Copreneurship and Gender Dynamics in Small Family Firms in the Transitional Economy of Taiwan

This study explores the relationship between entrepreneurship and gender relationships in family firms during the global recession in Taiwan. Although previous literature has conceptualized women’s invisibility through patriarchy in family businesses, certain studies have indicated women’s substantial contributions and indispensability. The gender dynamics within an entrepreneurial setting remain under-investigated. In this study, the power dynamics within day-to-day entrepreneurial processes in Taiwanese copreneurial firms during the global economic recession are explored from a family embeddedness perspective.

Qualitative data generated through in-depth interviews of 24 family firms across economic sectors in 1995 and the follow-up interviews in 2010 show the diversity of the gender relationships and the complexity of the power negotiation between entrepreneurship and patriarchy. The market uncertainty and the firms’ adaptive strategies provide a context in which women are able to negotiate the patriarchal system and reconstruct their position by using their entrepreneurial capability. The findings show that gender dynamics and wives’ bargaining power in copreneurial firms may vary with copreneurs’ entrepreneurial capability, the nature of their specific industry, and family relationships. Wives’ adaptive entrepreneurship based on years of accumulated tacit knowledge and capability, is crucial for firms’ risk management in coping with market uncertainty. Wives’ roles tend to be characterized by greater autonomy in industries that utilize female skills than for wives in other industries. Conversely, wives of copreneurial firms in a strong patriarchal culture, particularly those in an extended-family environment, are more likely to work as unpaid laborers and have no say in firms’ decisions.

The observations further reveal that wives’ entrepreneurial identity is shaped by the power relationships at work within the context of daily organizational routines, which can increase their self-empowerment and improve women’s agency. However, lack of opportunity to cultivate their entrepreneurship asserts their gendered identity and reinforces marginality.