Does It Matter Where You Live? Rural-Urban Context Among Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

Said Muhammad,Kong Ximei

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.827634

Said Muhammad, Kong Ximei

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.827634

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Abstract

Entrepreneurship is considered as one of the strategies for economic and regional development. In particular, women entrepreneurs engaged in different geographic locations, where their characteristics and business factors are different in each location. This study examines home-based women entrepreneurs in Pakistan in relation to their place of residence, specifically rural or urban context. Very few studies have considered place of residence as a variable affecting women’s businesses at the household level. This is critical since the business context can exert a major influence on available resources and constraints that affect business viability and sustainability. Data were collected from 504 women entrepreneurs using a survey questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and binary logistics regression were used to achieve the objectives of the study. The findings revealed important and significant differences based on the rural versus urban context of women entrepreneurs including home ownership, household size, the number of adult family members in the household, family financial position, business record keeping, having a bank account, and type of business. While the binary logistic regression analysis reported adult family members, family financial position, business record keeping, bank account, and beautician business were the significant predictors of the women entrepreneurs’ rural–urban model. The findings offer implications for policymakers, funders, bank/financial institutions, and non-governmental organizations for increasing women’s entrepreneurship, empowerment, and income equality in developing countries.

Highlights

The mean age of the study participants is lower than a study conducted in Mauritius (Kasseeah, 2014), but suggests the attraction of younger women entrepreneurs toward home-based businesses
Similar age findings were reported in another study conducted in rural Pakistan (Adams, 1994)
Rural and urban women are entering into a diverse economic activities such as manufacturing, trade and commerce, and services, urban women entrepreneurs have more business opportunities than their rural counterparts

Summary

Introduction

Entrepreneurship has been considered a crucial vehicle for the economic development regionally (Audretsch and Belitski, 2021) and worldwide. In the developing countries most women entrepreneurs are poor and often engaged in rural business activities (Muhammad et al, 2020), even though similar results have been reported for women’s rural businesses in the United States (Conroy et al, 2021). This study focuses on the environment of women’s entrepreneurship in a developing context. This study delves into the microlevel to examine rural and urban entrepreneurship environments. Urban environments would appear to be more conducive to women’s businesses, but more work is needed to understand and to identify specific factors affecting the viability and sustainability (Jabeen et al, 2020) of women’s rural and urban, home-based entrepreneurship

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Discussion

Conclusion