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IJOA
17,3
202
International Journal of
Organizational Analysis
Vol. 17 No. 3, 2009
pp. 202-224
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1934-8835
DOI 10.1108/19348830910974923
Factors influencing women
business development
in the developing countries
Evidence from Bangladesh
Amzad Hossain
Finance and Banking Department,
Al Ain University of Science and Technology,
Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Kamal Naser and Asif Zaman
College of Business Administration,
Al Ain University of Science and Technology,
Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, and
Rana Nuseibeh
National Health Service, Cardiff, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that influence women entrepreneurship
development in Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts quantitative and qualitative analyses of
possible factors that may affect the development of women entrepreneurships such as: age, education,
socio-culture, motivation, market information, business idea, enterprise creation, advocacy and
decision making, enabling environment, and financing. A questionnaire was used to provide empirical
evidence on the variables and to estimate the model employed by the study.
Findings – The analyses revealed that women face problems in establishing their own businesses in
every step that they take. The desire for financial independence and decision making, market and
informational network, availability of a start-up capital, knowledge and skills, and responsibility
towards children are the main factors that impact women’s decision to become self-entrepreneurs.
The regression analysis, however, revealed that participation in women associations, advocacy, and
decision making (self-fulfillment) and knowledge are the main factors that affect women’s decision to
develop their business. Yet, the results indicated that religion does not influence women’s
entrepreneurship development.
Research limitations/implications – The questionnaire survey employed in this paper is
confined only to a women population who passed grade five and above as semi-educated or educated
women respondents group. The paper excludes homeless women or those who live in the slum urban areas.
Practical implications – The outcome of this paper can be used by researchers, government,
non-governmental organizations, civil society, and local community to formulate effective policy that
motivate women to become entrepreneurs. This will have a positive effect on women participation on
the economic development of Bangladesh.
Originality/value – This paper will be the first to provide empirical evidence on factors that affect
women’s entrepreneurship development in the urban Bangladesh.
Keywords Entrepreneurs, Women, Business development, Bangladesh
Paper type Research paper
Introduction Women business
Bangladesh is experiencing a vicious circle of poverty with high-unemployment rates. development
Bangladesh, like other developing countries, has been working with the help of
national and international donor partners and international agencies to implement the
reforms needed for achieving its development goals. As part of such reforms, women’s
small-scale economic activities have been under consideration at all stages of the
country’s development plans. 203
The importance of micro and small enterprises in social and economic development,
and the need to support their viability, expansion and growth, is accepted in most
countries irrespective of their stage of economic development (International Labor
Organization – ILO, 2007). The success of micro-credit of the Grameen Bank in
Bangladesh attracts policy makers’ attention in considering women enterprise
development. However, a large number of women’s enterprises are operating on an
informal basis and they are not included in the country’s economy. These enterprises
lack basic forms and information, marketing opportunities, regulatory and social
supports (Asian Development Bank – ADB, 2001). In addition, they are even
surrounded by socio-cultural barriers of their own community and society as
whole. Such socio-cultural barriers hold back women’s economic contributions that
make it often invisible and unrecognized in Bangladesh.
Almost half of the Bangladeshi population is women and they provide new labor
force entrants every day to the country’s economy (CIA, 2008). The country’s present
production and investment structure are unable to create new job opportunities to meet
its demand. Thus, creating new employment opportunities for new women labor force
entrants, through supporting women’s self-enterprise development, can be an option to
involve women in the country’s economic development.
Women’s innovative capabilities and ideas are compatible with men to succeed as
entrepreneurs (Nilufer, 2001). As a result, women and men are equally likely to start a
business (Aldrich et al., 2000). However, women suffer from two distinct
disadvantages:
(1) the initial lack of confidence in their own abilities; and
(2) society’s lack of confidence in women’s ability.

