Benefitting from the Boom? Experiences of Female Business Operators in Resource Towns of Southern Queensland

Abstract

This study investigates businesses operated by women in communities going through rapid socio-economic changes resulting from a resource boom. The research addresses the underexplored area of challenges, opportunities, responses, influential factors, and resources used in businesses operated by women in such a context. The three core questions analysed are: 1. How do women operating businesses in resource boomtowns perceive and experience the social, economic, and personal changes associated with the resource industry?2. How do businesses operated by women in towns experiencing the impacts of coal seam gas development respond to the contextual changes and what trends and patterns are evident in the responses implemented?3. What factors other than ones directly related to the business context influence operators’ adoption of a particular kind of response?The fieldwork for this research aimed to elicit women’s experiences, identify their constructions of the challenges and opportunities posed by the resources boom, and describe the responses they took in their businesses to address the impacts of the boom. A qualitative approach of semi-structured interviews at critical points more than one point in time during the boom-bust-recovery cycle captured the experiences, perceptions, and business responses of 31 female operators of businesses in two southern Queensland towns impacted by CSG development.The research throws light on the extent to which boom conditions and other factors influenced business responses. These objectives and the research questions point to the need for a synthesis of ideas, a conversation among different academic fields such as ‘entrepreneurship’, ‘strategic management’, ‘gender studies’ and ‘extractive industries’. The investigation of women and their experiences in the role of business operators uses concepts, rationale, reasoning, and frameworks from such fields and highlights the multi-faceted nature of the issue. In particular, the analysis is informed by two touchstone frameworks - Welter’s model of different contexts (2011) and the strategic archetypes of Miles, Snow, Meyer, and Coleman (1978), as well as the work of scholars such as Garcia and Welter (2013) on the influence of gender practices in business. The findings suggest there were many women whose businesses responded opportunistically, used a wide range of resources, and that proved to be very adaptable. However, such adaptability was not evident across all of the interviewees as they responded to the changes in the business context. A complex interplay of personal, social, and institutional factors many of them driven by the contextual changes associated with the CSG industry was found to contribute to the variety of responses. Further, the analysis confirms the argument that business responses are not only influenced by internal factors such as prices and profit.The novelty in this research lies in investigating the extent to which the resource town context, which is reported to be generally unfavourable for women, provides opportunities for women business operators to benefit economically. It also renders visible gendered practices used as strategic devices in doing business. Given the prospects for future energy booms and the likelihood of volatile economic environments in regional towns throughout Australia, a greater understanding of the strategic responses employed in female operated businesses will aid policy interventions. Further, understanding such businesses in the context of boomtowns resulting from energy developments, whether renewable (e.g., windfarms) or non-renewable (e.g., CSG), can assist in the design of policy frameworks to support women’s participation in the workforce, thus contributing toward sustainable development of regional Australia.