External enablers (EEs) are exogenous, macro-environmental forces that influence the rate, extent and substance of entrepreneurial activity. A steadily increasing body of empirical research has sought to identify, describe and predict the aggregate impact of EEs, yet few studies have assessed whether EEs exert similar or dissimilar effects across societal groups, and none to date have sought to ascertain whether EEs function in a gender-neutral fashion. The issue is important to address because it is common for governments to implement policies designed to leverage or mitigate the influence of EEs. Absent knowledge regarding the differential effects of EEs, policies may be enacted with an aggregate intent, but which may routinely disadvantage female entrepreneurs. To address this concern, we investigate the impact of a prominent EE (internet access) on entrepreneurial activity, employing a longitudinal design, consisting of 61 countries from 2004 to 2013. Our results suggest that increased internet access is, in the aggregate, associated with heightened entrepreneurial activity, but the favorable effect for male entrepreneurs is markedly greater than that for female entrepreneurs. The findings reveal that gender-based disaggregation is critical in assessing the influence of EEs.

中文翻译：

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当涨潮时，一些船比其他船更能提升：在创业的外部支持中基于性别的差异

外部促成因素 (EE) 是影响创业活动的速率、范围和实质的外部宏观环境力量。越来越多的实证研究试图识别、描述和预测 EEs 的总体影响，但很少有研究评估 EEs 是否在社会群体中发挥相似或不同的影响，迄今为止还没有一项研究试图确定 EEs 是否在社会群体中发挥作用。中性时尚。这个问题很重要，因为政府通常会实施旨在利用或减轻 EE 影响的政策。由于缺乏关于 EE 的不同影响的知识，政策可能会以总体意图制定，但这可能通常对女性企业家不利。为了解决这个问题，我们采用纵向设计调查了 2004 年至 2013 年期间 61 个国家的突出 EE（互联网接入）对创业活动的影响。我们的结果表明，总体而言，互联网接入的增加与创业活动的增加有关，但对男性企业家的有利影响明显大于对女性企业家的有利影响。研究结果表明，基于性别的分类对于评估 EE 的影响至关重要。