Assessing Women Entrepreneurs’ Well-being: An Empirical Study in the Indian Landscape

Abstract

Though entrepreneurship is generally discussed in terms of socio-economic growth and refers to success, related to the firm’s outcome, yet, entrepreneurship is often pursued to attain personal happiness and satisfaction. Hence, it is of utmost interest to assess the fulfillment and well-being of an entrepreneur to detect the effectiveness of entrepreneurship. Studying well-being as a significant effect of entrepreneurship will in turn enrich the entrepreneurship development of a country. The paper is an assessment of the well-being of women microentrepreneurs who are beneficiaries of the Start-Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP). Unlike general studies on well-being, little is explored on the wellbeing of rural women entrepreneurs in a developing country like India where both gender equality and socio-economic independence are still questionable. Drawing on multidimensional determinants of well-being, this assessment study aims to examine and evaluate whether entrepreneurship enhances the state of well-being of these women micro-entrepreneurs. To examine the state of wellbeing a comparative study is conducted, paralleling these women with other women wage-employees from a similar locale. This paper considers entrepreneurship as an inclusive term and studies the qualities, attitudes, and competencies that enable people to transform their ideas into micro and small business enterprises. The idea of inclusive entrepreneurship, here, indicates entrepreneurial qualities that foster entrepreneurship. Based on a conceptual model, determinants of entrepreneurial factors, well-being factors, and the related hypotheses are tested via a survey questionnaire that is adopted from Ryff's Six-factor Model of Psychological Well-being and is observed through the lens of Self‐determination theory (SDT). The methodology obeys quantitative analysis. This study contributes to entrepreneurship research by exploring whether entrepreneurship improves well-being, based on the determinants as drivers of contentment and happiness for women.