"Global evidence of a strong business case for investing in women and leveraging their potential as entrepreneurs is emerging. The 'Women Investing in Women' movement can play a significant role in addressing the systemic access to finance challenges that women entrepreneurs contend with. The report takes stock of the access to finance challenges experienced by women entrepreneurs in India and the resulting financing gap. It explores the potential of the 'Women Investing in Women' movement to address those challenges and enhance access to finance for women-led start-ups and small businesses. The core objective of the report is to identify a strategic roadmap for strengthening this movement in India to further the adoption of gender lens investing. This report will be a valuable resource for a range of ecosystem stakeholders including regulatory agencies and government policymakers, development agencies, foundations, private sector companies who aim to strengthen the women entrepreneurship ecosystem in India. It is expected to inform policy formulation and intervention design targeted at strengthening gender lens investing in India."

"Women, Business and the Law 2020 is the sixth in a series of studies that analyze laws and regulations affecting women's economic opportunity in 190 economies. Eight indicators-structured around women's interactions with the law as they begin, progress through, and end their careers-align with the economic decisions women make at various stages of their lives. The indicators are Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension."

"The UN Global Compact and BSR have been working steadily with companies to inform their approaches and drive progress for gender equality and women’s empowerment. BSR and the UN Global Compact are committed to continuing to support businesses with the tools and insights needed to navigate the coming decade and move from commitment to action on gender equality. Business as usual is no longer working for women or men, but innovative solutions designed with and for women can move us beyond the status quo toward a gender-equal workplace. The WEPs Gender Gap Analysis Tool is composed of 18 multiple choice questions across four areas: leadership, workplace, marketplace, and community. The tool also covers four management stages—commitment, implementation, measurement, and transparency—to ensure commitments are coupled with substantive action to implement the WEPs."

"This paper investigates the contribution of small firms to employment, job creation, and growth in developing countries. While small firms (< 20 employees) have the smallest share of aggregate employment, the small and medium enterprise sector's (< 100 employees) contribution is comparable to that of large firms. Small firms have the largest shares of job creation, and highest sales growth and employment growth, even after controlling for firm age. Large firms, however, have higher productivity growth. Conditional on size, young firms are the fastest growing and large mature firms have the largest employment shares but small young firms have higher job creation rates."

"Recent research shows that start-ups are important for job creation, but these firms are also inherently volatile. We use linked employer-employee data to examine the relative importance of firm age and firm size for job creation and destruction in Brazil. Firm age is a more important determinant of job creation in Brazil than firm size; young firms and star-ups create a relatively high number of jobs. However, young firms are also more likely to exit the market and have higher levels of employment volatility. We, therefore, condition the job creation analysis on job stability. Young firms and large firms create relatively more stable jobs in Brazil."

"We evaluate a technology entrepreneurship training program by comparing career decisions among applicants accepted into the program with unaccepted applicants who are program finalists. We find that program participation is associated with an increased likelihood of subsequent entrepreneurship but that this is not uniform across participants; the estimated relationship between program participation and subsequent entrepreneurial activity is disproportionately lower for applicants with ex-ante resources and capabilities in entrepreneurship, measured by prior entrepreneurship experience. Moreover, we only observe this reduced impact of the program on subsequent entrepreneurial activity for participants that have prior experience in founding a technology company as opposed to other forms of entrepreneurial activity. This suggests the program is more effective for individuals that have otherwise limited access to technology entrepreneurship opportunities."

"Banks in emerging markets are increasingly providing non-financial services to their SME clients, typically consisting of information sharing, training and consultancy. This study, published by IFC in partnership with the Austrian Government, is the first to explore reasons behind this trend, finding that banks' key motivations include attracting and retaining customers and strengthening portfolio quality. The report consists of an overview followed by case studies of three banks, namely namely Türk Ekonomi Bankasý (TEB), Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), and ICICI Bank."

"Using survey data on Macedonian firms that participated in USAID programs providing technical and financial assistance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and on firms that did not, we estimate the effectiveness of such assistance in increasing the growth of employment in the assisted firms. We control for selection bias in program participation and use both kernel and caliper propensity score matching to estimate the excess growth of employment in assisted firms. We find that assistance programs raised employment growth by 16-20 percentage points in the first year after assistance and by 26-30 points by the third year."

"This case explores the evolution of the cross-sector relationship between Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Walmart Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2000-2015. It focuses on partnerships that sought to build the capacity of smallholder farmers in the developing world. The case explores the ways in which this collaboration came about, how it was supported by the partners, and the level of success achieved as measured by the Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Walmart Foundation, and USAID.

After reading and discussing the material, students should: understand the opportunities and challenges inherent in bridging public and private goals in the context of a partnership between a multinational company and a large development agency; understand different types of partnerships and how they can deliver different types of value to the partners; and understand how internal structure, cross-organizational interaction and resource flow, and shifting strategic objectives can influence partnership development and success."

"High-growth entrepreneurship has been demonstrated to be a catalyst for high socio-economic impact influence. Although just 5% to 7% of all American businesses are high-impact, these businesses create most of the new jobs in the United States. Similarly, according to a 2012 Endeavor report, high-growth entrepreneurial companies annually generate 30 more jobs than the average comparable company. High-growth entrepreneurs create jobs, inspire existing and would-be entrepreneurs to invest in their communities, and contribute to their entrepreneurial ecosystems to generate new businesses. Though each entrepreneur and each company are different, all share one thing in common: their exceptional leadership, which allows them to realize their vision and transmit their passion to their teams, investors, and communities. In the Latin American and Caribbean region, little is known about high-growth entrepreneurs and even less is known about women whose companies achieve high growth: Who are they? How did they succeed in reaching this level of growth? What motivates them? What are their biggest challenges and ambitions? What do they need to keep their businesses growing? This report aims to collect information to get to know them better and to explore common aspects of women whose businesses have experienced high levels of growth (referred to as high-growth women entrepreneurs onwards in this report)."