ABSTRACT
Negative gender stereotype has been recognized as one of the problems women entrepreneurs face when starting and growing a business. This research explains how women entrepreneurs overcome the negative gender stereotypes through the implications of stereotype reactance/protection theory (Kray, Thompson, and Galinsky, 2001; Javadian and Zoogah, 2014) and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The results indicate that women with high levels of entrepreneurial self-efficacy do not experience stereotype threat and do not have lower venture creation intentions than men. Also, stereotype reactance among women entrepreneurs is found to positively impact their venture growth intentions. In addition, women with high levels of entrepreneurial self-efficacy have stronger venture growth intentions as stereotype reactance increased.
