Determinants of the Business Performance of Women Entrepreneurs in the Developing World Context

Lavlu Mozumdar, Geoffrey Hagelaar, Gerben van der Velde and S.W.F. Omta
Additional contact information
Lavlu Mozumdar: Department of Rural Sociology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensigh-2202, Bangladesh
Geoffrey Hagelaar: Business Management and Organisation, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6707 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands
Gerben van der Velde: Business Management and Organisation, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6707 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands
S.W.F. Omta: Business Management and Organisation, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6707 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands

J, 2020, vol. 3, issue 2, 1-21

Abstract: Resource-based theory posits the deployment of resources by entrepreneurs to achieve performance without questioning the possibility of deploying these resources. The question, however, remains how resources are deployed in developing countries that constrain the choice in the deployment of resources. To answer this, we analyse the factors determining the business performance of women entrepreneurs in a developing country context. Data were collected through a survey sent to 211 Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs engaged in handicraft businesses. Results from hierarchical multiple regression analyses show that (1) the social environment in terms of socio-cultural norms and customs hinders the performance; (2) the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions, namely, combined Innovative–proactive EO and Risk-taking EO, and the business trainings positively affect the performance; and (3) the social ties negatively influence the performance, which may be due to the excessive presence of strong ties in a personal social network. Based on results, we suggest that environment (context) is a contingent factor for the way personal traits such as EO, human, and social capital can be used by women entrepreneurs to achieve performance in a developing world context.

Keywords: entrepreneurial orientation; business and social environment; human capital; social ties; business performance; women entrepreneurs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 I10 I12 I13 I14 I18 I19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8800/3/2/17/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8800/3/2/17/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jjopen:v:3:y:2020:i:2:p:17-235:d:365280

Access Statistics for this article

J is currently edited by Ms. Angelia Su

More articles in J from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().