Identifying the Entrepreneurial Success Factors and the Performance of Women-Owned Businesses in Pakistan: The Moderating Role of National Culture

Muhammad Shakeel,Ali Gohar,Li Yaokuang

doi:10.1177/2158244020919520

Muhammad Shakeel, Ali Gohar + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020919520

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Abstract

Women’s entrepreneurship in Pakistan has been booming in recent years, and it has made a significant impact on social and economic expansion. However, it is notable that these businesses are smaller in size and considered less profitable when compared with men’s entrepreneurial efforts. This dilemma encourages the investigation of the success factors that contribute to the performance of women-owned businesses (WOBs) within this understudied region. Factors that may determine the success of WOB in Pakistan are divided into four broad headings: the entrepreneur’s characteristics, internal business environment, external business environments, and supportive factors. This study also explores the direct and moderating role of perceived national culture within the framework. The results demonstrate that the entrepreneur’s characteristics, external business environments, and supportive factors are positively related to the performance of WOB, while the internal business environment is of little significance. Furthermore, while perceived national culture does not influence the performance of WOB, it weakens the relationship between the entrepreneur’s characteristics and performance but strengthens the impact of supportive factors on the performance of the WOB. This study leads to a solid awareness about the critical success factors, the perceived national culture, and their association with the performances of WOB within Pakistan.

Highlights

Women-owned businesses (WOB) boost the economic development (Kelley et al, 2011) and the well-being of societies by creating jobs, wealth, and innovations (Chatterjee et al, 2018)
Most existing research was conducted in developed economies; there is limited research in emerging economies which have unsatisfactory institutional setup (Kimosop et al, 2016), and unstable political setting with cultural conflicts
The PLS-structural equation modeling (SEM) has several advantages over covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM) in many situations commonly encountered in social sciences research, and it is a complementary

Summary

Introduction

Women-owned businesses (WOB) boost the economic development (Kelley et al, 2011) and the well-being of societies by creating jobs, wealth, and innovations (Chatterjee et al, 2018). Women entrepreneurs manage their businesses using a well-structured approach (Reed et al, 2012). Many researchers have agreed upon the remarkable growth of the population of women entrepreneurs in the small business sector.1 Based on their importance in the corporate world and their difference from male entrepreneurs (Renko et al, 2012), this study explores WOB independently and excludes men-owned businesses. Most existing research was conducted in developed economies; there is limited research in emerging economies which have unsatisfactory institutional setup (Kimosop et al, 2016), and unstable political setting with cultural conflicts

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