| Abstract [eng] |
The technology and deep technology sector in Lithuania is important and growing. This is one of the biggest aspects where Lithuania can compete economically with the global market alone. Unfortunately, research shows that the potential of this industry is not sufficiently exploited due to gender bias and exclusion. Women are actively involved in academia, many engineering university graduates, even about 58-63%, are women, which exceeds the EU average, but when moving from an academic background to the creation of startups, this percentage significantly exceeds. In Lithuania and the EU context, this percentage drops to just 14-17%. The aim of this master's thesis is to identify factors that enable women's leadership in the process of creating and developing technological and deep technology startups and to provide recommendations for increasing women's participation in Lithuania and in the wider global context. An analysis of scientific literature is carried out, on the basis of which a theoretical model was created that distinguishes the importance and interaction of personal competencies, technological context, social and cultural factors, and organizational and market outcomes. The theoretical model reveals how personal competencies positively affect organizational and market outcomes, which leads to better personal competencies, but social factors, such as gender stereotypes, negatively affect outcomes, due to persistent stereotypes. The qualitative part of the empirical research was conducted from a multiple case study, which included 13 cases, 10 of them in the Lithuanian context and 3 in a foreign context, and qualitative interviews, which included 13 female leaders and founders of tech or deeptech startups, 5 mentors and 5, as representatives of the ecosystem. The interviews were analyzed using the thematic analysis principle, the multiple case study using the cross-case analysis principle, and all results were analyzed using triangulation of instruments. The research results show that the most important enabling factors for women leaders are high scientific education and experience, self-confidence, courage, resilience and motivation, networking and mixed team formation, mentorship and role models, incentive programs, grants in the early stage. The research revealed key barriers, such as investor bias, limited investor access to business networks due to the male culture in tech and deeptech due to demographic diversity, the feeling of having to prove yourself, working several times harder, and the feeling of not deserving your achievements, balancing family and career. The empirical study largely confirms the theoretical model and shows that women-led startups have significantly higher sustainability, better longevity, more responsible resource management and real-world problem-oriented innovations. The research discussion presents an update of the conceptual model, in which the specified categories are divided into enabling and limiting factors, each ecosystem factor contains enabling and limiting aspects. The main recommendations of the respondents are dedicated to the education system, developing entrepreneurial skills and reducing gender stereotypes from an early age, educating investors on gender bias, developing ecosystems - mentors, role model programs, networking, promotion and dedicated fund programs, and for policymakers - the implementation of investment criteria. Based on theoretical and empirical analysis, a model was created to enable women's leadership in the development of technological startups. The model includes guidelines for strengthening personal competencies, mentoring and acceleration programs, investor bias, the creation of funding instruments for women, an inclusive business organizational culture, and a more active role for policymakers in promoting gender equality in the technology sector. |
