Networking and women entrepreneurs: Beyond patriarchal traditions

Abstract

Entrepreneurs have changed the corridors of trade, commerce, and markets, through new goods, services and provide ways to modernization and creativeness. It is determined that forces of patriarchy, to a great extent manipulating their professional role and prohibit women to take part in economic activities independently. The study emphasized whether networking enable intended female entrepreneurs to overcome social, cultural, legal, and religious barriers faced by women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. The target population for this study was 950 women entrepreneurs (N = 950) and the sample size consisted of 428 women entrepreneurs engaged in SME all over Pakistan (n = 428). This study used non-probability snowball sampling technique. The study was carried out in two stages with independent sample. The present study proves that networking is supporting women entrepreneurship. The study shows that capability and opportunity recognition is higher among those women who are young, engaged in networking, and have business management background. Key words: Networking, women entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial capability, opportunity recognition, and patriarchal traditions.