Female leadership in startups: analyzing survival rates and challenges in emerging economies

Purpose – The authors studied how leadership, gender and funding work together as key factors in startups’ survival, explaining performance differences among high-growth firms. This study aims to focus on the important role of female leadership and financial resource allocation in helping businesses last longer in emerging markets, in a Latin American context. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use a longitudinal analysis of 888 startups supported by government subsidies over eight years. The authors applied Cox proportional hazards models to measure how gender and funding affect startups’ chances of survival. Findings – Results show that startups led by women have significantly higher survival rates than those led by men, with a 42.57% lower risk of failure. Also, every 1% increase in funding is linked to a 40.93% drop in failure risk. The findings show the combined advantage of female leadership together with strong financial support. Practical implications – The results of the study can help policymakers, investors and entrepreneurship support organizations developing strategies to encourage inclusive leadership and improve funding methods that can impact firm stability and growth. Social implications – By highlighting the higher performance of women-led startups, this study supports the value of gender equality in entrepreneurship and shows the wider benefits of having diverse leadership in business communities. Originality/value – The research adds to the strategic management literature by offering evidence of the positive effects of gender diversity in leadership and financial resources on startups survival. Building on earlier studies the authors add a focus on emerging economies, and calculate how much of an advantage women-led firms have.