Assessment of the Political Ecosystem of Female Entrepreneurship

On the survival prospects of men's and women's new business ventures

References

PurposeInterest in women entrepreneurs from various backgrounds has led to increased publication in the literature about particular women's entrepreneurship issues. However, notwithstanding the importance of this area, little information exists about women entrepreneurs' business practices, survival and growth strategies and their perceptions of entrepreneurial careers; indeed, many questions remain unanswered. To address this gap, this study aims to explore some of these questions by considering women entrepreneurs in Arab countries, more specifically, women's entrepreneurship activities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), a country with unwritten social mores in a patriarchal, male dominant society. The key objective is to examine these women's personal characteristics, motivation factors, business challenges and perception on entrepreneurial behaviours.Design/methodology/approachBecause of the lack of statistical data and difficulties conducting studies in an Arabic society, this study employed a qualitative research methodology. The research comprised 19 in‐depth interviews with Saudi women entrepreneurs who were identified through referrals from the Women's Section of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.FindingsThe Saudi women entrepreneurs were found to exhibit many similarities with their counterparts in other Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region countries in terms of their personality traits. However, they differed in other aspects such as their educational backgrounds and the manner in which they acquired entrepreneurial skills. The findings suggest some strategies to contribute to greater success rates for women entrepreneurs in Islamic countries, where entrepreneurial activities are nascent but growing.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of the study is the restricted locale of the sample. A more extensive study is needed and future research should be more diverse – including widening the selection of respondents, industries and countries.Practical implicationsThe paper shows that women's entrepreneurial activities in KSA are important to economic and social development. Saudi women's entrepreneurship, properly harnessed, has great potential as a tool for transforming the economy.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature on gender‐related business barriers due to the scarcity of publications about women's economic activities in the MENA region, specifically in KSA. The paper is also valuable for policy makers in KSA and researchers wishing to pursue indigenous entrepreneurship and gender studies.

Policy Implications to Improve the Business Environment to Encourage Female Entrepreneurship in the North of Vietnam

This empirical study on the business strategies and resilience of 25 rural women entrepreneurs who had no prior experience in doing business. Semi-structured interview of 25 women entrepreneurs of the Leuva Patel community in five villages in northern Gujarat was held face-to-face with the interviewees in Gujarati during February-March 2023 to evaluate the genesis and management of their processed food enterprises initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Repeated and prolonged lockdowns enforced social distancing abruptly halted daily movements and transportation of people, goods, and commodities. Yet, women could collaborate with fellow women, initiate their food-processing groups, and establish their regular source of income, a sustainable alternate source to support their families while remaining in their villages and keeping their enterprises informal throughout. The study found that women entrepreneurs' business decisions have been underpinned by their social capital, symbolized by trust, bonding, and linking among community members within and outside their villages: the community's entrepreneurial ecosystem has strengthened their resilience in exploring, capturing, and enhancing business opportunities. The study highlights why women entrepreneurs tend to stay in the informal sector and suggests future directions of research on entrepreneurial ecosystem and mindset. Suggested policy directions to enhance sustainable rural women entrepreneurship in formal sector are could be timely and valuable.

The challenges of a global pandemic have placed women's business ownership and entrepreneurship at the forefront of much debate. This is an important area to pursue within scholarly arenas because women's involvement in business ownership and entrepreneurship continues to impact women's livelihoods, families, and impacts the local and global economy. There are many studies that explored challenges and barriers to women's entrepreneurship, a more specific and focused finding should be addressed to review implications presented due to COVID-19 pandemic. An examination of how ethnicity, gender, and race plays a role in women entrepreneurship process and the way women entrepreneurs' experiences were shaped during the pre- and post-pandemic era is warranted on a scholarly level.

