www.emeraldinsight.com/1934-8835.htm
IJOA
17,3 Factors influencing women
business development
in the developing countries
202
Evidence from Bangladesh
Amzad Hossain
Finance and Banking Department,
Al Ain University of Science and Technology,
Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Kamal Naser and Asif Zaman
College of Business Administration,
Al Ain University of Science and Technology,
Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, and
Rana Nuseibeh
National Health Service, Cardiff, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that influence women entrepreneurship
development in Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts quantitative and qualitative analyses of
possible factors that may affect the development of women entrepreneurships such as: age, education,
socio-culture, motivation, market information, business idea, enterprise creation, advocacy and
decision making, enabling environment, and financing. A questionnaire was used to provide empirical
evidence on the variables and to estimate the model employed by the study.
Findings – The analyses revealed that women face problems in establishing their own businesses in
every step that they take. The desire for financial independence and decision making, market and
informational network, availability of a start-up capital, knowledge and skills, and responsibility
towards children are the main factors that impact women’s decision to become self-entrepreneurs.
The regression analysis, however, revealed that participation in women associations, advocacy, and
decision making (self-fulfillment) and knowledge are the main factors that affect women’s decision to
develop their business. Yet, the results indicated that religion does not influence women’s
entrepreneurship development.
Research limitations/implications – The questionnaire survey employed in this paper is
confined only to a women population who passed grade five and above as semi-educated or educated
women respondents group. The paper excludes homeless women or those who live in the slum urban areas.
Practical implications – The outcome of this paper can be used by researchers, government,
non-governmental organizations, civil society, and local community to formulate effective policy that
motivate women to become entrepreneurs. This will have a positive effect on women participation on
the economic development of Bangladesh.
International Journal of
Organizational Analysis Originality/value – This paper will be the first to provide empirical evidence on factors that affect
Vol. 17 No. 3, 2009 women’s entrepreneurship development in the urban Bangladesh.
pp. 202-224
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited Keywords Entrepreneurs, Women, Business development, Bangladesh
1934-8835
DOI 10.1108/19348830910974923 Paper type Research paper
Introduction Women business
Bangladesh is experiencing a vicious circle of poverty with high-unemployment rates. development
Bangladesh, like other developing countries, has been working with the help of
national and international donor partners and international agencies to implement the
reforms needed for achieving its development goals. As part of such reforms, women’s
small-scale economic activities have been under consideration at all stages of the
country’s development plans. 203
The importance of micro and small enterprises in social and economic development,
and the need to support their viability, expansion and growth, is accepted in most
countries irrespective of their stage of economic development (International Labor
Organization – ILO, 2007). The success of micro-credit of the Grameen Bank in
Bangladesh attracts policy makers’ attention in considering women enterprise
development. However, a large number of women’s enterprises are operating on an
informal basis and they are not included in the country’s economy. These enterprises
lack basic forms and information, marketing opportunities, regulatory and social
supports (Asian Development Bank – ADB, 2001). In addition, they are even
surrounded by socio-cultural barriers of their own community and society as
whole. Such socio-cultural barriers hold back women’s economic contributions that
make it often invisible and unrecognized in Bangladesh.
Almost half of the Bangladeshi population is women and they provide new labor
force entrants every day to the country’s economy (CIA, 2008). The country’s present
production and investment structure are unable to create new job opportunities to meet
its demand. Thus, creating new employment opportunities for new women labor force
entrants, through supporting women’s self-enterprise development, can be an option to
involve women in the country’s economic development.
Women’s innovative capabilities and ideas are compatible with men to succeed as
entrepreneurs (Nilufer, 2001). As a result, women and men are equally likely to start a
business (Aldrich et al., 2000). However, women suffer from two distinct
disadvantages:
(1) the initial lack of confidence in their own abilities; and
(2) society’s lack of confidence in women’s ability.
