An Investigation of Women Entrepreneurship: Motives and Barriers to Business Start Up in the Arab World
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Entrepreneurship is seen as a necessary ingredient for stimulating economic growth and employment opportunities in all societies. SMEs account for a wide share of economic activity and development; they are the primary engine of job creation, income growth and poverty reduction. It is widely acknowledged that women are playing a significant role in economic development through starting new businesses. Entrepreneurial activities should be embraced by women as the nation benefits, not only from reduction of unemployment, promotion of production and increase in consumption, but also in achieving gender equality, social and cultural reforms.
This conceptual paper aims to investigate the attitudes of women towards entrepreneurship; it discusses the motives and barriers women in the Arab World face in the process of their entrepreneurial activities. The study reviews previous published works on female entrepreneurship in order to understand this phenomenon and bridge the motives and barriers that may help or challenge them in their engagement in business start up. This will be followed by a development of a model of female entrepreneurial process and a female decision process framework which highlights the relationship between motives, barriers and the developed model of female entrepreneurial process.
Main findings of this study include exploring the different motives and barriers that may help or challenge females in their engagement in the entrepreneurial process. Indeed, the developed conceptual framework reveals that there is a relationship between female motives and the barriers they face in their business start up; female entrepreneurial decision is determined by both the motives and barriers through the entrepreneurial process.
Main contributions of this conceptual paper include: shedding light on the motives and barriers that may push or challenge Arab females to embrace entrepreneurial activities; develop a model for female entrepreneurial process as well as develop a female decision process framework which will serve as a reference for replication in future studies.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Once the manuscript is accepted for publication, authors shall transfer the copyright to the publisher. If the submitted manuscript is not accepted for printing by the journal, the authors shall retain all their rights. The following rights on the manuscript are transferred to the publisher, including any supplementary materials and any parts, extracts or elements of the manuscript:
- the right to reproduce and distribute the manuscript in printed form, including print-on-demand;
- the right to print prepublications, reprints and special editions of the manuscript;
- the right to translate the manuscript into other languages;
- the right to reproduce the manuscript using photomechanical or similar means including, but not limited to photocopy, and the right to distribute these copies;
- the right to reproduce and distribute the manuscript electronically or optically using and all data carriers or storage media, and especially in machine readable/digitalized form on data carriers such as hard drive, CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-ray Disc (BD), Mini Disc, data tapes, and the right to reproduce and distribute the article via these data carriers;
- the right to store the manuscript in databases, including online databases, as well as the right to transmit the manuscript in all technical systems and modes;
- the right to make the manuscript available to the public or to closed user groups on individual demand, for use on monitors or other readers (including e-books), and in printable form for the user, either via the Internet, online service, or via internal or external networks.
Authors reserve the copyright to published articles and have the right to use the article in the same manner like third parties in accordance with the licence Attribution-Non-Commercial-Non-Derivate 4.0 International (CC BY NC ND). Thereby they must quote the basic bibliographic data of the source article published in the journal (authors, article title, journal title, volume, pagination).
References
[2] Al Ghazali, B, Rosman, Y & Sadil, M. 2013. “Women Entrepreneurs in Bahrain: Motivations and Barriers”. Journal Teknologi, 64(2).
[3] Al Owaihan, A & Rao C. P. 2010. “Women Entrepreneurs and Their Firms: Attributes and Problems”. Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 5(N1): 48-62.
[4] Ahl, H. 2006, “Why research on women entrepreneurs needs new direction”. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 30: 595-621.
[5] Bird, B., & Brush, C. 2002. “A gendered perspective on organizational creation. Entrepreneurship”. Theory and Practice, 26: 41-65.
[6] Birley, S. 1989. “Female entrepreneurs: Are they really different?”. Journal of Small Business Management, 27(1).
[7] Burjorjee, D & Jennings, M. 2008. “Microfinance Gender Study: A Market Study of Women Entrepreneurs in Yemen”. Social Fund For Development.
[8] Byrne, J & Fayolle, A. 2010. “A Feminist Inquiry into Entrepreneurship Training” in “The Theory and Practice of Entrepreneurship: Frontiers in European Entrepreneurship Research”. London: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
[9] Calixte, S, Johnson, J & Motapanyane, J. 2005. Liberal, Socialist, and Radical Feminism: An Introduction to Three Theories about Women’s Oppression and Social Change. Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall.
