Transcript Slide 1

BARRIERS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN THE
NEW VENTURE CREATION PROCESS: EXPERIENCE
OF BANGLADESH
Afreen Huq, Ph.D.
Lecturer
RMIT University
School of Management
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION
• A growing body of literature (including the GEM study) recognizes that
women entrepreneurs operate under different socio-cultural and economic
conditions to that of their male counterparts
• Bulk of the literature on the gender-related barriers women encounter
however have focussed on North American and European women
entrepreneurs
• Little information is available on the barriers of new venture creation by
women in developing and emerging economies
• Available data on women entrepreneurs in developing countries have focused
predominantly on the poor, less educated women in micro-enterprise type
activities in rural areas
• The growing group of well educated, urban based women who have the
potential of starting their ventures that go beyond the stage of selfemployment have been largely unrecognised in the literature.
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INTRODUCTION
• This study attempts to bridge this gap in the literature by exploring the pre
and post new venture creation barriers of women entrepreneurs in a
developing country represented by Bangladesh.
• In particular, the study seeks to investigate the extent to which the existence
or absence of a support environment for women entrepreneurs influence the
new venture creation process.
• The sample for this study has been drawn from the population of educated,
middle-income, urban-based women in Bangladesh who, in principle, are
capable of achieving their full potential as entrepreneurs.
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THE SUPPORT ENVIRONMENT FOR NEW VENTURE
CREATION AND ITS GENDER DIMENSION
• The term 'support environment for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME)
development, classified as 'Hardware' and 'Software' services (Gibb, 1990),
refers to a number of assistance measures especially set up by both
government and non-government support agencies for the initiation, growth
and development of this sector.
• The most common problem, cited in the literature, is the inadequate provision
of finance, and restricted access to institutional finance due to collateral and
complex procedures (Mann, Grindle and Shipton, 1989; Dana, 1990; Meir
and Pilgrim, 1994; Coleman, 2000).
• Other frequently mentioned problems concern marketing, shortage of utility
services, lack of technical support in the form of advice on processes, design
of products, quality control etc., lack of management training, and information
(Al Ashi, 1991; Ladzani and van Vuuren 2002; Daniels, 2003; Co and
Mitchell, 2006).
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THE SUPPORT ENVIRONMENT FOR NEW VENTURE
CREATION AND ITS GENDER DIMENSION
• Women entrepreneurs experience a number of barriers and issues that are
greater than those facing small businesses in general (Smallbone, et al,
2000).
• Women's capabilities are generally questioned and comparatively harsh
guarantee terms are imposed (Orhan, 2001; Stevenson, St-Onge and
Finnegan, 2007).
• Other barriers women face in the financial arena are directly linked to the size
and nature of their businesses (Carter and Rosa, 1995).
• It has been found that women who are faced with time constraints often shy
away from formal borrowing, as against borrowing from traders/money
lenders, where loan transactions are completed in a few minutes (Singh and
Belwal, 2008).
• Well-intending organisations and institutions may well create institutional
barriers to the entry and development of women in small-scale enterprises.
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SOCIO-CULTURAL BARRIERS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
• Women's economic role in many countries, particularly in South Asian
societies (such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) are greatly influenced by two
factors, one being the cultural norm of 'purdah', and the other being the
notion of 'izzat' (Papanek, 1982; Shaheed, 1990).
• Women business owners often report encountering active sex bias stemming
from socialisation processes and sex-related stereotyping (Wees and Romijn,
1987).
• Male bank managers, customers, employees and husbands do not always
grant business women the same esteem and competence they accord to men
(Shabbir and Gregorio, 1994).
• Such notions of impropriety and inability can be used not only to keep women
out of business in general, but also of certain businesses in particular.
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METHODOLOGY
• Data were collected from three categories of respondents comprising a
sample size of 239.
• Personal interview using a largely open-ended interview schedule was
employed to collect data from 75 ‘actual’ women entrepreneurs engaged in
new ventures and 154 ‘potential’ women entrepreneurs (graduates, employed
women and housewives) obtained through judgmental sampling method.
• In addition, 10 senior personnel of the enterprise support agencies were also
interviewed
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FINDINGS
• The study reveals that there is very little enterprise support available and
obtainable for educated, middle-income women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh
• Women having ventures in sectors usually thought of as male domains
encountered greater barriers than those in traditionally female type ventures.
• The major barriers in the pre venture creation process were lack of
confidence/negative attitude of the personnel of banks and enterprise support
agencies, lack of acceptance and credibility in dealing with suppliers, and the
inability to secure confidence of and timely payments from customers.
• The most frequently mentioned barriers in the post venture creation process
were inadequate working capital, lack of security and freedom of mobility, lack
of quality raw materials, managing employees, and marketing problems
• In addition to the commonly cited barriers of women's entrepreneurship in
available literature, negative social attitude towards women in business, lack
of security and freedom of mobility and exposure of role models by media and
promotional agencies have been found to act as hindrances to women's
entrepreneurship in Bangladesh
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IMPLICATIONS
• The study has contributed to women’s entrepreneurship literature by adding
data on the extent to which absence of a ‘women friendly’ support and sociocultural environment influence their new venture creation process.
• The study demonstrates that the needs, opportunities, and constraints of
women entrepreneurs in developing countries vary according to their
personal characteristics, and the type of new venture they want to create.
• In addition to the commonly cited barriers of women's entrepreneurship in
available literature, negative social attitude towards women in business, lack
of security and freedom of mobility and exposure of role models by media and
promotional agencies have been found to act as hindrances to women's
entrepreneurship in Bangladesh
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IMPLICATIONS
• To promote women's entrepreneurship in developing countries, efforts should
be made to encourage wide spread media exposure of role models, ideas for
product and market development, and gender sensitivity training for the
personnel of agencies working for the development of entrepreneurship.
• Agencies offering enterprise training programmes need to appreciate the
limited experience of women entrepreneurs in public dealing, particularly in
countries where due to cultural reasons women have limited experience of
dealing with men, especially on a one-to-one basis.
• Agencies involved in extending finance, need to recognise and appreciate the
psychological and social constraints of women.
• This study is confined to women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. Studying
these research issues in other developing countries would be an interesting
extension of this study which might help to contribute to more generalised
findings.
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