Agric. sci. dev., Vol(3), No (11), November, 2014. pp.

351-353

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Agriculture Science Developments

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2306-7527
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Identifying Factors Affecting on the Development of Rural Women

Entrepreneurship in Tehran Province
Farhad Lashgarara *
Department of Agricultural Extension, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Faezeh Ghashghaei
Department of Agricultural Extension, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
*Corresponding author: f_lashgarara@srbiau.ac.ir

Keywords

Abstract

rural entrepreneurship
women
entrepreneurship development

The present study was conducted to identify factors affecting the development of rural women
entrepreneurship in Tehran. This is an applied study and is done by the questionnaire. The population of the
research includes all women entrepreneurs in Tehran province which all were studied by census method. For
data analysis, SPSS software was used. Results of regression analyzes indicated that the three variables of
educational, economic and social- cultural explained 55 percent of entrepreneurship development.

1.

Introduction

Studies show that one of the main objectives of economic development, is job creation and, its the most important mechanism and tool is
entrepreneurship [8]. Also one of the evaluation criteria in terms of developing countries is the rate of participation of women in social and
economic activities [3]. Many researchers believe that the activities of female entrepreneurs, has a prominent role in the economic health of
nations. The statistics show that women contribute 25 to 35 percent in economic activities to the activities of the world. Rural women, especially
in developing countries, are responsible for the bulk of the economic, social and cultural activities. Check of the status of women's participation
in 52 developing countries reflects the fact that women make up more than 40 percent of agricultural activities. In some countries this figure
reached 90 percent [3]. According to official statistics, in recent years, the share of female employment was only 14% and the female
unemployment rate has increased considerably. Unemployment rate in 2004, were even far beyond the average unemployment rate in the
country [6].
However, various studies show that even in developed countries, the move towards entrepreneurship development in rural communities,
especially women, to a large extent is slow, this problem occurs under the influence of several different obstacles. in Iran although during the
recent years the rural women entrepreneurship has been considered highly and some plans are executed aligned with education and supporting
from entrepreneur rural women but there is a long path toward reaching to desirable situation and there are some problems in this field.
Guerrero et al. (2008) in their study concluded that demographic characteristics such as gender, age, education, family background and
environmental factors, personal factors such as attitudes towards entrepreneurship in particular, impact on the decision of people to start a new
career entrepreneurially [5].
Tiago et al. (2007) emphasized that his government investment in research in the field of women's employment can be effective in female
participation in the labor market [13].
Cooper and Goby (2003) study the characteristics of women entrepreneurs in Singapore concluded that motivation of women entrepreneurs to
set up an independent business, is based mainly on "being your own boss" [1].
Kiggundu (2002) categorized Factors affecting entrepreneurial success to three groups of entrepreneurial personality characteristics, firm
characteristics, and environment [7].
Lashgarara et al (2011) about the research on rural women's entrepreneurship Ilam concluded that previous experience, training, engage in commerce,
management abilities, ages, being single or married, and economic circumstances in life have a significant impact on women's entrepreneurship [8].
In a research Falla Jelodar (2008) argues about the positive and significant relationship between personal, social, economic and cultural and
political factors with entrepreneurship development [3].
Glerd (2005) in a research called factors on Iranian women entrepreneurship development indicate that personal factors role in development and
success of Iranian women business is more effective than other factors and its main characteristics is perfectionism creativity flexibility [4].
Noori and Ghaffari (2006) in their research results said that holding promotional and educational courses and controlling and ownership of rural
women on resources and factors of production is considered as effective factors in empowerment of rural women and rural developing
In this research rural entrepreneurship women include all rural women and girls that lonely create jobs or did it along with others in agricultural,
fishing and foods sectors that all of them by helping the Tehran province agriculture administration could be entrepreneur and until the end of
2011 they were inhabit of Tehran province rural regions and the entrepreneurship development is the increasing of new businesses by rural
women or growth, extension and spread of their past employment [10].
Women rural of Tehran province because of locating beside great cities like Tehran are not considered too much and rural women more then
before have withdrawn from agricultural activities and due to not identification of factors on entrepreneurship development has been away from
social and economic area and the unemployment problem among the rural women is increasing. Lack of appropriate policy of officials and
successive replacement of authorities led to continued weakness in the planning of rural women in Tehran province. On the other hand lack of a
suitable financial institution for financing and having traditional thought among rural families lead to low self-confidence of women against men
and lack of money for setting up a business is considered as barrier for entrepreneurship. It should be noted that in participation of women in
entrepreneurship development actively and efficiently their role should be identified in entrepreneurship development and related factors should
be considered. Therefore, this study will try to investigate what factors in the development of rural women entrepreneurship in Tehran is
effective. Research subject review and identify factors affecting the development of rural women entrepreneurship in Tehran deals. The area is
all the Tehran villages in the period of 2011-12.

