Micro and Small Scale Enterprises (MSEs) Development Services In women’s Entrepreneurial Start-Ups in Ethiopia: A study conducted in three cities: Dire Dawa, Harar and Jigjiga

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of MSEs Development Services on women’s involvement in entrepreneurial activities along with human and social capital as well as family life. The study was conducted in three regions of Ethiopia (Dire Dawa, Harari and Somlai) from December, 2013 to March, 2014. The study employed both the survey and the qualitative approach. For the survey, 204 newly registered women Micro and Small Scale Enterprise (MSEs) owners were randomly selected and the data was collected using ‘’drop and collect” method. The qualitative was conducted through in-depth interview with 20 purposively selected women entrepreneurs. For the survey data, multiple regression analysis was used to identify the significant factors which affect women entrepreneurial start-ups. The quantitative results indicate that MSEs Development Services including access to working premises, market linkage, trainings and technical advises significantly influence women’s entrepreneurial start-ups. Nonetheless, credit facility does not significantly influence women’s entrepreneurial start-ups. Access to the MSEs Development services are in turn influenced by women’s role conflict, family support, and level of family income. The finding also indicate that women’s role conflict, family support, family income level, relative support, women’s personal network and entrepreneurial trainings significantly influence entrepreneurial start-ups. In most of the cases, the qualitative result confirmed the quantitative findings. However, unlike the quantitative the qualitative study shows that marital status, former work experience, and personal skills influence women’s entrepreneurial start-ups. Besides, the qualitative results indicate business network and informal network have effect on women’s access to MSEs development services.