Cultural Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship in Mexico: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

This paper analyses possible challenges and opportunities that Mexican female
entrepreneurs face during the establishment of new enterprises. Based on in-depth
interviews with female entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship experts, authors
researched opportunities in the form of governmental and non-governmental
institutional support, growing entrepreneurship, social awareness and women
empowerment. However, lack of credibility, fear of vulnerability to criticism and
social pressure are some challenges associated with gender egalitarianism. In
such, the authors proved that Mexican culture impacts women in some ways more
than the others. Institutional collectivism was the cultural dimension with higher
positive impact on women, followed by gender egalitarianism with a neutral to
positive impact and the power distance with a neutral influence on women.