Does climate risk affect entrepreneurial growth aspirations? The moderating effects of gender and solo-founded ventures

This study examines the effect of climate risk on entrepreneurs' growth aspirations (EGAs) between female and male entrepreneurs on the one hand and between solo and non-solo founders on the other. Drawing on data pertaining to 54,814 entrepreneurs across 48 countries and regions for the 2005-2016 period, we find that climate risk has a positive effect on EGAs and this effect is stronger for female entrepreneurs and non-solo founders. This study extends the consequences of climate risk to individual entrepreneurship, identifies climate risk as an antecedent of EGAs, and advances our knowledge of differences between female and male entrepreneurs and between solo and non-solo founders. Plain English SummaryThis study reports that climate risk positively affects EGAs, which suggests that climate risk encourages entrepreneurs to scale up their ventures and generates opportunities for them to do so. Thus, entrepreneurs should proactively leverage climate risk to boost the growth of their ventures. This study also finds that the impact of climate risk on EGAs is stronger for female entrepreneurs. While female entrepreneurs have difficulties to grow their ventures, they can exploit climate risk to realize the objectives. Third, the study finds that the effect of climate risk on EGAs is stronger for non-solo founders than for solo founders, suggesting that entrepreneurs can more effectively respond to climate risk by partnering with others.