Factors Influencing the Development of Women Entrepreneurship in Beauty-Care and Parlor Industry of Bangladesh

Abstract

Beauty-care and Parlor is an emerging business in Bangladesh with USD ten billion revenue and employment of 100,000 women of the country. The reasons can be attributed by the raise in income of the people especially the city dwellers of Dhaka and the awareness for beauty-care. These businesses are initiated and run exclusively by the women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. Hence, this paper aims at identifying the factors that are inducing the women of Bangladesh to initiate the beauty parlor business in Bangladesh. A total number of 122 women parlor entrepreneurs were surveyed to identify the reasons for engaging in this business. A structured questionnaire was developed and used to collect data from the women parlor entrepreneurs located in Dhaka and Narayangonj. Multivariate analysis techniques like factor analysis, multiple regression and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses were used to analyze the data. The structural model (SEM) results show that three factors such as, business environment, business support, and operational incentive have significant impact on the overall development of women parlor entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. The other three factors, like business prospect, entrepreneurial skills & education, and financial affairs do not have influence on the development of parlor entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. Among the significant variables, business support is the most influencing factor followed by business environment and operational incentive. This study suggests that the policy makers should focus more on the business environment, business support, and operational incentive for developing beauty-care and parlor entrepreneurs in Bangladesh.