To all amazing women entrepreneurs out there!

On the occasion of Women’s Day today, I would like to send my best wishes to all female colleagues and friends, and to share a few words about one of my cases which is very close to my heart.

The case is called ‘Sizable: Crowdfunding Campaign! …Again’ written with my female co-author from Belgium Dr Nancy Huyghebaert. The case is about a new type of entrepreneurial finance such as equity-based crowdfunding, but most importantly, the crowdfunding campaign of this start-up is led by a woman, and the case gives an opportunity to discuss in class the topic of gender bias in start-up financing. Moreover, by featuring the female case protagonist we wanted to send a meaningful message!

As recent research by Sharen and McGowan (2019) showed, women represent around 50% of undergraduate business graduates and 36% of MBA graduates, yet despite their strong presence in management education programs, women are noticeably absent from business case studies. While case studies inform students about business processes, decision making, strategy, and management challenges, they also promote unintentional learning about gender. It seems that case studies contain a “hidden curriculum” that presents and reinforces implicit assumptions and stereotypes about women’s fitness to lead. Sharen and McGowan (2019) found that “women protagonists were absent in more than 80% of cases, and when present, were portrayed as less visionary, risk taking, agentic, certain, and more emotional, cautious, and quality and detail oriented than men.”

Nancy and me were determined to write a strong case highlighting the opposite inspiring example. When I presented this case at the NACRA case writing conference in 2019 in Arizona, we were thrilled to receive the BEST CASE GOLD Award https://www.ciim.ac.cy/international-award-for-ciim-professor/ . In 2021, we published this case in the Case Research Journal (now available via Harvard Business Publishing https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/NA0678-PDF-ENG?Ntt= and other outlets) – and at the Niagara Falls conference NACRA 2022 another award followed: 'Tate award' for Best Case Published in CRJ in 2021.

There are so many amazing women entrepreneurs around us – today I want to take this opportunity and sincerely salute to their strength, wisdom, empathy, and resilience!!