The present study aims at investigating the existence of gender differences in entrepreneurship. The focus is on differences in strategy and human resource management (HRM) between male and female entrepreneurs in Dutch real estate brokerage. Several propositions are explored using data from in-depth interviews. The present study shows that gender differences in entrepreneurship do exist. In particular, there are gender differences with respect to the path to entrepreneurship, growth-levels, degree of diversification and type of leadership.
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