210
IJOA
women’s
Table I.
development
Factors affecting
entrepreneurship
Factor Factor Vectors Vector title Measures
X1 Age v1 to v1n 15-20 years Measures the attitude of different age group in women’s involvement
21-30 years in business. It also shows the family responsibility of different
30-40 years age-group of women
40-50 years
þ 50 years
X2 Education v2 to v2n Below secondary education Measures capacity building aspects of the levels of education. It also
Secondary education explains the influence of education in decision making of women’s
Higher secondary education involvement in business
Diploma education
Graduate level education
Post-graduate education
X3 Socio-cultural v3 to v3n Relative and friend’s comments Explains the attitude towards women in business. The dominance of
Neighbors’ comments surrounded culture in women’s success in business
Religious aspects
Gender-related aspects
Social security
X4 Motivational v4 to v4n Financial and economic need Measures the critically of women’s business earnings in supporting
Desire of financial independent self and/or family. It also explains women’s attitude towards “business
as women’s career option”
X5 Market v5 to v5n Informal network Measures the women’s attitude towards building informal networks
informational Opportunity of success required for business success. It also shows their awareness about
opportunity of future business success
(continued)
Factor Factor Vectors Vector title Measures
X6 Business idea v6 to v6n Knowledge/skills/experience Analysis women’s attitude in transforming their interest/hobby into
Interest and hobbies knowledge generation for business. It also measures their attitude
Profit motive towards business competition, profit and resources availability
Conductive business environment
Availability of required resources
X7 Enterprise v7 to v7n Spouse occupation Shows women’s attitude towards their spouse/father’s occupation in
creational Fathers occupation involving business. The factor also measures their attitude for
Household responsibility supporting their children and husbands in residence
X8 Advocacy and v8 to v8n Participation in association Measures the women attitude towards participation in women’s
decision making Advocacy and voice association, current situation of advocacy, voice and decision making
Decision making
X9 Enabling v9 to v9n Government policy Analysis the women’s attitude and awareness about overall policies
environment Rule and regulations and regulations
Govt and non-government support
X10 Financial v10 to v10n Source of start-up capital Measures women’s awareness and attitude towards start-up capital,
Access to credit from banks access to credit and its availability and procedures
Access to credit from NGO
Access to credit from government
development
Women business
211
Table I.
IJOA Several studies have been carried out on either female or male or both entrepreneurs in
17,3 Bangladesh (Planning Commission, 1990; Khurshida, 1992; ILO, 1995; Quddus et al.,
1996; LFS, 1995/1996; ADB, 2001). The scope and findings of all these studies are
varying widely and incomparable to each other since they had different objectives
(Nilufer, 2001). However, based on a study of the BBS in 1999, women are largely
involved in the non-monetized sectors and in subsistence activities.
212 Women’s involvement is either as self-employed or employed in family-based
enterprises in the rural informal sector. Most of such enterprises are based on both
agricultural and non-agricultural sector. Agriculture is the pre-dominant source of
female employment in rural areas, and the traditional manufacturing sector holds
second position which is the habitual and hidden sources to family income. According
to a study conducted by the ADB (2001), within the formal sector, a large number of
women work in export-oriented industries such as garments, the source of 70 percent of
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange.
According to the LFS in 1996, quoted by DCCI, 2000, the entrepreneurship status of
women constitutes 8.3 percent, which is really small compared to men that reached
46.8 percent of the self-employed citizen. The situation in urban Bangladesh is, however,
a little better. In urban areas, nearly 15.4 percent of the 36.7 percent self-employed people
are women. In rural area, it is only 7.4 percent of 47.6 percent self-employed population.
The situation of unpaid family labor women in rural and urban areas which constitutes
83.2 and 42.9 percent, respectively, is even worse. Furthermore, a significant proportion
of poor women work as day laborers who are form a direct source of family income.
The government civil society including women organizations and NGOs have
bought forward women issues and interests onto the country’s development
agenda. As a result of such concerted efforts, women’s enterprises conditions are
improving gradually. Recently, women are entrepreneurs and own enterprises,
occupies top management and policy-making positions in both private and public
sector enterprises. Contrary to this, beforehand, women’s enterprises were cramped in
traditional gender dominated sectors, such as education, health, food and beverage,
webbing, tailoring, beauty-parlor, wholesale, and retail apparel trade.
