Women Entrepreneurship Development in India: Contributing and Inhibiting Factors

Abstract

A central driver of economic growth over the past century has been the increased role of women. Around 3.01 million women-owned enterprises represent about 10 percent of all Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in the country. The success or failure of an enterprise depends not only on the entrepreneurial skill possessed by the individual but also on business development supports available to them. The present study was carried out in two urban districts of Maharashtra with a sample of 125 women micro entrepreneurs. A list of factors contributing/ inhibiting entrepreneurship was identified after a detailed literature review. Data collected was subjected to factor analysis by the principle component method and normalized varimax rotations were computed which helped the researcher to group the factors. The study revealed factors contributing to entrepreneurship development were business management skills, accessibility to information, support systems, guidance and follow-up, and business credibility. The study identified 13 factors which inhibited entrepreneurship development and since some items were overlapping they were further clubbed, resulting in five major constraining factors: entrepreneurial constraints while setting up the enterprise, general constraints, socio-psychological constraints, resource, and financial constraints.