Open Access

Anett Wolgast, Ralf Brüning, Christian Lehmann

• Purpose - Strong evidence addresses the individual competences needed to start a digital business. Fewer studies consider the imminent distinction between an individual’s intention for entrepreneurial action and the perceived ability to do so. This perception highly impacts entrepreneurial intentions, behaviour, and performance. Therefore, the innovative research questions were whether an interplay exists between women's perceived digital, entrepreneurial and business plan competences, and a gap between relevance and expertise. Approach - The study aimed to identify women’s key needs for realising successful digital entrepreneurship by applying the DigComp and EntreComp frameworks. Two hundred women (MAge = 35.35, SDAge = 10.00) responded to questions about their digital, entrepreneurial and business plan competences. The interplay was tested between these competences and the gap between women’s judgement of the relevance of competence and their self-estimated competence level. We used structural equation modelling for ordinal data and Wilcoxon tests to answer the research questions, respectively. Findings - The results suggest only strong relationships between estimated relevance and expertise of entrepreneurial competences with business plan competences. The women often estimated their expertise in a competence significantly lower than its relevance for business success. Thus, training and increasing entrepreneurial competences would foster women’s self-perceptions as entrepreneurs. Research limitations – Self-report measures were used. Practical implications – The findings highlight the need for tailor-made training to enhance women's entrepreneurial competences and self-perceptions, fostering realising their digital entrepreneurship. Originality – This paper offers new insights into the gap between women's perceived relevance and expertise in digital and entrepreneurial competences, using the DigComp and EntreComp frameworks.