Pushed or Pulled into Entrepreneurship? Motivations behind Entrepreneurial Entry for Women with Disabilities in Bangladesh

Abstract

This research is aimed to explore the entrepreneurial motivations for women entrepreneurs with disabilities (EWDs) in Bangladesh. The paper adopted the push-pull theory of entrepreneurial motivation as its theoretical background and assessed whether women EWDs chose to pursue an entrepreneurial career for “push” or “pull” reasons. A qualitative, multiple case study research methodology based on a semi-structured, in-depth interview format was adopted to enable the respondents to share their experiences. Four cases of women EWDs involved in small businesses were selected based on purposive sampling. Findings imply that the motivational reasons for women EWDs involve a blend of push and pull factors. Four pull factors - economic freedom, higher income, self-fulfillment and achievement, personal development and two push factors – job dissatisfaction and lack of career prospects were found as predominant entrepreneurial motivators. The unique contribution of this paper is to offer evidence on the entrepreneurial motivation for women EWDs in Bangladesh through a qualitative research methodology deriving data from in-depth interviews.