QUESTION AND ITEMS IN A JOURNAL

Women Entrepreneurship in Malaysia: an Investigation of the Factors that Motivated Micro and Small Business Owners in Kuching-Sarawak to Start-up their own Businesses

Firstly, below are the extrinsic motivation factors highlighted by Nieman:

i.     Unemployment: This refers to a person who does not have a job in the established economy.

ii.   Job insecurity: For example, if a person is only appointed on a contract basis for a short-term period.

iii.  Disagreement  with  the  management: This  may  result  from  career  limitations  and  setbacks  in  a conventional job.

iv.   Inability to „fit  in‟  with the organization: This may be based on the inability to pursue a personal innovation in a conventional job.

v.    The limitation of financial rewards from conventional jobs.

vi.   Reaching the „glass ceiling‟: This has to do with getting to a position where one is no longer getting promoted in an organization (Ibid.).

Secondly, the following are the intrinsic motivation factors highlighted by Nieman:

i.       Independence: The freedom to work for oneself.

ii.       Achievement: The sense of acknowledgement to be gained from running one's own   venture.

iii.      Recognition: A desire to gain the social standing achieved by entrepreneurs. 

iv.       Personal development: The freedom to pursue personal innovation.

v.       Personal wealth: To gain the financial rewards of entrepreneurship (Ibid.).

An Investigation of Women Entrepreneurship: Motives and Barriers to Business Start Up in the Arab World

Impact of Individual Factors on the Business Performance  of  Women  Entrepreneurs  in Sri Lanka.

Network Affiliation

The third perspective states entrepreneurship is embedded in a complex network  of  social  relationships.  Within  these  networks,  entrepreneurship is facilitated or constrained by linkages between aspiring entrepreneurs, resources, and opportunities (Aldrich and Zimmer, 1986). According to this view, the presence or absence of networks, such as access or membership in associations, play a role in influencing performance. The facts that women entrepreneurs are embedded in different personal and social networks than men and that division and barriers limit the reach and diversity of their networks have far-reaching consequences for business performance (Aldrich, 1989).

Human Capital

The human capital perspective proposes that the level of education, area of education, previous entrepreneurial experience, previous business experience, and  business  skills  will  influence business  performance.  Cooper  (1989) proposed experience and education were “antecedents” to the decisions to start a company and ultimately affected performance. Several studies showed that years of formal education of the entrepreneur before establishing a new firm were related to eventual performance of the firm (Box et al., 1993; Brush and Hisrich, 1991). Box et al., (1993) also found a relationship between higher levels of education and increased performance among manufacturing firms in Oklahoma. Testing the effects of education on business ownership in a longitudinal study, Dolinsky et al., (1993) reported that the levels of staying and reentering a business increased with higher levels of education. They argued that less educated women might face financial or human capital constraints that limited their business pursuits.

Industrial Factors

Environmental  influences presume  that  factors  including  the  differential structure of opportunity, location, sectoral activities, and sociopolitical variables (i.e., availability of government assistance) are critical determinants of performance. Economic measures of venture profitability; revenues and number of employees are related to environmental economic conditions, such as the market structure, regional opportunities, investment climate, availability of labor, and other features (Gibb, 1988). Similarly, resource availability, including venture capital, technical labor force, loans, support services, and a favorable entrepreneurial subculture are also a major influence on performance (Bruno and Tybjee, 1982).

Business Performance

Dess and Robinson (1984) concluded that performance is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon that is difficult to operationalize without using a combination of objective and subjective measures.

Operational  definition: The  Business  Performance  can  be  defined as how the company is doing financially, ability to achieve improvements in specified areas like competition, market growth and achievements and measure of how effectively each of these areas has been addressed.

 The concept of Business Performance was conceptualized using five dimensions proposed by Hisrich and Brush  (1982, 1985). These dimensions include the increase of revenue, increase of profit, ability to face competition, business expansion and business achievements. The dimensions of Business Performance were then measured with the use of five question items specially developed by the researcher for this purpose.

Women Entrepreneur In India

IV.        PROBLEMS FACED BY INDIAN WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Besides the above basic problems the other problems faced by women entrepreneurs are as follows:

1.     Family ties:

Women in India are very emotionally attached to their families. They are supposed to attend to all the domestic

work, to look after the children and other members of the family. They are over burden with family responsibilities like extra attention to husband, children and in laws which take away a lots of their time and energy. In such situation, it will be very difficult to concentrate and run the enterprise successfully.

