The Impact of Gender Role Identity on Perceptions of Women Entrepreneurs: A Call for Future Research

Indeed, research has shown that the impact of stereotype endorsement on perceptions and behavioral outcomes is influenced by gender role identity (Guillet et al., 2006). However, a key limitation of our study is the absence of the customers' gender role identity. Therefore, we recommend that future studies delve further into the impact of the evaluator's gender role identification on the evaluation of women entrepreneurs.

In our study, we adopted a binary approach to gender to align with the majority of research indicating that customers' stereotypical expectations are rooted in a 'binary essentialist account of male and female' (Galloway et al., 2015, p. 5). However, future research should expand our model and findings to include a non-binary approach that more accurately aligns with diverse gender identities. Furthermore, considering the rise of social media networks and digital platforms that direct customers' attention towards marketing ads and paid influencers, future research could incorporate insights from the field of entrepreneurial marketing. By combining gender role identity with marketing strategies, this approach would reveal the influence of marketing on customers' legitimacy motives and their relationship with the entrepreneur and the firm.

Another limitation is the cross-sectional design of our study, which restricts our understanding of how gender stereotype endorsement evolves over time as customers interact more frequently with women entrepreneurs. Future research could employ longitudinal approaches to explore the development of these relationships over time. Moreover, it would be valuable to extend the current research beyond customer evaluation of women entrepreneurs and examine the perspectives of other stakeholders, such as the women entrepreneurs themselves, investors, suppliers, and employees, regarding stereotypes.

Lastly, future studies could investigate the implications of the gendered nature of specific industries on the evaluation of female entrepreneurs. Although our study focused on gender-neutral scenarios, it is likely that female entrepreneurs would face different evaluations based on the gendered nature of the industry in question. Further research in this area would provide valuable insights into industry-specific challenges.