Entrepreneurial Performance of Women in Sustaining Business: A Study in Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

There is abundant scholarship on women owned businesses in the small and medium ventures - both in India and abroad. Literature evidences studies on the problems, prospects and their profiles from an economic, business and sociological perspective. Research on women sustaining business over longer periods of time is woefully inadequate. Moreover, the limited evidence also suggests a sharp contrast between the perceptions of women in sustaining business at the International and Indian context, as more in the nature of perceptual than real. A deeper understanding and greater insight into this phenomenon is imminent to aid the policy makers as also women entrepreneurs. This paper is an attempt in this direction and highlights the entrepreneurial performance of women in sustaining business to examine their beliefs in the Indian context The basic premises and the propositions which crop due to the contextual variations form part of the study. About 40 women from the state of Andhra Pradesh, who have been in business for a fairly longer period of time, form the sample for the study. Social factors- gaining status in society, recognition and respect-motivated the women in sustaining the business. A conviction that it is perhaps the world of entrepreneurship which recognizes the value of women’s contribution as the most vital for a better tomorrow has made them sustain their business acumen.