Generally in developing countries, women are brought-up under an adverse

conservative socio-cultural environment that results in lack of confidence in them
and the society in which they have been living. This reality results in family’s
reluctance to finance a women’s venture, banker’s reluctance to take risk on projects set
up by women, and a general unwillingness to accept women as decision makers or to
stand as guarantors for loans to them (Nilufer, 2001). This phenomenon suggests that
special efforts and programs are needed to promote and support women’s
entrepreneurship.
Generally speaking, in developing countries women face two main challenges in
promoting enterprises: the first is legitimizing and strengthening the base of existing
women-owned enterprise as many of their enterprises are not identified in any basic
forms. The second is promoting entrepreneurship and business opportunities with high
growth potential among educated and skilled women. On one hand, these groups of
women might be successful in self-business, and on the other hand, they find it difficult
to obtain jobs because of gender discrimination and stereotyping. Thus, strong support
IJOA for the later challenge enables women to make successful businesses from the start, and
17,3 have the potential for high growth and employment creation (ILO, 2007). This is really
important for Bangladesh as the majority of the semi-educated or educated unemployed
women come from middle-class families. The majority of these groups of women are
acting as housewives and stay at home without employment. Such a group of women
always lack socio-cultural and a material support system to survive in their employment
204 or developing self-enterprise. Although 18,000 non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
are working to provide support for women development in Bangladesh, few of them are
working on this group of women (ILO, 2007).
Several studies have been carried out on women entrepreneurs in developing
countries such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia, Pakistan, and India
(see ILO working papers by Marcellina et al., 2002; Zewde & Associates, 2002; Jule
Development Associates International – JUDAI, 2002; Nilufer, 2001). Many studies also
have been carried out on either female or male or both entrepreneurs in Bangladesh
(see, for example, Planning Commission, 1990; Khurshida, 1992; ILO, 1995; Quddus et al.,
1996; Labor Force Survey – LFS, 1995/1996; ADB, 2001). However, the scope and
findings of these studies are varying widely and incomparable to each other since they
had different objectives (Nilufer, 2001). Mark et al. (2006) also pointed out that research
on entrepreneurial activity is both widespread and multidisciplinary in nature.
Moreover, there is hardly any study carried out on the semi-educated or educated groups
of women in Bangladesh. Thus, it is of paramount importance to identify the factors
influencing these groups of women in Bangladesh. The outcome of the current study can
be used by policy makers as well as NGOs to formulate a financial policy aiming at
helping Bangladeshi women in starting-up their businesses. A policy that takes into
account the factors that affect women decisions to start their own businesses will help in
creating job opportunities among women. As a consequence, the outcome of the study
can assist in the economic development of Bangladesh. In this study, the attempt is made
to explore factors that affect urban women’s enterprise development. Some policies and
issues to enhance women’s enterprise development are also explored.

