Making do by doing without: bricolage in the funding sources of female entrepreneurs in resource-constrained environments

Bede Akorige Atarah (), Augustine Awuah Peprah (), Abednego F. Okoe Amartey () and Bylon Abeeku Bamfo ()
Additional contact information
Bede Akorige Atarah: University of Professional Studies
Augustine Awuah Peprah: University of Professional Studies
Abednego F. Okoe Amartey: University of Professional Studies
Bylon Abeeku Bamfo: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 2021, vol. 11, issue 1, 361-378

Abstract: Abstract Female entrepreneurship is increasingly playing phenomenal roles in the economic growth of many countries. Several businesses employing many people and producing a lot of revenues are created and run by women. Many governments and international bodies are promoting female entrepreneurship fervently especially in developing economies. However, the difficulty that women in resource-constrained economies face in accessing funding to start and grow their businesses makes going into entrepreneurship a wishful dream, thus pointing to low numbers of female ventures in developing countries. However, the phenomenal numbers of female entrepreneurs in certain developing regions such as West Africa present an intriguing situation. This study therefore sought to investigate the funding sources of female entrepreneurs in developing economies and how those sources are combined in funding businesses. Qualitative methods were employed for the study, collecting data through interviews and non-participant observations in two resource-constrained countries of West Africa—Ghana and Ivory Coast. We discovered that women entrepreneurs combined various resources from different sources to start and run businesses. These sources are made possible through their social capital. Prominent sources of funding are gifts/grants from friends, families, and well-wishers; personal savings; and interest-free loans. Few women accessed commercial loans but not until they have grown their businesses up to a certain stage. The study contributes to the social capital and entrepreneurial bricolage theories by extending them to entrepreneurial financing and female entrepreneurship in developing economies. It also adds to the studies questioning the well-publicized salvific role of microfinance in developing countries especially among the poor and vulnerable.

Keywords: Bricolage; Funding sources; Female entrepreneurs; Resource-constrained environments; M1; M13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40497-021-00296-9 Abstract (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:spr:jglont:v:11:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s40497-021-00296-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... urship/journal/40497

DOI: 10.1007/s40497-021-00296-9

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research is currently edited by Nezameddin Faghih

More articles in Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research from Springer, UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().