with respect to work and home than those typically attributed to men. In some instances, these differing priorities may inhibit a woman's ability to succeed in management. More often, however, such priority differences are simply used as a justification for discrimination against women.
Franchising offers many women an opportunity to control their own destinies through business ownership (Whittemore, 31989). Through franchising, women are afforded entrepreneurial and small business opportunities otherwise denied to them (Goldstein, 1987).
The dictionary definition of entrepreneur does not limit her or his activity to that of small business enterprise (Gove, 1986). It holds that an entrepreneur is one who organizes an economic venture, especially one who also owns and manages it, and assumes the financial risks associated with its operation. The Encyclopedia of Economics defines an entrepreneur as an individual . . . specific to a firm who has decided to become the residual income recipient rather than entering into some contractural agreement for his or her services . . . . Hence, the entrepreneur uses human capital in combination with other "hired" inputs to produce a product and receives as income the . . . profit (Smith son, 1982, p. 342).
In contemporary society, the term entrepreneur is widely associated with technological innovation, risk taking, and independence (Gaedeke, & Tootelian, 1985). To state that all, or even most technological innovation and risk taking in a contemporary economy is associated with entrepreneurial acti vity overlooks that fact that most technological innovation emanates from large, publicly held companies, in spite of the exceptions which may be cited to the contrary (Schollhammer, 1982).
Most of the characteristics attributed to entrepreneurs are desirable in managers for any business enterprise large or small. Oddly, a valuable definition for an entrepreneur ...