Previous related research

Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship development, and enterprise size
It is difficult to define entrepreneurship as entrepreneurial activities substantially vary
from one to another. Entrepreneurial activities are normally dependent on the type of
organization being operated. As such, scholars have been inconsistent in their
definitions of entrepreneurship (Brockhaus and Horwitz, 1986; Gartner, 1988).
However, the frequently quoted definition of entrepreneurship is that developed by
Gartner (1988) who viewed entrepreneurship as a wide range of activities including the
creation of an organization. The entrepreneur implements change within markets
through carrying out new combinations. This can be viewed through:
.
introducing an advanced quality;
.
introducing a sustained new production process;
.
opening a novel market facility;
.
creating a new supply chain; and
.
carrying out a new empowered organizational structure (Schumpeter, 1934).
Thus, an entrepreneurship can be defined as the wide range of activities that create and Women business
innovate an enterprise by the combination of all the resources while considering its development
probabilities of success and failure.
The issue of women and men’s entrepreneurship has received growing attention
among policy makers in the developing as well as developed countries. Women and
men’s entrepreneurial activities are an important factor in creating and increasing
employment opportunities and ensuring economic growth (Costanza et al., 2003). Over 205
the last decade, women and men’s entrepreneurship have become more important and
documented in 55 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe countries. Women
entrepreneurship became an essential topic of research and discussion in the USA in the
1970s. The transition from communist states to market-based economics has introduced
more attention to entrepreneurship in former communist countries since 1990s
(Costanza et al., 2003). Women entrepreneurship became one of the prime topics of policy
makers and development organization in developing countries since 1980s. In this
respect, women entrepreneurship has received growing attention in Bangladesh since
1980s especially after the introduction of Grameen Bank of Novel literate Dr Yunus.
On the other hand, different definitions have been put forward for an entrepreneur.
McClelland (1961) described an entrepreneur as being primarily motivated by an
overwhelming need for achievement and strong urge to build. Busenitz and Barney
(1997) claim entrepreneurs are prone to overconfidence and over generalizations. To an
economist, an entrepreneur is one who brings resources, labor, materials, and other
assets into combinations that make their value greater than before, and also one who
introduces changes, innovations, and a new order. To a psychologist, such a person is
typically driven by certain forces, the needs to obtain or attain something, to experiment,
to accomplish, or perhaps to escape the authority of others. To a businessman, an
entrepreneur can be a threat, an aggressive competitor, whereas to another businessman
the same entrepreneur may be an ally, a source of supply, a customer, or someone who
creates wealth for others, as well as finds better ways to utilize resources, reduce waste,
and produce jobs others are glad to get (Hisrich et al., 2005).
Nilufer (2001) described an entrepreneur as any person who possesses the above
qualities and uses them in setting up and running an enterprise. Entrepreneurs are
enterprise builders – they perceive new business opportunities, organize businesses
where none existed before, direct these businesses by using their own and borrowed
fund, take the associated risks, and enjoy profit as rewards for their efforts. Taking
into consideration the definitions discussed above, an entrepreneur can be defined as “a
person who brings all the required resources for innovation, production and renovation
while considering the associated risks.”
There is no internationally recognized definition for entrepreneurship, and women
entrepreneur, in particular. OECD (1998) has referred women entrepreneur as equally
to someone who has started a one-woman business, to someone who is a principal in a
family business or partnership, or to someone who is a shareholder in a publicly held
company which she runs. An ILO study carried out by Marcellina et al. (2002) has
defined women enterprises as ones that were started, owned, and managed by women.
At this stage, it is important to consider entrepreneurship development. According
to an ILO study undertaken by Nilufer (2001), entrepreneurship development refers to
training and other support services incorporated within a structured program designed
to assist individuals and groups interested in becoming entrepreneurs and starting
IJOA small businesses. Entrepreneurship development is an initiative that recognizes
17,3 entrepreneurs’ problems and launches programs to solve those problems to enable
entrepreneurs to become active in the innovation process.
Kantor (2001) has considered gender sensitive policies and programs that explicitly
recognize differences between women and men, and that these differences will impact
woman or man’s ability to participate in entrepreneurship. Gender specific policies and
206 programs targeted specifically women in order to benefit them within the current
context of gender relations can be considered as women entrepreneurship development.
On the other hand, different definitions have been used to identify enterprise size.
According to a World Bank study, statistical definition of small and medium scale
enterprise varies by country and usually based on the number of employees or the value of
assets (Kristin, 1999). Even within each country, different institutions adopt various broad
definitions of small enterprises (Jarrett, 2005). Thus, it is important to reach a common
understanding of what constitutes a small enterprise in order to facilitate a sustained
supportive environment for women’s small enterprise development (SEED). In the UK,
small enterprises are usually defined as ventures with less than 50 employees, where often
concentration of ownership is in the founder-owner or manager (Jarrett, 2005).
The European Commission (2003) defined enterprises as micro, small or medium size
enterprises. Micro-enterprises are enterprises which have fewer than ten employees.
Small enterprises have between ten and 49 employees and they should have an annual
turnover not exceeding e7 million. Medium-sized enterprises have fewer than
250 employees and their annual turnover should not exceed e40 million.
A World Bank study carried out by Kristin (1999) has classified enterprises as micro,
small and medium enterprises. Micro-enterprises are normally family businesses or
self-employed persons operating in informal or semi-formal sectors. Serving them
often requires distinct institutions and instruments, such as the group-based
lending methodologies used by some microfinance institutions. In contrast, small- and
medium-sized enterprises usually operate in the formal sector of the economy, employ
mainly wage-earning workers, and participate more fully in organized markets.
A number of studies of commissioned by the ILO, for example, ILO (2006) and
Marcellina et al. (2002) have defined enterprises as micro, small and medium size
enterprises. ILO (2006) also pointed to three phases of enterprise development:
micro-enterprise often not registered as a petty trading; small enterprise usually
registered, with a few employees; medium enterprise beyond self-employment. Another
ILO study undertaken by Marcellina et al. (2002) has defined small enterprises as ones
that employ ten to 49 employees. Micro-enterprise are those with 1-9 employees.

Factors affecting women’s small enterprise development

Decent Work support program of the ILO has created a number of International Focus
(InFocus Program – IFP) to Boost Employment through SEED (IFP/SEED) (ILO,
1998). One of the major components of the ILO’s IFP/SEED program is Women’s
Entrepreneurship Development and Gender in Enterprises (WEDGE). In order to
achieve IFP/SEED’s goals, it has adopted three linked strategies:
(1) developing the knowledge base;
(2) promoting advocacy and voice; and
(3) developing innovative support services and products (technical tools).
These have been adopted in all works undertaken by the WEDGE team in developing Women business
countries. development
Based on aforesaid strategies, ILO has undertaken country and/or region-specific
research that cover the issues affecting women entrepreneurs and women’s
entrepreneurship development. The research has produced a series of working papers.
Among such working papers, the most significant research has carried out in Ethiopia,
Tanzania and Zambia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India (ILO, 2003). Almost all the 207
working papers (see ILO working papers by Marcellina et al., 2002; Zewde & Associates,
2002; JUDAI, 2002; Nilufer, 2001) have used common factors that affect women’s
entrepreneurship development. Among these factors are: socio-economic, strategies and
behavioral, motivational, enterprise consolidation, business idea, market and market
informational factors, etc. A study conducted by ILO (2006) referred to four personal and
four external factors that influence women entrepreneurs’ success. The personal factors
comprise:
(1) motivation and commitment;
(2) abilities and skills;
(3) ideas and markets; and
(4) resources.

