How Professional and Family Ties Affect Idea Elaboration for Men and Women

The process of elaborating creative ideas often involves seeking support and feedback from others. We posit that men and women may require different types of network ties to elaborate creative ideas successfully. We derive predictions concerning the extent to which men and women may benefit from family and professional ties in the idea elaboration phase. We also explore the mechanisms behind the expected gender differences. Based on a sample of French entrepreneurs, we show that women reap more benefits from family ties than men. In contrast, men have higher returns in creativity by elaborating ideas with professional ties. An experimental study indicates that women’s disadvantage in elaborating ideas with professional contacts stems from stereotype threat and lower expected support in the interactions with ties related to the professional domain, considered gender incongruent domain. We provide additional support from qualitative interviews conducted with entrepreneurs.