[10] Carter, N, Brush, C, Greene, P, Gatewood, E, & Hart, M. 2003. “Women entrepreneurs who break through to equity financing: The influence of human, social and financial capital”. Venture Capital Journal, 5(1): 1-28
[11] Carter, S, Marlow, S, & Bennett, D. 2012. “Gender and Entrepreneurship”. In Entreprise and Small Business: Principles, Practice and Politcy, ed. Carter, S, Dylan, J., 218-230. London: Pearson Education Ltd.
[12] Danish, A & Smith, A. 2012. "Female entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia: opportunities and challenges". International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 4(Issue: 3): 216-235.
[13] Dima, J. 2009. Constraints and Opportunities Facing Women Entrepreneurs in Developing Countries: A Rational Perspective. USA: Emerlad Publishing Limited
[14] Drine, I & Grach, M. 2012. "Supporting Women Entrepreneurs in Tunisia". The European Journal of Development Research, 24(3): 450-464.
[15] ENID. 2014. “Women Entrepreneurs in Egypt: Realities and Hopes”. Egypt Network for Integrated Development.
[16] Fariz, R. 2002. “ Innovation Leads to Success: Opportunities for Jordanian Women Entrepreneurs”. Small Business Development Centre.
[17] Gartner, W. B. 1990. “What are we Talking about When we Talk about Entrepreneurship?”. Journal of Business Venturing, 5: 15-28.
[18] Gartner, W. B., Shaver, K. G., Carter, N. M. and Reynolds, P. D. 2004. The Handbook of Entrepreneurial Dynamics. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA.
[19] Ghiat, B. 2013. “Social Change and Women Entrepreneurship in Algeria”. Journal of Women’s Entrepreneurship and Education, 1-2: 119-131.
[20] Ghiat, B. 2014. “Socio-cultural constraints of women entrepreneurs in Algeria”. Journal of Women’s Entrepreneurship and Education, 1-4: 107-122.
[21] Holmquist, C., & Sundin, E. 1988. ‘Women as entrepreneurs in Sweden: Conclusions from a survey’. (Eds.) pp. 626-642. Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
[22] Hurley, A.E. 1999. “Incorporating Feminist Theories into sociological theories of entrepreneurship”. Women in Management Review. 14: 54- 62.
[23] Kargwill, S. 2010. “Women Entrepreneurs Breaking Through: Push and Pull within UAE Cultural Context”. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(17).
[24] Kendall, D, Murray, J & Linden, R. 2004. Sociology in Our Times. Thomson Nelson.
[25] Kirzner, I.M. 1997. “Entrepreneurship Discovery and the Competitive Market Process: An Austrian Approach”. Journal of Economic Literature, 35(1): 60-85.
[26] McElwee, G and Al-Riyami, R. 2003. “Women Entrepreneurs in Oman: Some Barriers to Success”. [Online]
[27] Minniti, M. 2010. ”Female entrepreneurship and economic activity”. European Journal of Development Research, 22: 294-312.
[28] Mordi, C, Simpson, R, Singh, S. and Okafor, C. 2010. “The Role of Cultural Values in Understanding the Challenges faced by Female Entrepreneurs in Nigeria”. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 25(1): 5-21.
[29] OECD. 2006. “Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs”. [Online] Accessed date: 03/11/2013].
[30] Porter, M. E. 1990. The Competitive Advantage of Nations. Free Press, New York.
[31] Schumpeter, J.A. 1934. The Theory of Economic Development. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.
[32] Schwartz, E. 1976. “Entrepreneurship: A new female frontier”. Journal of Contemporary Business, 5: 47-76.
[33] Schwartz, Sh. 2006. “A Theory of Cultural Value Orientations: Explication and Applications”. Comparative Sociology, 5(2-3).
[34] Sexton, L., & Kent, A. 1981. Female executives and entrepreneurs: A preliminary comparison. Boston, MA: Babson College.
[35] Shane, S. and Venkataraman, S. 2000. “The Promise of Entrepreneurship as a Field of Research”. Academy of Management Review, 25: 217-226.
[36] Singh, G. and Belwal, R. 2008. “Entrepreneurship and SMEs in Ethiopia: Evaluating the Role, Prospects and Problems faced by Women in this Emergent Sector”. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 23(2): 120-136.
[37] Stevenson, H. 1983. A Perspective on Entrepreneurship. Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA.
[38] Vaughn, K. 2014. “Constraints for Women Entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa”. University of Maryland Press. [Online]
[39] Wennekers, S. and Thurik, R. 1999. “Linking Entrepreneurship to Economic Growth”. Small Business Economics, 13: 27-55.