Enhancing decision making abilities of the women through entrepreneurship development

Abstract

Needless to say that the women entrepreneurs of Bangladesh lack behind in economic advancement and decision making abilities compared to men business entrepreneurs. Research shows that only seven percent of the total business establishments are owned and headed by women which are negligible in number in a country where more than 170 million people live. One of the reasons of poor development of women entrepreneurship is limited decision making abilities of the women at different level of the society. Hence, this study aims at identifying the factors related to the development of women decision making abilities among the women business entrepreneurs. This is a causal research and this study used primary data collected from the women entrepreneurs of seven administrative divisional head-quarters of Bangladesh enlisted in Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI) database. The study used both probability and non-probability sampling techniques to select 395 women business entrepreneurs who are involved in SME businesses for interview. The data were analyzed by using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques. The results show that the factors concerning women business entrepreneurship activities such as, enterprise management, enterprise resourcing, generating business ideas, and harvesting and growth are significantly related to the development of women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. And the development of entrepreneurship helps developing decision making abilities of the women entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial factors that help to improve the abilities of decision making of the women entrepreneurs are concerned with cognitive, affective and psychomotor factors. This study suggests that the policy makers of this sector should emphasize the enhancement of the decision making abilities of the women in formulating the SME policy for the sustainable economic development of Bangladesh.