Resolving entrepreneurial liabilities in African businesses: does gender diversity of ownership team matter?

This study explores the role of gender diversity in enterprise ownership teams (EOTs) in addressing size and age (entrepreneurial) liabilities in African businesses. Using a contingency framework with organizational ecology theory as its base, gender diversity in EOTs is argued as a strategic action small businesses can use to ameliorate the constraints imposed by the entrepreneurial liabilities of newness and smallness. These hypotheses are tested using World Bank enterprise surveys in Africa across multiple industries. The study finds that gender diversity in EOTs presents small businesses with a competitive advantage to drive their performance. Gender diverse EOTs is found to be useful in relieving the constraints imposed by liability of size but not the liability age. The study contributes to the integrativists perspective of management by integrating the deterministic effects of business age as well as size and the voluntaristic effects of gender diversity using a contingency framework.