The role and importance of networking activities to female entrepreneurs in Northern Irleand cannot be overestimated, according to UU research associate Alison Hampton, who graduated this week at Jordanstown.

Alison - who receives her PhD this week investigated the role, nature and importance of female entrepreneurial networks for her doctorate research.

The focus of her study was to develop greater insights into female entrepreneurial firms and female entrepreneurial networks within the Science, Engineering and Technology sectors in Northern Ireland.

“Female entrepreneurial networks appear to have a level of networking quality and the female entrepreneurs recognise the importance of network expansion to enhance their networking quality,” says Alison.

She notes that the female network evolves during the lifecycle of a company and that the quality of networking developed and changed in conjunction with both the nature of the networking activities and the female entrepreneur’s level of confidence.

“Gender becomes less influential on the female entrepreneur as her confidence increases in conjunction with her time in business. The research gave an insight into the advantages of ‘being female’ in business but also highlighted the negative attitudes experienced towards female entrepreneurs from other females.

“Support networks appear to be of paramount importance in striving to achieve a home-work life balance for female entrepreneurs and the female entrepreneur’s husband/life-partner, her parents and ‘paid help’ are of particular significance,” she comments.

Originally from Banbridge, County Down, Alison did a degree in Management and Business Economics at Queen’s University before transferring to UU to complete a Masters degree in Marketing. 

After spending a couple of years working with SMEs to develop and implement their marketing strategies, she returned to UUJ to complete her PhD under the supervision of Dr Pauric McGowan, Director of the Northern Ireland Centre for Entrepreneurship.

For further information, please contact:

David Young
Telephone: 028 90366074
Email: David Young