Women’s entrepreneurship plays an increasingly important role in increasing the global employment rate and fostering the economic growth. Entrepreneurial ecosystem is an organism composed of a variety of actors and environmental support elements which can provide environmental support for the survival and development of female new businesses. Most of the extant literature on women’s entrepreneurship focuses on a single actor, lacking research on the interaction between female-owned enterprises and other actors. There is no lack of participation of female start-ups in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. At the same time, it can reflect how female start-ups create a business support environment through the interactions with other actors, thus helping them to construct competitive advantages.Based on the above, this paper draws on three major bodies of literature-women’s entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystem and women’s entrepreneurship from the perspective of entrepreneurial ecosystem. Then the interaction between women’s entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystem is explored, and the future directions of female entrepreneurship research from the perspective of entrepreneurial ecosystem are pointed out, so as to play a role in boosting future women’s entrepreneurship research. First of all, we search for the articles related to women’s entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystem and women’s entrepreneurship from the perspective of entrepreneurial ecosystem. Based on the articles on female entrepreneurship, the characteristics of female entrepreneurship are extracted from five aspects: entrepreneurial resource, entrepreneurial network, entrepreneurial opportunity, firm performance and entrepreneurial environment. According to the literature of entrepreneurial ecosystem, the theoretical background of entrepreneurial ecosystem is reviewed, and the definition, characteristics and research status of entrepreneurial ecosystem are clarified. In addition, by combing the literature on female entrepreneurship from the perspective of entrepreneurial ecosystem, the research mainly focuses on social network, institutional environment, proportion of female founders, reentry for female entrepreneurs, and so on. Then, the interactive relationship between female entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystem is examined. This paper systematically organizes the existing articles on women’s entrepreneurship, and plays a role in promoting the future research of women’s entrepreneurship from the perspective of entrepreneurial ecosystem.

PurposeAlthough the extant literature has already recognised the negative impact of homebound responsibilities on women's entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is yet to know whether and how the family has any other role in women's businesses during this critical period. This research aims to explore the patronising and patriarchal roles of the family regarding women's small businesses in a developing nation during the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis feminist study is based on the interviews of women business-owners of a highly patriarchal developing nation, Bangladesh. During the period of the interview, Bangladesh was one of the top ten regions of the world in terms of the identified coronavirus cases.FindingsThe research unveils work-family enrichment by illustrating the help of family members in meeting the challenges of the pandemic period regarding women's certain business activities, such as the innovative production process. Besides, the study reveals the assisting and, in some cases, the non-cooperative approaches of family members concerning additional homebound responsibilities that affect work-family conflict during the COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/valueWhereas the existing literature on women's entrepreneurship regarding the family revolves around work-family conflict due to maternal or caregiving responsibilities during the COVID-19 period, this feminist study substantially contributes to the understanding by revealing how family members help women by getting involved in business activities. It further enriches the prevailing knowledge regarding assisting or hindering activities of family members concerning domestic activities that affect women's businesses during the pandemic.

This dissertation studies gender disparities in entrepreneurial finance and consists of three papers. The first paper systematically reviews the focal literature. The second paper employs experimental approaches to investigate entrepreneurs’ gender homophilic behaviours when seeking early-stage investments. The third paper delves into the mechanisms and boundary conditions of entrepreneurs’ gender homophily towards investors, identifying and analyzing potential moderators at the individual, organizational, and institutional levels. The first paper is a systematic literature review, elucidating the drivers of gender disparities in entrepreneurial finance, the theoretical mechanisms underlying and the boundary conditions that amplify or mitigate them. By applying a robust method to identify 123 papers published in 54 high-quality journals from 1988 to April 2023, we propose a conceptual framework to systematize this literature. The framework considers three dimensions: the various financial channels entrepreneurs utilize, the supply and demand sides of the financial markets, and the micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis. This framework highlights critical gaps in the literature and suggests future research directions. Female entrepreneurs often avoid external financing due to a lack of human and social capital and the pervasive stereotype that entrepreneurship is male-dominated. Those who seek funding may receive less than desired or face rejection due to taste-based or statistical discrimination by capital providers. Besides, boundary conditions, such as business size, economic cycles, institutional factors, and alternative financing channels, may alleviate or exacerbate gender disparities but are often overlooked. While scholars have extensively studied the supply side at the individual level, more research is needed to understand the demand-side factors that lead female entrepreneurs to opt out, receive less funding, or face rejection. Additionally, meso-level factors (e.g., organizational dynamics) and macro-level factors (e.g., gender equality, market development) and their interactions with micro-level factors remain underexplored. The second paper draws on the theoretical lenses of gender homophily and the stereotype content model to examine how same-gender effects influence female entrepreneurs’ perceptions and behaviors in the context of early-stage financing compared to a neutral context. Existing studies suggest that gender homophily significantly impacts female investors’ funding decisions in female-led businesses. We hypothesize that female entrepreneurs, like female investors, exhibit a preference for same-gender relationships, as homophily suggests that similar individuals interact more frequently than dissimilar ones (McPherson et al., 2001). To test our hypotheses, we conducted a vignette experiment with 393 US-based prospective or current entrepreneurs (51.4% men and 48.6% women). The results support our hypothesis: female entrepreneurs exhibit stronger preferences for environments with higher female investors’ presence in the early-stage financing context compared to a neutral context. Moreover, they are more likely to initiate contact with female investors and accept their offers, even after controlling for their perception of investors’ warmth and competence. These findings suggest that the scarcity of female investors contributes to gender disparities in entrepreneurship. The predominance of male business angels, combined with female entrepreneurs’ same-gender preferences, may lead female entrepreneurs to self-select out of business angel financing. The third paper builds on the same experiment as the second paper, with variations in the sample and analytical focus. More specifically, 338 US-based current entrepreneurs (49.7 men and 50.3% women) were included. It investigates the mechanisms driving female entrepreneurs’ preference for same-gender investors and explores boundary conditions at the individual, organizational, and institutional levels. More specifically, female entrepreneurs’ inclination toward female investors stems from both personal preferences and rational considerations. They expect smoother communication and coordination with same-gender investors, but this same-gender partnership may come with the risk of being stigmatized as less competent. The results demonstrate that the gender homophily effect weakens when female entrepreneurs have known investors, thus enabling them to communicate and coordinate effectively with investors regardless of gender, or when their businesses are already generating revenue, thereby signaling their viability and legitimacy. Conversely, their gender homophily preference for investors strengthens in states with a higher representation of female investors, as female entrepreneurs perceive greater legitimacy when receiving investments from female investors. Moreover, the negative impact of not securing additional capital diminishes if there are more female investors available to support subsequent funding rounds.

