Does mentoring for women entrepreneurs lead to success?

Abstract

Mentoring is recommended as particularly relevant to women entrepreneurs. This paper examines female entrepreneurs’ experience of mentoring and how it contributed to success. It identifies the elements of successful mentoring for women entrepreneurs and evaluates its contribution to entrepreneurial success. An interpretivist approach was adopted using a qualitative research design. In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 women entrepreneurs. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. Most participants expressed the view that mentoring was “vital”. The most significant form was found to be peer mentoring. The paper contributes to knowledge by adding peer and online mentoring to the menu of mentoring techniques.

Keywords

• gender
• mentoring
• entrepreneurship
• women entrepreneurs