On the other hand, external factors consist of:

(1) business development organizations;
(2) broader enabling environment;
(3) economic/market environment; and
(4) socio-cultural context.

The business development organizations factor considers the roles of government,

NGOs, private sector, membership organizations, and donors. The broader enabling
environment factor mulls over regulations, policies, institutions, and processes. The
economic/market environment factor ponders opportunities and threats (e.g. inflation,
interest rates, economic trends, etc.). The socio-cultural context factor considers
attitudes, aspirations, confidence, etc. Other factors such as age, education, and family
status also influence women entrepreneurship development (Aldrich et al., 2000).
Established business owner’s age is important as people gather additional contacts and
social support through their involvement in associations, work, and family activities
(Aldrich et al., 2000). In line with this, many researchers have found that average age of
business owners is generally greater than that of employees (Aldrich et al., 1997, 1998;
Carter, 1997; quoted by Aldrich et al., 2000).
Mark et al. (2006) mentioned that several international studies have been conducted
on the relationship between general education and entrepreneurship (Mark et al., 2006;
Aldrich et al., 2000; Acs et al., 2004; Autio, 2005; Minniti and Bygrave, 2003; Neck et al.,
2003). However, most of these studies were inconsistent about education and business
ownership (Aldrich et al., 1998; Gartner, 1988; Reynolds and White, 1997).
Women are influenced by socio-cultural complexities to become entrepreneurs in
developing countries (Nilufer, 2001). The components of such socio-cultural
complexities include ethnic diversity, religious value systems, and marital status.
IJOA Previous research has found that there is no correlation between increasing ethnic
17,3 diversity and religious value systems and a reduction of business start-up rate
(Carswell and Rolland, 2004). Salehi-Isfahani (2000) observed that married women have
the lowest participation rate in labor force followed by single and widowed women in
developing countries.
Robinson (2001) referred to the push and pull factors that influence a woman to
208 become an entrepreneur. The push factor is allied with negative environment, and the
pull factor is attributed to positive developments. The push factor may result from low
income, low job satisfaction or lack of job opportunities, and strict working hours. The
pull factor, however, may result from the need of fulfilling the desire to help others to
attain self-accomplishment. As such, Sibin Wu et al. (2007) found a positive relationship
between the need for achievement and entrepreneurship persistence. As a result of such
a relationship, successful women showed consistently higher self-efficacy and need for
achievement (Jo et al., 2006). The push and pull factors are considered as motivational
factors. Orhan and Scott (2001) found that women entrepreneurs in the developing
countries were influenced by a combination of push and pull factors.
Previous studies demonstrated that women are less involved in network than men
and even the network that they may establish is different than that established by
men (Granovetter, 1985; Burt, 2000). Moreover, women tend to have more ties to women
than to men (Popielarz, 1999). Lin (1999) revealed that women’s network is mainly
related to family links and may prove to be an obstacle to business activities. Such a
phenomenon could be a disadvantage in the overall business community for contacting
women entrepreneurs, gathering information and other resources related to them.
Having an advanced business idea is one of the important tools to succeed in
business. However, the sources of gathering business ideas for women are limited. As
such, JUDAI (2002) made the point that the majority of women in developing countries
obtain ideas from informal networks, spouses, and relatives or family which are
effective for start up and success in business. Women also lack appropriate technology
and related facilities that affect their success in developing countries (Zewde &
Associates, 2002).
Family responsibility of married women is a potential constraint to their business
activities. Contrary to this, family supports can be a pillar of their business success. For
example, Marcellina et al. (2002) revealed that early socialization, childhood
experiences, role models, and exposure have played a big role in motivating women
to start business. Family support, husband’s support in particular, influence the
success of women’s business. Holmquist and Sundin (2002) reported that women lack
time for entrepreneurial activities due to family commitment.
Advocacy and decision-making process is vital for women’s enterprise development
and success. Involvement in women organization may improve their advocacy and
decision-making capacity. However, women in developing countries lack effective
women organizations that impede their own decision-making. As such, Zewde &
Associates (2002) observed that the absence of appropriate and effective organizations
for women entrepreneurs affect women enterprise development in developing
countries. As a result, the majority of the women make their own decision and few of
them consult with other family members (JUDAI, 2002).
Generally speaking, women-friendly laws and regulation have been enacted in
developing countries. For example, the National Policy for Women’s Advancement of
Bangladesh is to ensure equality of men and women in all spheres of national life, Women business
ensure security, education and empowerment, eliminate discriminations, and establish development
human rights of women (BBF, 2003). However, developing countries like Bangladesh
and others are still highly segregated societies based on gender and class (ADB, 2001).
Moreover, there are many laws and regulations in developing countries that women
found them difficult to comply with and they inhibit them from conducting business
(Marcellina et al., 2002). 209
One of the many problems that might confront women entrepreneurs is availability
and use of financial resources. Owing to woman social position and family
commitment, it is difficult to secure the required money to run her business. In line
with this, Carter et al. (2001) pointed out that women entrepreneurs find it difficult to
raise the start-up capital. The underlying fact of such difficulties is that women’s lack
access to financial resources because of their poor track record, lack of collateral, and
the financial institution’s own limitations (Ngozi, 2002). Thus, it would seem that
women entrepreneurs face more difficulties to begin and pursue business start-up
activities than their men counterparts.
Drawing from the above-reviewed research, this study examines ten variables
expected to influence women entrepreneurship development[1]. Details of the factors
employed in this study and their measures (outcomes) are reported in Table I.

