Women Entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia: A Portrait of Progress in the Context of Their Drivers and Inhibitors

Saleh Abdullah Alreshoodi (), Anis Ur Rehman, Serhan Abdullah Alshammari (), Tahreem Noor Khan () and Sana Moid ()
Additional contact information
Saleh Abdullah Alreshoodi: Department of Management and Information System, College of Business Administration, University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Anis Ur Rehman: Department of Management and Information System, College of Business Administration, University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Serhan Abdullah Alshammari: Department of Management and Information System, College of Business Administration, University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Tahreem Noor Khan: Department of Management and Information System, College of Business Administration, University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Sana Moid: Amity Business School, Amity University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), 2022, vol. 30, issue 03, 375-400

Abstract: This study explores the barriers and challenges faced by Saudi women entrepreneurs along with the motivational forces that drives them towards entrepreneurship. This study employs a qualitative research design, and is based on the interview of 11 Saudi women entrepreneurs and includes a review of data on the motivational factors and challenges faced by them using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Research participants’ perspectives have been quoted for each distinct theme that emerged from the interview finding. The factors motivating Saudi women towards entrepreneurship have been identified as passion, identification of opportunity, dissatisfaction and family support. Barriers that are exclusive to Saudi women entrepreneurs are difficulty in maintaining work-life balance, lack of business networking, limited access to financial resources, lack of understanding of business-related tasks and functions, fear of deception, lack of trust, reservation about work-related travel, recruitment and training issues like lack of experienced and trained Saudi workers and negative attitude and non-willingness to work under female leadership. Decision-makers in government and other relevant organisations can develop a solid framework of focussed agendas, policies and measures to address the barriers identified in this study. Arab countries especially Saudi Arabia can use these results to fully utilise the entrepreneurial skills of Saudi women to boost economic growth and development. This pioneering study reveals the intricacy of Saudi women entrepreneurs’ experiences in the presence of gender-bias and internalising socio-cultural values and attributed gender roles during the formation of their entrepreneurial identities through a unique non-western viewpoint.

Keywords: Women’s entrepreneurship; micro businesses; feminism; women leader; entrepreneurship education and training (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0218495822500121
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

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:wsi:jecxxx:v:30:y:2022:i:03:n:s0218495822500121

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0218495822500121

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC) is currently edited by Teck-Meng Tan

More articles in Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().