The role of human and financial capital in the profitability and growth of women-owned small firms

This paper examines the relationship between human and financial capital and firm performance for women- and men-owned small firms in the service and retail sectors. Results indicate that human capital variables, including education and experience, bad a positive impact on the profitability of women-owned firms, whereas measures of financial capital bad a greater impact of the profitability of men-owned firms, The ability to secure financial capital also had a positive impact on the growth rate of men-owned firms, but did not appear to affect the growth rate of women-owned firms. These findings suggest that the growth aspirations for women-owned firms may be driven by factors other than human capital or the ability to secure external capital.