Women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is an overpopulated country with poverty-stricken and limited resources.
The society is highly segregated based on gender and class. Location is dictated by
resources availability, services and opportunities. Nearly, half of the population of the
country constitutes women. In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of
women’s productive roles, mobility and contribution to the country’s development.
They have been found to contribute tremendously to their households and economy
and they have participated well in Bangladeshi society as teachers, lawyers,
journalists, politicians and as informal workers (ADB, 2001).
Although the educational status of women shows increasing trends, the literacy rate
among women remains in average nearly 10 percent less than the male citizen. The
university-educated women’s situation is not better than the illiterate women
population of the country. For instance, in 1999, female students accounted for more
than 31.42 percent of the total students of the public universities. On the other hand, the
share of the women teachers remained only 15.69 percent. Women’s participation in
private universities remained worse in the same year (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
– BBS, 1999; quoted Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries – DCCI, 2000).
The Constitution of Bangladesh pledges equal rights for all citizens, which is also
reflected in national and local plan and development policies. There are, however,
significant gender discrimination in all spheres and at all levels, as indicated by official
statistics on health, nutrition, education, employment, and political participation. For
instance, despite the quota that ensures women’s presence in local government and the
National Parliament, women still facing an ominous challenge. There has been a
growing influence of money in Bangladeshi politics, particularly in electoral politics,
which acts as a further constraint on women’s political participation since few women
have access to financial resources (ADB, 2001).
 17,3

210
IJOA

women’s
Table I.

development
Factors affecting

entrepreneurship
Factor Factor Vectors Vector title Measures

X1 Age v1 to v1n 15-20 years Measures the attitude of different age group in women’s involvement
21-30 years in business. It also shows the family responsibility of different
30-40 years age-group of women
40-50 years
þ 50 years
X2 Education v2 to v2n Below secondary education Measures capacity building aspects of the levels of education. It also
Secondary education explains the influence of education in decision making of women’s
Higher secondary education involvement in business
Diploma education
Graduate level education
Post-graduate education
X3 Socio-cultural v3 to v3n Relative and friend’s comments Explains the attitude towards women in business. The dominance of
Neighbors’ comments surrounded culture in women’s success in business
Religious aspects
Gender-related aspects
Social security
X4 Motivational v4 to v4n Financial and economic need Measures the critically of women’s business earnings in supporting
Desire of financial independent self and/or family. It also explains women’s attitude towards “business
as women’s career option”
X5 Market v5 to v5n Informal network Measures the women’s attitude towards building informal networks
informational Opportunity of success required for business success. It also shows their awareness about
opportunity of future business success
(continued)
Factor Factor Vectors Vector title Measures

X6 Business idea v6 to v6n Knowledge/skills/experience Analysis women’s attitude in transforming their interest/hobby into
Interest and hobbies knowledge generation for business. It also measures their attitude
Profit motive towards business competition, profit and resources availability
Conductive business environment
Availability of required resources
X7 Enterprise v7 to v7n Spouse occupation Shows women’s attitude towards their spouse/father’s occupation in
creational Fathers occupation involving business. The factor also measures their attitude for
Household responsibility supporting their children and husbands in residence
X8 Advocacy and v8 to v8n Participation in association Measures the women attitude towards participation in women’s
decision making Advocacy and voice association, current situation of advocacy, voice and decision making
Decision making
X9 Enabling v9 to v9n Government policy Analysis the women’s attitude and awareness about overall policies
environment Rule and regulations and regulations
Govt and non-government support
X10 Financial v10 to v10n Source of start-up capital Measures women’s awareness and attitude towards start-up capital,
Access to credit from banks access to credit and its availability and procedures
Access to credit from NGO
Access to credit from government
development
Women business