2.     Male dominated society:

Even though our constitution speaks of equality between sexes, male chauvinism is still the order of the day. Women are not treated equal to men. Their entry to business requires the approval of the head of the family.

Entrepreneurship has traditionally been seen as a male preserve. All these puts a break in the growth of women entrepreneurs.

3.     Lack of education:

Women in India are lagging far behind in the field of education. Most of the women (around sixty per cent of total women) are illiterate. Those who are educated are provided either less or inadequate education than their

male counterpart partly due to early marriage, partly due to son's higher education and partly due to poverty. Due  to  lack  of  proper  education,  women  entrepreneurs  remain  in  dark  about  the  development  of  new technology, new methods of production, marketing and other governmental support which will encourage them to flourish.

4.      Social barriers:

The traditions and customs prevailed in Indian societies towards women sometimes stand as an obstacle before

them to grow and prosper. Castes and religions dominate with one another and hinders women entrepreneurs too. In rural areas, they face more social barriers. They are always seen with suspicious eyes.

5.     Shortage of raw materials:

The scarcity of raw materials, sometimes nor, availability of proper and adequate raw materials sounds the death-knell of the enterprises run by women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs really face a tough task in

getting the required raw material and other necessary inputs for the enterprises when the prices are very high.

6.      Problem of finance:

Women entrepreneurs stiffer a lot in raising and meeting the financial needs of the business, Bankers, creditors

and financial institutes are not coming forward to provide financial assistance to women borrowers on the ground of their less credit worthiness and more chances of business failure. They also face financial problem due to blockage of funds in raw materials, work-in-progress finished goods and non-receipt of payment from customers in time.

7.      Tough competitions:

Usually women entrepreneurs employ low technology in the process of production. In a market where the

competition is too high, they have to fight hard to survive in the market against the organised sector and their male counterpart who have vast experience and capacity to adopt advanced technology in managing enterprises

8.      High cost of production:

   Several factors including inefficient management contribute to the high cost of production which      stands as a stumbling block before women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs face technology    obsolescence due to non - adoption or slow adoption to changing technology which is a major factor     of high cost of production.

9.     Lowrisk-bearing capacity:

Women in India are by nature weak, shy and mild. They cannot bear the amount risk which is essential for

running an enterprise. Lack of education, training and financial support from outsides also reduce their ability to bear the risk involved in an enterprises.

10. Limited mobility:

Women mobility in India is highly limited and has become a problem due to traditional values and inability to drive vehicles. Moving alone and asking for a room to stay out in the night for business purposes are still looked upon with suspicious eyes. Sometimes, younger women feel uncomfortable in dealing with men who show extra interest in them than work related aspects.

11. Lack of entrepreneurial aptitude:

Lack of entrepreneurial aptitude is a matter of concern for women entrepreneurs. They have no entrepreneurial

bent of mind. Even after attending various training programmes on entrepreneur ship women entrepreneurs fail to tide over the risks and troubles that may come up in an organisational working.

12. Limited managerial ability:

Management has become a specialised job which only efficient managers perform. Women entrepreneurs are

not efficient in managerial functions like planning, organising, controlling, coordinating, staffing, directing, motivating etc. of an enterprise. Therefore, less and limited managerial ability of women has become a problem for them to run the enterprise successfully.

13. Legal formalities:

Fulfilling the legal formalities required for running an enterprise becomes an upheaval task on the part of an women entrepreneur because of the prevalence of corrupt practices in government offices and procedural delays

for various licenses, electricity, water and shed allotments. In such situations women entrepreneurs find it hard to concentrate on the smooth working of the enterprise.

14. Exploitation bymiddlemen:

Since women cannot run around for marketing, distribution and money collection, they have to depend on

middle men for the above activities. Middle men tend to exploit them in the guise of helping. They add their own profit margin which result in less sales and lesser profit.

15.  Lack of selfconfidence:

Women entrepreneurs because of their inherent nature, lack of self-confidence which is essentially a motivating

factor in running an enterprise successfully. They have to strive hard to strike a balance between managing a family and managing an enterprise. Sometimes she has to sacrifice her entrepreneurial urge in order to strike a balance between the two.

An entrepreneurial key competencies’

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