Think entrepreneur. Do famous men come to mind? In the United States, they do. But management professor Stephen Mueller finds that in developing countries it’s the women who are most likely to tackle entrepreneurial endeavors.

A recent study conducted by Mueller explored the motivating factors for women and men in starting a business. He analyzed survey results from university students in 17 countries for the characteristics that lead people to start businesses, including “propensity to take risks, innovativeness and feelings of being in control of one’s fate.”

In industrialized countries like Canada, Belgium and the United States, men were more likely to show entrepreneurial traits. Not so in countries with developing economies such as Croatia, the Czech Republic and Russia.

“The research really doesn’t answer why there seems to be a bigger gender gap in many developed countries,” Mueller said. But he noted that women in countries with developed economic systems must contend with “well-established networks of business relationships in which being an independent business owner is still perceived as primarily a male role.”

Developing countries have fewer business traditions and “career stereotypes,” so women and men entrepreneurs seem to start on equal footing, he said. Women in developing countries also have more freedom to “make their own history.”

Mueller’s work was recognized with the inaugural Best Women’s Entrepreneurship Paper award by the Center for Women’s Business Research, a national organization devoted to increasing the understanding of cultural and gender issues in entrepreneurship.