Exploring the impact of gender upon women's business ownership

Building on some of the research themes discussed earlier, this special issue of the International Small Business Journal presents a set of research articles that offer new perspectives on some of the current female entrepreneurship debates. In selecting the articles, the editors have endeavoured to bring together a collection of articles that offer new insights into the challenges that women encounter in their efforts to become entrepreneurs. While each of the articles deals with a different topic debate, and adopts a differing methodological approaches, they are inextricably linked by a number of central themes, namely, new venture creation, small business, availability of resources and the dimension of 'challenge' within entrepreneurship. Collectively, this special issue presents a highly complementary set of research articles that enhances our understanding of the dynamic nature of female entrepreneurship and the challenges of the entrepreneurial environment.