211

Table I.
IJOA Several studies have been carried out on either female or male or both entrepreneurs in
17,3 Bangladesh (Planning Commission, 1990; Khurshida, 1992; ILO, 1995; Quddus et al.,
1996; LFS, 1995/1996; ADB, 2001). The scope and findings of all these studies are
varying widely and incomparable to each other since they had different objectives
(Nilufer, 2001). However, based on a study of the BBS in 1999, women are largely
involved in the non-monetized sectors and in subsistence activities.
212 Women’s involvement is either as self-employed or employed in family-based
enterprises in the rural informal sector. Most of such enterprises are based on both
agricultural and non-agricultural sector. Agriculture is the pre-dominant source of
female employment in rural areas, and the traditional manufacturing sector holds
second position which is the habitual and hidden sources to family income. According
to a study conducted by the ADB (2001), within the formal sector, a large number of
women work in export-oriented industries such as garments, the source of 70 percent of
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange.
According to the LFS in 1996, quoted by DCCI, 2000, the entrepreneurship status of
women constitutes 8.3 percent, which is really small compared to men that reached
46.8 percent of the self-employed citizen. The situation in urban Bangladesh is, however,
a little better. In urban areas, nearly 15.4 percent of the 36.7 percent self-employed people
are women. In rural area, it is only 7.4 percent of 47.6 percent self-employed population.
The situation of unpaid family labor women in rural and urban areas which constitutes
83.2 and 42.9 percent, respectively, is even worse. Furthermore, a significant proportion
of poor women work as day laborers who are form a direct source of family income.
The government civil society including women organizations and NGOs have
bought forward women issues and interests onto the country’s development
agenda. As a result of such concerted efforts, women’s enterprises conditions are
improving gradually. Recently, women are entrepreneurs and own enterprises,
occupies top management and policy-making positions in both private and public
sector enterprises. Contrary to this, beforehand, women’s enterprises were cramped in
traditional gender dominated sectors, such as education, health, food and beverage,
webbing, tailoring, beauty-parlor, wholesale, and retail apparel trade.

Research approach
Data collection
As mentioned earlier, the main objective of this study is to identify factors that influence
women entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh. To achieve this objective, a
questionnaire that contains various aspects of entrepreneurship was designed. To
assess the suitability, readability, and understanding of the questionnaire, a pilot study
was undertaken by a group of Bangladeshi women who were invited to comment on an
early version of the questionnaire. Some of the comments received were useful and
incorporated in the final draft of the questionnaire. The English version of the
questionnaire was then translated from English to Bengali and verified by a linguist
specialist. The questionnaire was then ready for distribution. During the period between
August 15 and September 5, 2007, 300 copies of the questionnaire were distributed
among a random sample of Bangladeshi women in Dhaka city and its vicinities. A total
of 200 questioners were completed and returned. After screening the collected
questionnaires, it was evident that 34 questionnaires were not properly completed
(some of the main sections of the questionnaires were not completed by the participants)
and excluded from the analysis. Hence, this process resulted in a useful response rate of Women business
55 percent. development
To assess the reliability of the collected data, a reliability test was executed. The
Cronbach’s alpha for the collected data was 0.913[2]. In social studies research, 0.70 or
more Cronbach’s alpha value will be good enough to insure data reliability.
Although the conducted empirical analysis was based on the collected primary data,
secondary data have been used to construct supporting reviews of the study. The data are 213
obtained from publications, existing reports and web sites on the related area. This
includes annual and technical reports from government agencies, international
organizations, published, and unpublished articles as well as any other relevant
information.
The questionnaire survey employed in this study confines only to women population
who passed grade five and above as semi-educated or educated women respondents
group. The study also excludes homeless women or those who live in the slum urban
areas. The study employs ILO definition of small and micro-enterprises that are
employing ten to 49 and one to nine employees, respectively (see the review section for
details).

Model
As mentioned earlier, this study is set out to identify factors affecting urban women’s
self-enterprise development. The study adopts a quantitative and qualitative analyses
of these factors. The attempt is, therefore, made to estimate the following statistical
model:

X1 X1 X1 X1 X1 
W e ¼ f X 1 nv1; X 2 nv2; X 3 nv3; X 4 nv4 . . . X n nvn

where: We, women’s willingness in self-enterprise development; X1 to Xn, factors

affecting women’s enterprise development; v1 to v2, vectors by which the factors are
constructed.
In order to measure women’s willingness to be a self-entrepreneur, the rating
schedules used included strongly agree to strongly disagree carrying the scores 5 to 1.
Drawing from previous research, the current study will test ten factors. Details of
the factors employed in this study and expected measures (outcomes) of each factor are
depicted in Table I.

