)
• Professionnal experience in SME before company
  creation
• Family status couple with children
• Presence of the husband as shareholder of the
  company
• Superior number of working hours (50 to 60h a
  week)

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Female entrepreneurship in Belgium Profile of
the Belgian women entrepreneur (2/2)

• Highly self-organised due to maintenance of
  traditional woman role in society
• Motivations entrepreneurs by opportunity or
  necessity
• Level of qualifications existing companies
  take-over goes with lower level of
  qualifications, creators goes with higher one
• Training by management courses
• Lower level of revenue compared to men
• Weak participation rate in networks

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Female entrepreneurship in Belgium
Characteristics of companies managed by women

• Small size
• Due to sector and qualification level
• Low equity
• Few use of external financing
• Partnership with husband
• Unclear conclusions about female companies
  performance

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Female entrepreneurship in Belgium Barriers
(1/2)

• Financial barriers
• Related to sectors and size
• Reluctance of bankers
• Financial instruments are not adapted ( size,
  flexibility)
• Solution
• Information and incentive to women on financing
  opportunities
• Promotion of female success stories aimed at all
  actors
• Reducing bankers bias against women projects
• Increasing female Business Angels in BA networks
• Adapting financing tools (micro-credit)

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Female entrepreneurship in Belgium Barriers
(2/2)

• At the personal level
• Lack of support from professional organisations,
  networks, family,
• Risk aversion and lack of qualifications
• Time management between private and professional
  life

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Female Entrepreneurship in
BelgiumMeasures supporting women
entrepreneurship (1/6)

• Insufficient use of general measures by women
• When used, equal access
• Specific measures
• Interim entrepreneurs
• Diane programme
• Amazone
• SOFIA
•  Feminin Pme 
•  Femmes daffaires, affaires de femmes 
• WomEn2FP6

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Female Entrepreneurship in BelgiumMeasures
supporting women entrepreneurship (2/6)

• Interim entrepreneurs (2001)
• Provision of interim entrepreneurs for
  replacement during family occupation
• More flexibility for women entrepreneurs (better
  balance between private and professional life)
• 55 (out of 250 candidates) future interim
  entrepreneurs trained in the 1st edition of the
  programme
• Adaptation of social status

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Female Entrepreneurship in BelgiumMeasures
supporting women entrepreneurship (3/6)

• 2. Diane actions programme (Equal, 2002)
•  4 kind of activities
• Increase of knowledge
• Dissemination of best practices in Women's
  Entrepreneurship in a series of key areas
• Promotion of exchange activities between female
  entrepreneurs in Europe
•    
•    Diane 2 is considered
• Mentoring programme
• Training programme
• Improving of women image in the media
• Integration of women in mixed networks

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Female Entrepreneurship in BelgiumMeasures
supporting women entrepreneurship (4/6)

• 3. Amazone (1995)
• National information platform about women
  empowerment (www.amazone.be)
• A diffusion tool for Diane programme
• 4. SOFIA (2000-2002)
• Women entrepreneurs meetings
• Exchange of experiences and training
• 80 participants in 4 European cities and coached
  by 16 mentors

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Female Entrepreneurship in BelgiumMeasures
supporting women entrepreneurship (5/6)

• 5.  Féminin PME (2002)
• Exchange of experiences
• Coaching of projects and training
•  Femmes daffaires, affaires de femmes (2004)
• Micro-credit for women entrepreneurs
• Organization of exchange meetings in small groups
  of borrowers

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Female Entrepreneurship in BelgiumMeasures
supporting women entrepreneurship (6/6)

• 7. WomEn2FP6 (2004)
• Goals
• Informing women entrepreneurs on the
  opportunities of the Sixth Framework R/D
  Programme of the European Commission
• Training on application fullfilment
• Support to participants
• Creation of a support bodies network
• The Sixth Framework Programme provides grants to
  European companies and research centres to carry
  out collaborative projects
• Focus on different sectors

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Female entrepreneurship in Belgium Networks
(1/2)

• Several networks already exist in Belgium
• Barriers to development
• Lack of time
• Lack of information
• Lack of interest
• Main networking motivation
• Access to knowledge
• Business development

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Female entrepreneurship in Belgium Networks
(2/2)

• Mixed or 100 female networks?
• Trends in both ways
• Mixed more consistent with the real world
• Specific mutual support but risk of isolation
• Solution some specific female topics within a
  mixed network
• Importance perception to be developed among women
• Importance of appointing women in the networks
  management team

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Conclusion

• A huge potential of development for female
  entrepreneurship
• Traditional model remains strong
• A lot of initiatives but not always appropriate
• Development of customized support tools  
•  
• Necessary contribution of university
• Cultural change
• Appropriate education
• Female entrepreneurial behaviour development
• Mobilization of all supporting actors

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Thank you for your attention