Socio-cultural motivation in women’s entrepreneurship: Exploring the handloom industry in Assam

Socio-cultural motivation in women’s entrepreneurship: Exploring the handloom industry in Assam

This paper attempts to develop a few measures or scales of entrepreneurial motives of women, given the socio-cultural factors in developing economies. Within the push–pull theory of entrepreneurial motivation, we use exploratory factor analysis with an orthogonal varimax rotation technique to examine entrepreneurial motivation, integrating it with socio-cultural beliefs. We identify five entrepreneurial motives—self-dependence, preserving handloom culture, providing monetary support, formal job environment, and work-flexibility. Within socially constructed gender roles, generic desires of women are crucial for entrepreneurial behavior. Contrary to existing findings, we found that women with a higher desire to provide monetary support to their family were found to be less likely to become micro-entrepreneurs, which can be accounted for their poor economic conditions, a significant risk-averse attitude, and credit constraints. The scales constructed could be used across cultures, especially in developing economies. Their replication should provide an understanding of why women micro-entrepreneurs tend to be concentrated in specific sectors, resulting in gender segregation. Given the context specific measurement items, scholars interested in studying socio-cultural attributes in entrepreneurial motivation can further develop and validate the multi-item constructs that distinguish women’s motivations for specific activities.

This paper attempts to develop a few measures or scales of entrepreneurial motives of women, given the socio-cultural factors in developing economies. Within the push–pull theory of entrepreneurial motivation, we use exploratory factor analysis with an orthogonal varimax rotation technique to examine entrepreneurial motivation, integrating it with socio-cultural beliefs. We identify five entrepreneurial motives—self-dependence, preserving handloom culture, providing monetary support, formal job environment, and work-flexibility. Within socially constructed gender roles, generic desires of women are crucial for entrepreneurial behavior. Contrary to existing findings, we found that women with a higher desire to provide monetary support to their family were found to be less likely to become micro-entrepreneurs, which can be accounted for their poor economic conditions, a significant risk-averse attitude, and credit constraints. The scales constructed could be used across cultures, especially in developing economies. Their replication should provide an understanding of why women micro-entrepreneurs tend to be concentrated in specific sectors, resulting in gender segregation. Given the context specific measurement items, scholars interested in studying socio-cultural attributes in entrepreneurial motivation can further develop and validate the multi-item constructs that distinguish women’s motivations for specific activities.