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WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN STEM 719

and commercialization may further explain existing precursors as well as critical outputs of commercial-
gender gaps, as the disparity is quite marked, par- ization behaviors. The findings are additionally robust
ticularly among women-owned firms in STEM. The to changes in the definition of primary business own-
majority of all respondent businesses rely on less than ership. A comparison of the findings to results under
$5,000 in start-up capital, the lowest funding cate- traditional definitions of majority ownership applied
gory included in the survey questionnaire; however, to 2007 and 2012 SBO data (in analyses not shown)
women-owned single-owner businesses in STEM are demonstrates that, across the plurality and majority
most likely to rely on this funding category (Figure owner definitions and survey rounds, characteris-
1). Men-owned firms are more likely to use higher tics of business owners and businesses are broadly
levels of start-up funding slightly more often than similar. While variation in owner definition by sur-
women-owned firms in both STEM and non-STEM vey year introduces some minor changes in the size
firms. At start-up funding levels above $5,000, the of gender and sector disparities along certain indi-
disparity in funding by gender becomes apparent. cators, trends remain very similar.
Among STEM and non-STEM men-owned firms,
non-STEM firms are more likely to receive start-up COMMERCIALIZATION AMONG WOMEN-
funding at all higher levels of funding than STEM OWNED STEM BUSINESSES
firms. Among female owners, STEM firms see the Using data from the 2012 Survey of Business
gap in likelihood to receive start-up funding most Owners, the report also examines a firm’s intellec-
markedly from all other firm owners beginning at tual property ownership as an important indicator
the $100,000 to $249,999 level, while the gap emerges of commercialization behavior. The analysis takes
prominently for women-owned non-STEM busi- into account the behavior of filing and receiving
nesses at the $250,000 to $999,999 funding level. intellectual property as the first critical step in the
Start-up funding sources, to some degree, also commercialization process, which is followed by the
highlight disparities between men- and wom- licensing of proprietary innovations. Thus, the anal-
en-owned businesses. Men-owned businesses, in ysis results presented below characterize the role of
STEM and non-STEM fields, are consistently more gender in a key initial phase of commercialization.
likely to rely on or gain access to a bank loan to fund The commercialization-focused analysis draws
start-ups than women-owned businesses (Table 12). on 2012 SBO data and the same approach to identi-
This is notable, as bank loans typically give advan- fying STEM fields by two-digit NAICS codes as the
tages over other personal funding sources, such as one used in analyzing 2007 SBO data. However, to
credit cards or personal loans, in that they are asso- define the gender of firm owner, a Census Bureau
ciated with lower interest rates and lower personal classification that identifies the owner as an indi-
financial risk. Expansion capital sources further high- vidual holding at least 51% of the firm is adopted. In
light the gender disparity in access to bank loans, as firms where no individual majority owner is identi-
men-owned firms, in STEM and non-STEM fields, fiable, firms are classified as equal-ownership. SBO
use bank loans to finance expansion at more than data further identifies firms that hold at least one
twice the rate of women-owned firms. Men-owned piece of a type of intellectual property (e.g., trade-
firms in both STEM and non-STEM fields are addi- mark, patent) but does not provide information on
tionally more likely to use business profits to fund the intensity of intellectual property production (e.g.,
expansion than women-owned firms; however, STEM number of patents held by a single firm.) Table 13
firms, broadly, are more likely to use business prof- summarizes the trends in intellectual property out-
its to expand than non-STEM firms. puts of STEM and non-STEM firms.
The analyses presented here, while descriptive, In all measures of commercial licensing (e.g.,
yield insights that support findings from the litera- patenting, trademarking, copyrighting) a distinct
ture, which identify a significant gender gap among gender gap exists among STEM firms. Accordingly,
factors influencing participation in STEM educa- men-owned firms are significantly more likely to
tion and entrepreneurship and experience-based hold at least one piece of intellectual property than