Factors Motivating Women's Micro-Entrepreneurship: Experiences From Khulna, Bangladesh

Abstract

Women’s participation in micro-entrepreneurship is increasing day by day. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factor that motivate women’s micro-entrepreneurship based on a survey in Khulna region of Bangladesh. An open-ended and close-ended interview will be taken from a sample of women working in different formal and informal sectors in Khulna region. The results will be analyzed with statistical tools and the findings will be identified. Practical implications will be determined from the findings of the research and limitations of the research will also be identified.

Background of the study: Bangladesh is now a middle-income level country. A larger amount of Bangladesh’s gross domestic income comes from the informal sector. About 50 percent of Bangladesh’s population are women and they are frequently participating in micro-entrepreneurship. Employment is the main source of income among the poor, and it is still considered to be the most effective vehicle to take them out of the poverty.

However, most of the working poor in developing countries are engaged in informal employment. Women’s participation in micro-entrepreneurship has become an area of great interest and concern among researchers. Many countries have broadened the access of women in micro-entrepreneurship, a privilege which was only given to men before. As more and more success stories of women entrepreneurs are showcased, many women who are either housewives or employed are inspired to start up their own businesses. At the same time, the already successful ones are trying to move away from emulating their successful male counterparts. As a matter of fact, women entrepreneurs are beginning to set standards of behaviors that distinguish them in an attempt to create an identity of “her” own rights. All these developments create a totally new playing field as women entrepreneurs compete with their male counterparts for the same business opportunities. This paper wants to examine the factors that motivate women’s micro-entrepreneurship specifically in Khulna region of Bangladesh.

Definition of Micro Enterprise: According to National Industrial Policy Order 2010, in manufacturing, micro industry/enterprise would be those with assets worth Tk 500,000 to 5 million and/or 10 to 24 workers or less. But in Khulna there are many women whose assets are less than that. Women here are working in both formal and informal sectors. According to Gordon (2006), examples of micro entrepreneurs are owners of bakeries, beauty parlors, childcare facilities, repair shops, arts and crafts shops, painting businesses, contracting businesses, family-owned shops, small-scale restaurants, and small-inventory trading businesses (Ms. Nasima, 2014).

Informal Sectors :Informal sector are non-registered firms who are not liable to pay taxes to the government and whose income is not considered while computing GDP. Maximum women who are engaged in micro entrepreneurship are working in informal sectors like hawkery, grocery, tailoring, boutiques, handicrafts etc. There are 30. 4% women are working in informal sector in Bangladesh. (BBS, 2010)

Literarure review

According to Franck (Franck, 2011), to create growth and development, women’s micro-entrepreneurship is increasingly being promoted. Increasing knowledge around motivational factors, performance and conditions of work for women micro-entrepreneurship is therefore important for trying to establish appropriate policies. Women entrepreneurs have been identified as a “major force for innovation and job creation” (OECD, 1997) and therefore much research about women business owners has concentrated on their motivations to become entrepreneurs (Muriel Orhan, 2001). According to the findings of Brush, Bruin and Welter (Candida G. Brush, 2009), the word “Motherhood” is used a metaphor representing the household and family context of women entrepreneurs, which might have a greater impact on women than men. They built a 5M framework that includes money, market(opportunity), management, macro and meso environment which are required for female entrepreneurs to launch and grow ventures. Salleh and Osman (2007) studied that a wide range of factors motivate women entrepreneurs such as opportunity to increase income, freedom, flexibility, interest, escape from insecure or low-paid occupations and personal autonomy, (Franck, 2011).

Many studies show that women engaged in micro entrepreneurship due to low levels of employment and for socio cultural ideology of Bangladesh, (Ms. Nasima, 2014). According to BWCCI (2008) Female entrepreneurs face extreme societal issues in Bangladesh. Even after that women in Bangladesh are coming forward to engage in micro entrepreneurship. As entrepreneurship education has been considered as one of the important determinants that could affect career decisions of students (Ooi et al. ,2011), Wendy and Siong recommended that a more holistic education system fosters entrepreneurial skills, gender equality and more importantly cultural changes. They also suggested that helpful policy for women entrepreneurs, technical training, government’s help can also motivate women in micro entrepreneurship.

Methodology

The qualitative and quantitative analysis employed in this paper will be based upon empirical findings from field work conducted in the Khulna region of Bangladesh. Women micro-entrepreneurs will be interviewed. The interviews will be structured using an interview guide which contained close-ended questions like basic data (age, ethnicity, education level etc. ) and open-ended questions regarding work-life history, labor market choices and conditions of work. The open-ended questions will enable the respondents to talk freely. All the interviews will be recorded using an audio recorder. Both from the informal and formal sectors the data will be collected as primary data. If there is any secondary data needed further for the research that will be managed from the internet. We need to find out what are the purposes for which women are engaging in micro entrepreneurship. For this purpose, we need to measure the factors by frequency.