Regional differences in behaviors, attitudes, and motivations related to performance among women-owned microenterprises in Vietnam

Abstract

Entrepreneurial activities often involve risk, values, trust, motivations, success factors, perceptions of entrepreneurship, and perceived problems. These factors are considered important to the performance of microenterprises owned by women entrepreneurs. Research on female entrepreneurial behaviors has not gained much attention in Vietnam, thus there is an immense need for understanding this group of entrepreneurs. This paper addresses a number of issues in the context of the performance of women-owned microenterprises in Vietnam. The uniqueness of the paper is to examine the regional differences in entrepreneurial behaviors, motivations, and attitudes of women entrepreneurs in four cities in Vietnam: Hanoi in the north, Hue and Da Nang in the central area, and Ho Chi Minh City in the south. We used a stratified sample, which included women micro entrepreneurs representing several business sectors including home-based and non-home-based businesses. A total of 430 women owners of microenterprises participated in the survey. Our results suggest considerable variability in the factors relating to performance within our sample of women entrepreneurs in Vietnam. The study suggests that statistically examining a country as a whole may miss some of the richness and variability of its parts and that even countries seemingly homogeneous may have a variety of perceptions towards business, government, and the economy. The variability between cities suggests that different entrepreneurship development programs could be effective if targeted to the needs of each city.