Who is she? The Turkish Cypriot female entrepreneur

Abstract

This study has provided empirical evidence related to the activity of female entrepreneurs in North Cyprus, in particular, concentrating on their personal profile, characteristics of their business, the motivation behind their choice of becoming a business owner, and their measures of business success. The study instrument used to collect primary data from the respondents was a four-part cross-sectional structured qualitative questionnaire personally administered by the authors. A total of 291 female business owners were randomly selected and approached with 176 agreeing to take part in the study, giving a response rate of 61%. Results indicate that the typical Turkish Cypriot female entrepreneur is aged between 35 and 44 years, is married, has 2 children, and is a high-school graduate. She is active in retail trade, and has no prior work experience. Her motivation for engaging in entrepreneurial activity is because of her desire for independence and to earn an income, with profits/sales and growth/expansion being her measures of business success. Key words: Entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurs, small and medium sized enterprises, North Cyprus.