Challenges Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Globalized Era

Purpose: The outcomes of women’s access to entrepreneurial resources and opportunities can be very different from those of men. This study aimed to analyze the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Jamshoro, Pakistan, which includes policy, finance, institutions, human capital, culture, and markets through a gender lens, assess women entrepreneurs’ access to it, and examine the effectiveness of its elements. Methodology: The study adopts qualitative research methodology. Data were drawn from desk research, 30 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and one focus group discussion with 10 women entrepreneurs in rural Jamshoro, Pakistan. The data were analyzed using Atlas.ti software and coding was done using thematic analysis. Findings: The findings show that women entrepreneurs have partial access to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Jamshoro. Furthermore, there is lack of awareness and knowledge among women entrepreneurs about available financial resources, lack of knowledge about laws and policies, an absence of familial, cultural, and societal support for women in accessing the entrepreneurial ecosystem, the absence of quality business training and unavailability of physical and technological infrastructure in rural areas, presence of stereotypical attitude toward women entrepreneurs, and limited access to markets and business networks. Implications: The existing entrepreneurial ecosystem in Jamshoro can be improved through coordinated multi-stakeholder initiatives, adopting a gender-inclusive approach, interventions aimed at increasing awareness about the resources, promoting an understanding about the laws and regulations, making institutions more effective in providing services, establishing public-private partnerships, and providing the women entrepreneurs easy access to market and financial resources. Originality: While there have been studies on challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in Pakistan, their motivation and aspirations, there is no study conducted on their access to the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a whole.

PurposeThe main purpose is to provide a global understanding of the role of women in entrepreneurship and family businesses, enabling the evaluation of the impact and the sentiment their role generates. To this end, empowerment and businesswomen's positioning through user-generated content (UCG) on Twitter is assessed.Design/methodology/approachThe research is carried out from a quantitative and qualitative perspective through the evaluation of UGC from the social platform Twitter. A total of 37,852 tweets have been collected and subsequently analysed about the role of entrepreneurial women. For that purpose, a set of supervised machine learning algorithms have been developed for sentiment analysis, as a natural language processing (NLP) technique, outlining random forest as the one with the highest accuracy. Finally, social network analysis (SNA) techniques and graph theory are applied to a generated text-to-network, which enables the identification of the most relevant topics in the discussion.FindingsThe results revealed a positive relationship in the sentiment of the generated content in relation to women entrepreneurs and leaders. An increasing trend was evidenced in the number of published tweets, as well as in the identified topics, highlighting the needs and challenges faced by women in the business environment as the most widely discussed.Research limitations/implicationsThe study develops both theoretical and practical implications so that the findings result in applications in academia and society. The performed analysis creates consciousness about the challenges of women in society, specifically in entrepreneurship.Originality/valueThe study contributes to further enriching the literature on women's entrepreneurship by addressing UGC via Twitter around the role of women, entrepreneurship and power positions.