Results and discussions

Participants’ personal background
A summary of the participants’ background is reported in Table II. It is clear from
Table II that 44 percent of those who have participated in the survey are single and
54 percent are married. More than half of the participants indicated that they are
without work or housewives. However, only 11 percent of them showed that they are
self-employed. As predicted, 88 percent of the participants are Muslims. This reflects
the Islamic nature of Bangladesh. Since the questionnaire was mainly distributed in the
Capital city, 61 percent of the participants were from Dhaka. On the other hand, Table II
shows that only 44 percent of the participants have specific level of education
mainly from local academic institutions. This means that a major proportion of the
Bangladeshi women have low level of education.
IJOA
Variable Frequency % Cumulative %
17,3
Marital status
Single 77 43.5 43.5
Married 100 56.5 100.0
Experience
214 1-5 years 75 42.4 46.6
6-10 years 77 43.5 94.4
More than 10 years 9 5.1 100.0
Religion
Islam 155 87.6 87.6
Hindus 14 7.9 95.5
Christian 7 4.0 99.4
Others 1 0.6 100.0
Employment
Unemployment 33 18.6 18.6
Self-Employed 20 11.3 29.9
Housewife 61 34.5 64.4
Public Sector Employee 13 7.3 71.8
Private Sector Employee 50 28.2 100.0
Education specialization
No specialization 100 56.5 56.8
Business 5 2.8 59.7
Law 7 4.0 63.6
Education 25 14.1 77.8
Engineering 9 5.1 83.0
Other 30 16.9 100.0
Age
Less than 20 years 43 24.3 24.3
20-30 years 98 55.4 79.7
31-40 years 31 17.5 97.2
41-50 years 5 2.8 100.0
Place of living
Capital city 108 61.0 61.0
Outside capital city 68 38.4 99.4
Education level
Below secondary 46 26.0 26.0
Secondary 49 27.7 53.7
Diploma 5 2.8 56.5
BA and BCom 37 20.9 77.4
Table II. Job
Respondents’ Full time 157 88.7 94.6
background information Part time 8 4.5 99.4

Socio-cultural factors
A list of socio-economic factors that might affect women’s decision to develop their
own enterprises was included in the questionnaire and the participants were invited to
express the extent of their agreement with each of them. Analysis of the participants’
answers is summarized in Table III. It can be seen from the table that Bangladeshi
women seem to encounter problems in making their businesses in every step that they
make. This can be clearly noticed from the reported mean and median where almost all
participants either strongly agreed or agreed with this factor. Other factors such as
 Rank (based
No. Factor Mean Median SD Min. Max. on mean)

Socio-cultural
1 Socio-culture factors affects my involvement in self-business 3.32 3.0 1.35 1 5 2
2 Relative and friends comments affect my involvement in self-business 2.9 3.0 1.36 1 5 3
3 Neighbors comments affect my involvement in self-business 2.56 2.0 1.30 1 5 4
4 Religious binding affect my involvement in self-business 2.2 2.0 1.41 1 5 5
5 As a woman, I face problems in making business in every step that I take 4.10 5.00 1.41 1 5 1
Motivation
1 Availability of motivational factors will affect my decision to build self-enterprise 3.70 4 1.30 1 5 2
2 The desire for financial independence is the main factor of my involvement in
developing self-enterprise 4.61 5 0.77 1 5 1
Market and information network
1 Market network affect my decision to build self-enterprise 3.53 4.0 1.21 1 5 3
2 Informal network affect my involvement in developing self-enterprise 4.29 5.0 1.16 1 5 1
3 Market and informal network affect my decision to build self-enterprise 3.85 4.0 1.18 1 5 2
Advocacy and decision making
1 Participation in women association is important to my involvement in developing
self-enterprise 3.47 3.0 1.11 1 5 2
2 More advocacy and voice is important to my involvement in developing
self-enterprise 3.38 4.0 1.18 1 5 3
3 Decision making is important to my involvement in developing self-enterprise 4.39 5.0 0.94 1 5 1
Woman characteristics
1 Financial support is important to my involvement in developing self-enterprise 3.82 4.0 1.11 1 5 2
2 Start-up capital is important to my involvement in developing self-enterprise 4.18 4.0 0.96 1 5 1
3 Access to credit from banks is important to my involvement in developing
self-enterprise 3.06 3.0 1.30 1 4 4
4 Access to credit from non-governmental organization is important to my
involvement in developing self-enterprise 2.60 2.50 1.16 1 4 5
(continued)
development

women in Bangladesh
Factors that affect
Women business

business development by
Table III.
215
 17,3

216
IJOA

Table III.
Rank (based
No. Factor Mean Median SD Min. Max. on mean)

