Dell announced the findings of the 2017 Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index, revealing how 50 top global cities are fostering high-potential women entrepreneurs (HPWE). Building on 2016 WE Cities research, this study ranks cities based on the impact of local policies, programs and characteristics in addition to national laws and customs.
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“Globally, women’s entrepreneurship rates are growing more than 10 percent each year. In fact, women are as likely or more likely than men to start businesses in many markets. However, financial, cultural and political barriers can limit the success of these businesses,” said Karen Quintos, EVP and chief customer officer at Dell. “By arming city leaders and policymakers with data-driven research and clear calls to action, we can collectively improve the landscape for high-potential women entrepreneurs, which in turn dramatically lifts a city’s economic prospects — as what is good for women is good for the economy.”
Building on the past five years of Dell research on HPWE, cities were ranked on five important characteristics: capital, technology, talent, culture and markets. These pillars were organized into two groups — operating environment and enabling environment.
The overall rating is based on 72 indicators; 45 of these, nearly two-thirds, have a gender-based component. Individual indicators were weighted based on four criteria: relevance, quality of underlying data, uniqueness in the index and gender component.
The 50 cities were ranked as follows:
1. New York City
2. Bay Area
3. London
4. Boston
5. Stockholm
6. Los Angeles
7. Washington, DC
8. Singapore
9. Toronto
10. Seattle
11. Sydney
12. Paris
13. Chicago
14. Minneapolis
15. Austin
16. Hong Kong
17. Melbourne
18. Atlanta
19. Amsterdam
20. Portland (OR)
21. Berlin
22. Taipei
23. Pittsburg
24. Tel Aviv
25. Copenhagen
26. Vancouver
27. Houston
28. Johannesburg
29. Barcelona
30. Seoul
31. Munich
32. Miami/Ft. Lauderdale
33. Nairobi
34. Dublin
35. Warsaw
36. Belfast
37. Milan
38. Beijing
39. Tokyo
40. Bangalore
41. Kuala Lumpur
42. Sao Paulo
43. Dubai
44. Shanghai
45. Mexico City
46. Lima
47. Guadalajara
48. Istanbul
49. Delhi
50. Jakarta
Forty-one of the cities in this index are in the top five for at least one pillar or sub-category; 34 of the cities are in the bottom five for at least one of the pillars or sub-categories – demonstrating the competitiveness of these 50 cities.
Singapore is the only Asian city that made it to the Top 10 (No. 8 overall). It ranks No. 7 in terms of Capital, No. 6 in Enabling Environment, No. 5 in Culture and No. 10 in Technology.
A number of APJ cities that are not ranked in the top ten overall do very well within an individual category. For instance:
•Kuala Lumpur is listed in the ‘Cities to Watch’ category. While the city ranks No. 41 overall, it ranks No. 5 in Markets, ranking No. 1 in Cost and No. 6 in Access. Furthermore, it ranks No. 8 in Women’s skill & experience (Talent)
•Hong Kong made it to the top 10 for the Technology segment, though overall it ranks as No. 16
•Melbourne is within the top list for Culture, while overall it achieved a ranking of No. 17
•Beijing ranks No. 38 overall, but it is within the top 10 for Capital and Talent
•While Sydney ranks No. 11 overall, it ranks No. 3 for Enabling Environment, ranks No. 2 for Culture. No. 6 for Access to Mentors/Role Models
“Cities in Asia Pacific (APJ) hold huge promise and opportunity for women entrepreneurs, with a number of cities in the region already realizing success in terms of attracting and fostering high-potential women business owners,” said Amit Midha, president, APJ commercial at Dell EMC. “Throughout the region and across the five city characteristics looked at as part of our WE Cities ranking – capital, technology, talent, culture and markets – we see cities differentiating themselves in specific areas. For instance, ranking #8 and #16 respectively are Singapore and Hong Kong. Both cities are focusing on technology leadership and their ability to enable women entrepreneurs to stand out, through technology and innovation. Kuala Lumpur is also emerging as a ‘City to Watch’ in recognition of its enabling factors for business and society. The challenges women entrepreneurs face are complex, but the success stories we see are testament to the scale of the opportunity available in APJ. Identifying these challenges and working to address these is an investment in our collective future.”
The 2016 and 2017 studies differ in several ways, including the total number of cities, number of indicators and the weight of indicators based on new data sources. Given the new elements to the ranking, scores should not be compared year-over-year.
