Explaining Survival and Growth of Women Entrepreneurship: Organizational Ecology Perspective

Abstract

Sociological perspectives about organizational founding, survival and growth under organizational ecology theory offer research avenues to look into their implications for new organizational forms. Women entrepreneurship or female run businesses in developing countries risk the liability of newness due to lack of their presence in commercial business activities. Though the presence and role of women in rural economy of these developing countries is more than significant yet the urban sector still lacks the luster of new social values to accept and value this new organizational form. There is need to explore into sociological processes involved in the growth of women entrepreneurship. The present study, using qualitative exploratory research design, elaborates the key sociological processes postulated by ecology theory by which female run businesses make their way to create inclusive markets and shared growth in a socially constrained business environment. The organizational ecology framework is postulated to study the women entrepreneurship process i.e. birth, survival, and growth of female run businesses through change in the social value structure of the society. This perspective treats women entrepreneurship as a distinct organizational form and depicts it as a social process involving the population of organizations than the individual process targeting the women entrepreneurs themselves. The propositions resulting from the postulated linkages can be tested using quantitative methods. The theoretical framework developed here nonetheless offers fresh insights into the women entrepreneurship, its process and outcomes.