Female entrepreneurs’ gender roles, social capital and willingness to choose external financing

From the perspective of gender roles, this study uses social capital as the intermediary variable to study female entrepreneurs’ willingness to choose external financing. We combine social and behavioral sciences and financing theory to explore interactions between gender roles, social capital, and willingness to choose external financing. We elaborate on the intermediary role of social capital between gender roles and external financing. We find differences in gender role types among female entrepreneurs that significantly impact their willingness to choose external financing. Further, the differences among gender role types of female entrepreneurs significantly impact their social capital, which in turn is a significant but not sole factor that mediates their willingness to choose external financing.