Do (Female) Founders Influence (Female) Joiners to Become Founders too?

Female founders are scarce, certainly those employing personnel. Do (female) founders affect the likelihood of (female) joiners to become founders too? Recent research demonstrates that joiners are more sensitive to contextual influences than founders. Joining a startup could provide a context to experiment provisional founder identities, especially if the founder is perceived as a role model. Role models are more likely to be influential, the more similar they are to the focal person, especially if both are minorities, as is the case for women in entrepreneurial environments. We study how joiner-founder (gender) homophily affects the likelihood of female and male joiners to become founders themselves. We find a relatively large and robust positive effect among female joiners that can be attributed to the role modeling function of female founders. Female entrepreneurs hiring personnel may thus have a multiplier
effect in reducing gender gaps in entrepreneurship rates.