What does it take to be a woman entrepreneur? Explorations from India
Industrial and Commercial Training
ISSN: 0019-7858
Article publication date: 10 February 2022
Issue publication date: 3 March 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide relevant knowledge about entrepreneurship and women’s leadership in the Indian context. More specifically, it unleashes the veiled challenges as well as success stories of select women entrepreneurs of a developing country to bridge the gap between entrepreneurship theory and practice. It aims to provide directions to the policymakers, educationists, society and families in creating a conducive environment that is essential for the success of women entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach
With a qualitative case study approach, data were collected from Tamil Nadu, a southern Indian state which has a maximum number of women entrepreneurs. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to explore the supportive as well as challenging dimensions of their entrepreneurial journey.
Findings
Content analysis of the interview transcripts indicated that successful entrepreneurs are opportunity-driven and they focus on innovation, service, generation of wealth and employment. Support from family, especially from fathers or husbands, is as important as the entrepreneurial drive, skills and abilities of an entrepreneur. Success for them is being happy, thriving work, having a happy family, having a great work-life balance and the satisfaction to have served society apart from being independent (economically/ financially). Among India’s societal and cultural realities, women have to conquer many hurdles (both implicit and explicit) in their way concerning the societal attitudes toward women stepping out of the home boundaries and traditional gender role expectations. The silver line is societal attitudes are changing, especially in urban India. There are enough support and encouragement from the family, which helps these women pursue their passion and eventually become a successful leader.
Social implications
The success stories of women will bring a wave of positive developmental change in India by fostering respect for women in a male-dominated society and flashing the importance of women’s entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
This paper provides a new examination of women entrepreneurs that significantly further the debate about the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles, especially in entrepreneurship in an emerging economy context like India. Apart from the deterrents, it aims to highlight the enablers and motivations to choose this unconventional profession.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) for proving them funds to carry out the study. They would like to show their gratitude to all five women entrepreneurs for sharing their pearls of wisdom with them during the data collection of this research, and they thank the “anonymous” reviewers for their so-called insights. We would like to thank the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) for funding this research (Project No.- IMPRESS/P1424/81/18–19/ICSSR).
Citation
Rastogi, M., Baral, R. and Banu, J. (2022), "What does it take to be a woman entrepreneur? Explorations from India", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 54 No. 2, pp. 333-356. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-03-2021-0022
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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