By Chia Yan Min
The Straits Times, Singapore / Asia News Network
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) More than 700 entrepreneurs from around the world are taking part in the Global Entrepreneurship summit at Stanford University this week. At the event, a new study from Dell ranked several top cities for high-potential women entrepreneurs. New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris, Shanghai and San Francisco all topped the list.
Asia News Network
The Dell and IHS study assessed five key characteristics — capital, technology, talent, culture and markets — in 25 global cities.
Cities, instead of countries, were identified in order to show the impact of local policies and programmes in addition to national laws and customs.
In addition to the overall ranking, Singapore also came in third — after Stockholm and Beijing — for technology that supports high-potential women entrepreneurs. The republic also came in fifth for cultural friendliness towards female entrepreneurs.
Cities around the world still have some way to go toward addressing the obstacles faced by women entrepreneurs, said Karen Quintos, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Dell.
For instance, access to funding is a significant challenge for many female business owners around the world, exacerbated by the fact that the venture capital industry is dominated by men.
Quintos, who presented the research during the summit, noted that the highest-ranked city had a score of just 59 out of the maximum 100.
“We cannot ignore the role that biases play to varying degrees everywhere…We have to continue to collect data to truly understand the ecosystem and address the obstacles that women face,” she added.