Farhad Lashgarara *, Faezeh Ghashghaei

352

Agriculture Science Developments Vol(3), No (11), November, 2014.

2.

Methodology

The study is an applied research, from the goal point of view of data collection is (non experimental) and according to the method is correlative.
The population used in this study is all Tehran rural women entrepreneurs that are totally of 63 people. Due to the limitation of Tehran rural
women entrepreneurs, all of them are sampled by census. The main tool used in this study for data collection is questionnaire. In order to
measure the level of research tool validity, the questionnaire was given to advisors which after required examinations and collection of the
options the modification about questionnaire is done. To gauge the reliability of the questionnaire, by a preliminary study 25 copies of the
questionnaire was completed by rural women entrepreneurs who completed questionnaires using SPSS; Cronbach's alpha coefficient is
measured. Overall, the coefficient alpha for a research tool is 0.82-0.72 range. The dependent variable in this study is the perspectives of rural
women entrepreneurs in business and entrepreneurship that is improved by adjusting the 8 questions that is measured in Likert option 5. The
independent variables in this study include economic, socio - cultural, educational, and legal and policy making factors.

3.

Findings

According to the survey results, the average age is 37 years for women entrepreneurs. In terms of education, mostly 34.4 percent has a diploma
degree. The average year of entrepreneurial women is 57.3 years.
In order to understand the perspective of entrepreneurs toward entrepreneurship development, the 8-item Likert scale was used. The results of
table 1 indicate that the majority of the subjects (63.5%) believe that the setting up business and entrepreneurship is greatly improved and few
(1.9 percent) believe that the cases too much improved.
Table 1. Entrepreneurs view toward entrepreneurship development (n=61)
View

Frequency

Percent

Cumulative percent

Moderate

18

29.5

34.6

Much

33

54.1

98.1

Very Much

1.6

199

Non respond

14.8

Total

61

100

Mode: Much

The results indicate that the majority of the subjects (71.7 percent) believe the economic factors that influenced the development of
entrepreneurship moderately and the (7.5%) believe that economic factors have less influence on the development of entrepreneurship.
The majority of the subjects (83%) believe that social and cultural factors greatly influenced on the development of entrepreneurship and the
only (1.2 percent) believe that social and cultural have much influence on the development of entrepreneurship.
The majority of the subjects (71.7%) believe that educational factors influence on the development of entrepreneurship moderately and the
(28.3%) believe that educational factors greatly influenced on the development of entrepreneurship.
The majority of the subjects (71.1 percent) believe that legal and policy making factors greatly influenced on the development of
entrepreneurship and the (2.2 percent) believe that legal and policy factors has too little impact has been on the development of
entrepreneurship.
To study the collective effect of independent variables on the dependent variable of the study the multiple regression is used. Using a stepwise
approach the three variables, educational, economic and social- cultural explained 55 percent of entrepreneurship development (Table 2).
Table 2. Stepwise regression of entrepreneurship development
Variables

Sig

Educational factors

0.169

0.643

0.000

Economic factors

0.250

0.189

0.001

Social-Cultural

0.141

0.182

0.002

Adj R square= 0.55

Given regression line equation is as follows:

Y= 0.643X1+0.189+0.182

4.

Conclusion

The stepwise regression results show that:

From the perspective of rural entrepreneur women, education is the most important variable influencing on the development of rural women
entrepreneurship, so this variable alone; explain approximately 48.2% of the development of rural women entrepreneurship.
Paying attention toward educational factors can play a significant role in the development of rural women's entrepreneurship. By holding good
promotional and information courses through mass media (radio, TV, etc.) the participation of rural women in rural development will be
possible. The experts can provide a bed for more participation of rural women by educational visits from entrepreneurship plans because such
activities encourage women to entrepreneurship. Paying attention to the needs of rural women can have an important role in attracting them
towards entrepreneurship. These findings are consistent with the results of the investigation of Nouri and Ghaffar (2006), Fallah Jelodar et al
(2007), Safari Shali (2008), Davidsson (2003) and Rasheed (2000).

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Identifying Factors Affecting on the Development of Rural Women Entrepreneurship in Tehran Province
Agriculture Science Developments Vol(3), No (11), November, 2014.

Paying attention to the results of the prioritization of educational factors affecting on the development of entrepreneurship is desirable in order
to enhance the entrepreneurship women empowerment aligned with expert education that are designed and to be considered in agricultural plans
and agriculture service in order to enhance the rural women educational level.
Visiting the businesses successful entrepreneurs from agriculture administration should be done to be a factor in encouraging rural women to be
entrepreneur. It is also necessary that promoters and agricultural engineers hold some educational and promotional courses about employment
and entrepreneurship for rural women in order to make the rural women familiar with all kinds of business activities and way of setting them up.

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