Research approach
Data collection
As mentioned earlier, the main objective of this study is to identify factors that influence
women entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh. To achieve this objective, a
questionnaire that contains various aspects of entrepreneurship was designed. To
assess the suitability, readability, and understanding of the questionnaire, a pilot study
was undertaken by a group of Bangladeshi women who were invited to comment on an
early version of the questionnaire. Some of the comments received were useful and
incorporated in the final draft of the questionnaire. The English version of the
questionnaire was then translated from English to Bengali and verified by a linguist
specialist. The questionnaire was then ready for distribution. During the period between
August 15 and September 5, 2007, 300 copies of the questionnaire were distributed
among a random sample of Bangladeshi women in Dhaka city and its vicinities. A total
of 200 questioners were completed and returned. After screening the collected
questionnaires, it was evident that 34 questionnaires were not properly completed
(some of the main sections of the questionnaires were not completed by the participants)
and excluded from the analysis. Hence, this process resulted in a useful response rate of Women business
55 percent. development
To assess the reliability of the collected data, a reliability test was executed. The
Cronbach’s alpha for the collected data was 0.913[2]. In social studies research, 0.70 or
more Cronbach’s alpha value will be good enough to insure data reliability.
Although the conducted empirical analysis was based on the collected primary data,
secondary data have been used to construct supporting reviews of the study. The data are 213
obtained from publications, existing reports and web sites on the related area. This
includes annual and technical reports from government agencies, international
organizations, published, and unpublished articles as well as any other relevant
information.
The questionnaire survey employed in this study confines only to women population
who passed grade five and above as semi-educated or educated women respondents
group. The study also excludes homeless women or those who live in the slum urban
areas. The study employs ILO definition of small and micro-enterprises that are
employing ten to 49 and one to nine employees, respectively (see the review section for
details).
Model
As mentioned earlier, this study is set out to identify factors affecting urban women’s
self-enterprise development. The study adopts a quantitative and qualitative analyses
of these factors. The attempt is, therefore, made to estimate the following statistical
model:
X1 X1 X1 X1 X1
W e ¼ f X 1 nv1; X 2 nv2; X 3 nv3; X 4 nv4 . . . X n nvn
Socio-cultural factors
A list of socio-economic factors that might affect women’s decision to develop their
own enterprises was included in the questionnaire and the participants were invited to
express the extent of their agreement with each of them. Analysis of the participants’
answers is summarized in Table III. It can be seen from the table that Bangladeshi
women seem to encounter problems in making their businesses in every step that they
make. This can be clearly noticed from the reported mean and median where almost all
participants either strongly agreed or agreed with this factor. Other factors such as
Rank (based
No. Factor Mean Median SD Min. Max. on mean)
Socio-cultural
1 Socio-culture factors affects my involvement in self-business 3.32 3.0 1.35 1 5 2
2 Relative and friends comments affect my involvement in self-business 2.9 3.0 1.36 1 5 3
3 Neighbors comments affect my involvement in self-business 2.56 2.0 1.30 1 5 4
4 Religious binding affect my involvement in self-business 2.2 2.0 1.41 1 5 5
5 As a woman, I face problems in making business in every step that I take 4.10 5.00 1.41 1 5 1
Motivation
1 Availability of motivational factors will affect my decision to build self-enterprise 3.70 4 1.30 1 5 2
2 The desire for financial independence is the main factor of my involvement in
developing self-enterprise 4.61 5 0.77 1 5 1
Market and information network
1 Market network affect my decision to build self-enterprise 3.53 4.0 1.21 1 5 3
2 Informal network affect my involvement in developing self-enterprise 4.29 5.0 1.16 1 5 1
3 Market and informal network affect my decision to build self-enterprise 3.85 4.0 1.18 1 5 2
Advocacy and decision making
1 Participation in women association is important to my involvement in developing
self-enterprise 3.47 3.0 1.11 1 5 2
2 More advocacy and voice is important to my involvement in developing
self-enterprise 3.38 4.0 1.18 1 5 3
3 Decision making is important to my involvement in developing self-enterprise 4.39 5.0 0.94 1 5 1
Woman characteristics
1 Financial support is important to my involvement in developing self-enterprise 3.82 4.0 1.11 1 5 2
2 Start-up capital is important to my involvement in developing self-enterprise 4.18 4.0 0.96 1 5 1
3 Access to credit from banks is important to my involvement in developing
self-enterprise 3.06 3.0 1.30 1 4 4
4 Access to credit from non-governmental organization is important to my
involvement in developing self-enterprise 2.60 2.50 1.16 1 4 5
(continued)
development
women in Bangladesh
Factors that affect
Women business
business development by
Table III.
215
17,3
216
IJOA
Table III.
