ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the emergence of sustainable entrepreneurial intentions. It highlights the function played by role models and discusses why they are important for women's entrepreneurial intentions and the mechanism by which role models influence decisions and provide incentives for others to become entrepreneurs. The chapter reviews the understanding of female networks and discusses how and why networks may serve as substitutes for role models. A significant amount of evidence exists that role models and networks play a significant role in fostering female entrepreneurship in middle-income economies. In spite of significant improvement in early nascent female entrepreneurship, middle-income countries still show rates of established female business activity that are about half of their nascent activity counterparts. Recent empirical studies of individual behavior have shown the particular importance of social capital for women and the existence of remarkably consistent differences in accessing it across genders.
