Women Entrepreneurs a Critical Review of the Literature

Abstract Increasing numbers of women are becoming leaders of their own businesses, and many are struggling to achieve success. A growing body of theory and research is exploring how different women come to business ownership, their unique leadership challenges and strategies for success, their personal change and the processes of leadership development they experience. This paper reviews literature addressing women business owners from the general perspective of understanding their leadership. Within this frame, existing studies of women business owners are classified and examined according to four themes that appear to be most prominent. These four themes are (1) Women business owners’ characteristics and development; (2) Women’s†¦show more content†¦Qualitative studies in the past five years have indicated contested issues related to values, identity and the meaning of leadership emerging in this trend of women business ownership (Gay, 1997; Robertson, 1997; Thrasher and Smid, 1998). For example, women don’t always accept the dominant formula that success equals money and power. Women who start their own business sometimes do so to craft a new way of working, and many continue to fight barriers related to traditional constructs of economic power and expectations. Many women business owners claim that the whole experience changes them profoundly. The purpose of this paper is first to provide a critical overview of selected literature exploring women’s small business ownership, and second to pose questions arising from the existing literature to guide further research and theorizing about women’s leadership in small business contexts. In her 1992 review of existing literature, Brush concluded that women’s business leadership cannot be understood using traditional (male-oriented) frameworks of business analysis. She writes, â€Å"Significant differences have been found in reasons for business start-up, educational background, work experience and business skills . . . businessShow MoreRelatedNeed Of The Study Of Women1492 Words   |  6 PagesNEED OF THE STUDY Women-owned enterprises contribute 3.09 percent of industrial output and employ over 8 million people. Approximately, 78 percent of women enterprises belong to the services sector. Women entrepreneurship is largely skewed towards smaller sized firms, as almost 98 percent of women-owned businesses are micro-enterprises. As with the broader MSME sector, access to formal finance is a key barrier to the growth of women-owned businesses, leading to over 90 percent of finance requirementsRead MoreFinancial Issues Affecting Kenyatta Market Women Entrepreneurs Of Nairobi962 Words   |  4 PagesFINANCIAL ISSUES AFFECTING KENYATTA MARKET WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF NAIROBI, KENYA 1. Introduction i. Background Information According to Creighton Yieke (2006), women in Kenya constitute a subordinate, disadvantaged and muted group who are routinely treated as inferior and who face coerced sex, harmful cultural practices, stigma and discrimination. Their inferior legal status in relation to marriage inheritance, guardianship, property ownership, places them in disadvantaged position economicallyRead MoreBusiness Skills As Entrepreneurship Education1203 Words   |  5 PagesLiterature Review Various authors have explained business skills as entrepreneurship education to empower knowledge of the entrepreneurs. This entails business management skills, business planning, financial management, awareness of legal aspects and market searching. That being the case, the skills are useful and important in developing creative thinking, negotiations, leadership (business management), exposure to technical innovation and new product development. However, the skills help to identifyRead MoreUttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu: A Comparative Study in Micro-Finance1699 Words   |  7 Pagesfollowing sections we would review the existing literature in this field. Then we would proceed to explain our research methodology that we adopt in order to explain the growth of microfinance in the country and bring out the a comparative study of the growth of microfinance in the two states of Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.) Literature Review- Studies analyzing the Micro Financing in India- Micro finance has been a field which has attracted a lot of research work. A review of the major research worksRead MoreEntrepreneurship Is A Vital Element For Invigorating Monetary Development And Employment Opportunities1361 Words   |  6 Pagesentrepreneurship. When we look at some definitions and development of it, we can say that it is a process which contains innovation, taking risks, seeing opportunities, forecast and pre-act. Entrepreneurship is an action, and entrepreneur is the person who acts. An entrepreneur should have some characteristics like intelligence, energy, entrepreneurship soul, experience, motivation and abilitiy of rational behavior. First step in entrepreneurship is to decide how the company/business will be ownedRead MoreThe Millennium Development Goals Mdgs1562 Words   |  7 Pagesfacts, MDG Goal 1 has three specific targets. Target 1.A is to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day; Target 1.B is to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people (UN website, 2015). It is known that 300 million workers lived below $1.25 in 2015 (UN website, 2015). Target 1.C is to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger; it is estimated that 795 millionRead MoreEvaluation Of A Report On The Value Of Entrepreneurs2066 Words   |  9 PagesTable of Contents Task 1: 1.0 Introduction 1 2.0 Literature Review 2-5 2.1 Entrepreneurial Sel-Efficacy 2-4 2.2 Disadvantages of Having Highly Self- Efficacy 4-5 3.0 Characteristics of Entrepreneurship 5-7 4.0 Exemplary of Entrepreneurs 7-8 5.0 Conclusion 8 Task 2: 6.0 Business Description 9-11 6.1 Background of the Zero Drug`s Founders (Company) 9-10 6.2 Mission (Motto) Statement 10 6.3 Company`s Goal, Products and Services 10 6.4 Licensing, Local Permits, OwnershipRead MoreA Research Project On The Startup Industry2043 Words   |  9 PagesCRITICAL CONTEXTUAL STUDIES 15-16 SUBMISSION FRONT COVER MODULE TITLE: Independent Research Project (15-16) STUDENT NAME: Nicolai Hald STUDENT ROLL NUMBER: 00403869 COURSE: Graphic Design TITLE OF WORK: How to launch a company Tutor: ALEX MCDONAGH MODULE COORDINATOR: Rosie Miller Designing a startup business A research paper into the English startup industry Introduction 400 words â€Å"What started out as conversation between friends on a night out in 2012 turned out to stimulate aRead MoreWomen Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh: a Case Study on Boutique Business10735 Words   |  43 PagesIntroduction 1.1 Introduction: Entrepreneurs are arguably the most important actors in our economy: the creators of new wealth and new jobs, the inventors of new products and services, and the revolutionizes of society and the economy. Yet despite their centrality, little is known about entrepreneurs: what motivates them, how they emerge, why they succeed. We know even less about who becomes an entrepreneur, and why. Women are one particularly understudied group of entrepreneurs. We know very little aboutRead MoreReview Of Literature Review On Literature Essay2370 Words   |  10 PagesChapter - 4. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Literature survey is undertaken to study and analyze the finding of other researcher in their studies that are related to the subject under consideration. A research literature review, as a process, is a systematic, explicit, and reproducible method for identifying, evaluating and synthesizing the existing body of completed and recorded work produced by researchers, scholars and practitioners (Fink, 2010). As a noun, literature review is an organized