by David A. Simmons (Author)

Research indicates that men are twiceas likeyl tobecome entrepreneurs as women (McManus, 2017). Some scholars have theorized that self-efficacy, an attribute that can varyby gender, may be a factor that influences the decision to pursue entrepreneurial activities, but scholars have not yet verified a direct connection between self-efficacy and entrepreneurship (Haines, Deaux, & Lofaro, 2016). In seminal work on the topic, Bandura (1977) noted that self- efficacy is a combination of two traits: (a) an individual's motivation tocomplete agiven task and(b) an individual's ability toaccomplish the task. When applying self-efficacy to entrepreneurship, the term entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) refers to an individua'slability tosucceed as a business owner (Kautonen, van Gelderen, & Fink,2015.)