Rank (based
No. Factor Mean Median SD Min. Max. on mean)
Women characteristics
Another factor that appeared in the literature to affect women involvement in
self-business is their characteristics. Women’s knowledge, skills, experience, ability to
find opportunities (new business ideas), interest, and hobbies are all factors that can
influence women entrepreneurs. These questions were asked to explore whether they
have any impact on their decision to become self-employed. It can be observed from
Table III that the participants almost totally agreed that their knowledge, skills,
experience, interest, and hobbies are all important to their decision to become
IJOA self-employed. Although the resulted median of the business ideas factor pointed to an
17,3 agreement among the participants that this can be a determinant factor of women
involvement in businesses enterprises. The resulted mean, however, seem to give
conflicting result.
Family status
218 Another factor documented in the literature to be a major factor that dictates women
decision to become self-employed is family commitments. For instance, spouse and
father’s occupation might play a major role in the development of a woman business.
Responsibilities towards children are another factor that can affect a woman’s decision
to start a business enterprise. The outcome of the analysis reported in Table III pointed
to responsibility towards children as the main factor that may deter women in
Bangladesh from launching their own businesses. This result is consistent with
previous research undertaken in different countries such as: Ivory Coast, Ethiopia,
Mali, Morocco, Senegal, Zimbabwe – de Groot (2001) and Sweden – Holmquist and
Sundin (2002)). Factors such as spouse and father’s positions do not seem to be an issue
for women in Bangladesh. The fact that most of the women who took part in the survey
are educated or semi-educated and they are unemployed means that they are coming
from middle class families. The high rate of single women participating in the survey
makes it irrelevant when they were asked about their spouses. Thus, spouses and
fathers have no influence on women involvement in business development in
Bangladesh.
Financial resources
The participants were asked to express their level of agreement with availability of
financial resources to start their business enterprises. Table III shows that it is
important for women in Bangladesh to obtain financial support and to secure a start-up
capital before launching their own businesses. Given that the vast majority of the
participants are without work or housewives, it is going to be difficult for them to
secure a start up capital or even to find any source of finance. In this regard, Carter et al.
(2001) made the point that women entrepreneurs find it difficult to raise the start-up
capital since they do not have the required wealth; they cannot secure the required
collateral to obtain a bank’s loan; due to their social position they cannot establish
financial network available to men and they cannot establish good relationships with
banks since they encounter gender discrimination and stereotyping.
Conclusion
This study set out to investigate business development by women in Bangladesh.
A number of factors captured by previous studies were tested in this empirical study.
IJOA Descriptive statistics showed that the following factors affect women decision towards
17,3 business development: desire for financial independence and decision making; market
and informational network availability of a start-up capital; knowledge, skills and
experience; and responsibility towards children. On the other hand, the regression
analysis showed that factors such as women membership in professional associations,
advocacy and decision making (self-fulfillment) and women knowledge were the main
220 factors influencing women decisions to become self-employed. These three factors
were responsible for 75 percent of women business development decisions. The result
of the analysis seems to point out that business development is almost completely
restricted to middle and upper class women. In realty, these two categories of social
classes in Bangladesh account for a small proportion of the total population. Hence, a
significant proportion of the Bangladeshi society is not taking part in business
development. To increase women involvement in the economic development of
Bangladesh, the government together with the NGOs operating in Bangladesh should
target this group of women who have the potential to start up their own business but
they are deprived due to the lack of financial resources or social values prevent them
from developing their own businesses. Religious leaders can also play an active role in
incorporating women in the economic development of Bangladesh.
The adjustment and/or improvement of aforesaid factors enhance women
entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh. A concerted effort from the
government, NGOs, civil society and local community is therefore considered necessary.
It should be emphasized that the focus of this study was on the semi-educated or
educated women living in the capital city of Dhaka. To give a clear picture of factors
that may affect women business development in Bangladesh, women representing
other parts of the country should be included in the survey of a future study. A future
study that identifies a number of successful women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh and
the reason behind their success can help policy makers formulating their strategy
towards incorporating women in future economic development of the country.
Notes
1. The choice of the ten variables was based on the fact that these variables were heavily
investigated in previous studies. Exploring the same factors provides a legitimate ground for
comparison.
2. The main reason for determining the Cronbach’s alpha is to assess the reliability of the
respondents’ answers to all sections of the questionnaire, rather than specific sections of the
questionnaire.
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