Up to the third of all businesses operating in the formal economy worldwide are run by women, but most of these enterprises, especially in developing countries and countries with transitional economies, as Ukraine, are micro-enterprises with little potential for growth. Along with traditional indicators of economic growth, the inclusive economic development model takes into account human capital equality, environmentally friendly production, social protection, gender equality as factors of economic system sustainability. The purpose of the study is to determine the role of women's entrepreneurship in economic systems inclusive development. The objectives of the study are generalization of women's in entrepreneurship involvement role in inclusive economic growth; current state of women in various types of economic activity involvement analysis; the possibility of inclusive growth through the women's entrepreneurship development achievement justification. The object of the study is the process of economic systems inclusive growth through women entrepreneurship activity increase. It has been proved that, significant differentiation in women and men wage levels, insufficient number of women in business on management positions remain relevant issues today. The current state of women's entrepreneurship and gender equality aspects under inclusive growth and inclusive development issues was determined. Ukraine population structure and the distribution of managers and individual entrepreneurs by sex within the types of economic activity analysis has been conducted. The mechanism aimed at women's entrepreneurship inclusiveness provision, which includes regulatory, financial credit, organizational and economic, motivational and stereotypical components has been proposed. It has been substantiated, that entrepreneurship contributes to the middle class increase, and thus social and political stability strengthening, including gender problems that exist in the labor market solvation. The system of measures of women's entrepreneurship inclusiveness ensurement mechanism, which will provide an integrated approach, formation has been proposed.

Nowadays women empowerment has been increasing so rapidly all over the world and women are starting their own businesses to seek greater control over their personal and professional lives.Studies show that the experience of women in business is different from those of men.There are profound gender differences in both women experiences of business ownership and the performance of womenowned firms (Carter, Anderson & Shaw, 2001).According to Maas and Herrington, (2006) as cited in the International Trade Centre (2004), Canada has experienced a 200% growth in the number of women entrepreneurs over the last 20 years.Women-owned businesses, as reviewed by statistics in the USA, are the fastest growing sector of new business start-ups, with black women"s business forming a larger share of black-owned businesses than white-owned women"s businesses (Mattis, 2004).Within the African context, taking Cameroon as an example, women entrepreneurs manage 57% of small and microbusinesses.While in Uganda women entrepreneurs form the majority of the country"s businesspeople in the areas of farming and small to medium-sized enterprises.Women entrepreneurs in South Africa remain on the side-lines of the national economy.Most women in business in South Africa are concentrating in the areas of crafts, hawking, personal services and the retail sector.Only a few women entrepreneurs are participating in value-adding business opportunities (Maas & Herrington, 2006).However, there is dearth of literature of women successors participating in the transport sector, hence a gap has been created for this study to find the pushing factors that do not attract African women to be entrepreneurs in the family business, particularly in Manicaland province.Women-owned enterprises have their fair share of challenges and constraints that need to be addressed and specific needs have to be identified to help them perform at par, if not better, than their male counterparts in the transport business sectors as family successors.The challenges that women entrepreneurs face in Zimbabwe have not been adequately studied and developed.This study focuses on the constraints faced by African women business successors.

Recognizing the importance of women entrepreneurs for economies and societies, researchers and policy makers are increasingly interested in supporting women’s entrepreneurship activities. Enhancing the wellbeing of women entrepreneurs is essential not only as an ethical imperative but also as a mechanism to understand and improve the process and outcomes of women’s entrepreneurship activities. This chapter employs an identity lens to offer a novel perspective on women entrepreneurs’ wellbeing in a way that is reflective of their nuanced and subjective experiences across multiple local and national contexts. The chapter presents the findings of a literature review on women entrepreneurs’ identities and wellbeing to explicate the multidimensional relationship between women entrepreneurs’ identities and their sustainable eudaimonic and temporal hedonic wellbeing. It maps out the multiple identities salient to women entrepreneurs and considers three main themes: 1) entrepreneurship as an authentic expression of a positive identity, thus contributing to women entrepreneurs’ eudaimonic wellbeing; 2) women entrepreneurs’ multiple conflicting and synergetic identities influencing hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing; and 3) identity work as an active approach to enhance hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing. The chapter concludes with a consideration of what the findings mean for researchers, women entrepreneurs, and actors in entrepreneurship ecosystems.