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Firms run by women 'less likely to go broke'

Published: 16 Oct 12 10:32 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20121016-45581.html

Companies run by women are less likely to go bankrupt thanks to their holistic approach to business, a study from the German finance ministry suggested on Tuesday.

Experts also suggest this could be because they tend to head firms with smaller budgets.

Generally, female-led firms grow more slowly than those headed by men, but were less likely to go under, the study showed. This was not just the case in Germany, but also in France, Sweden, Austria, Italy, Poland, and the UK, the Frankfurter Rundschau daily reported on Tuesday.

Woman managers had, the study showed, a more holistic approach towards the concept of success. Personal satisfaction, independence and the compatibility of private and personal life tended to be a higher priority for women managers than for male ones.

Experts at the German Institute for Economic Research linked the findings to the theory that in smaller businesses – where there are more female bosses than in large companies – women managers were less inclined to take risks.

This was not down to the fact that spending money cautiously was a female trait, more that female bosses tended to lead companies with less cash to play around with, the experts said.

Women managers in large companies with more financial wiggle-room were found to make equally risky investments as their male counterparts. But there were fewer women to assess when judging larger companies in Germany, as just eight percent of people managing businesses with over 100 employees are women.

While women remain under-represented on directorial boards in Germany, the country is a European forerunner for female self-employment. Nearly 40 percent of the country’s freelancers are women. This figure is beaten only by Austria.

The Local/jcw

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#1
12:03 October 16, 2012 by Berlin fuer alles
No doubt this is a report that TL have relayed without accuracy.
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