5 Access to credit from government is important to my involvement in developing

self-enterprise 3.40 3.0 1.37 1 5 3
Family status
1 Business ideas affect my involvement in self-enterprise 3.51 4.0 1.28 1 5 4
2 Knowledge/skills/experience affect my involvement in developing self-enterprise 4.24 5.0 1.08 1 5 1
3 My interest and hobbies affect my involvement in developing self-enterprise 4.14 5.0 1.20 1 5 2
4 Profit motive affect my involvement in developing self-enterprise 3.67 4.0 1.09 1 5 3
5 Conductive business environment (competition) affect my involvement in developing
self-enterprise 2.84 3.0 1.15 1 5 6
6 Availability of required resources affect my involvement in developing
self-enterprise 2.91 3.0 1.38 1 5 5
Financial
1 Spouse occupation affect my involvement in developing self-enterprise 3.0 3.0 1.37 1 5 3
2 Father’s occupation affects my involvement in developing self-enterprise 3.16 3.0 1.37 1 5 2
3 Responsibility for children and husband in residence affect my involvement in
developing self-enterprise 4.01 4.0 1.20 1 5 1
neighbors and relatives comments do have impact on women entrepreneurs in Women business
Bangladesh. Religion appears to have the lowest impact on a woman’s decision to development
become an entrepreneur. This result lends support to the outcome of a study
undertaken by Al-Lamky (2005) and covered Bahrain and Oman. In this study, they
found religion has no impact on women’s decision to become self-employed.

Motivational factors 217

Out of the two motivational factors presented to the participants in the questionnaire
survey, the desire for financial independence received high degree of agreement as
indicated in Table III. A significant percentage of the participants showed that they
strongly agreed with this factor. This factor provides women with self-fulfillment and
enhances their social position.

Market and informational network factors

The literature review indicated that women tend to face problems in moving around
freely in the market. They encounter difficulties in establishing the right network with
customers, suppliers and banks. This factor has been put to the participants and they
were asked to express the degree of their agreement with each of them. The results of
their answers are shown in Table III. It is evident from the table that Bangladeshi
women encountering market and informal network obstacles in developing
self-enterprise. This result is documented by the reported means and medians. The
result is in line with previous research undertaken by Granovetter (1985), Aldrich and
Zimmer (1986) Burt (2000) and Al-Lamky (2005). In this context, Lin (1999) contended
that women’s network is generally restricted to family connections which can be
counterproductive in business terms.

Advocacy and decision-making factors

A number of factors that may emphasize the role of women in developing enterprises
including their membership in women associations were asked to see whether they
affect the respondents decisions in starting their own businesses. There was consensus
among the participants that decision making is important to their involvement in
developing self-enterprises as reflected by the reported mean, median and the relatively
low standard deviation. There was less agreement on the relationship between women
membership in associations and their role in business development. This result
emphasizes the fact that women tend to get involved in self-enterprises to ensure
self-fulfillment. The result is in line with previous studies. For example, empirical
evidence from Islamic countries as Bahrain and Oman revealed that self-fulfillment
motivated women to become entrepreneurs (Al-Lamky, 2005).

Women characteristics
Another factor that appeared in the literature to affect women involvement in
self-business is their characteristics. Women’s knowledge, skills, experience, ability to
find opportunities (new business ideas), interest, and hobbies are all factors that can
influence women entrepreneurs. These questions were asked to explore whether they
have any impact on their decision to become self-employed. It can be observed from
Table III that the participants almost totally agreed that their knowledge, skills,
experience, interest, and hobbies are all important to their decision to become
IJOA self-employed. Although the resulted median of the business ideas factor pointed to an
17,3 agreement among the participants that this can be a determinant factor of women
involvement in businesses enterprises. The resulted mean, however, seem to give
conflicting result.

Family status
218 Another factor documented in the literature to be a major factor that dictates women
decision to become self-employed is family commitments. For instance, spouse and
father’s occupation might play a major role in the development of a woman business.
Responsibilities towards children are another factor that can affect a woman’s decision
to start a business enterprise. The outcome of the analysis reported in Table III pointed
to responsibility towards children as the main factor that may deter women in
Bangladesh from launching their own businesses. This result is consistent with
previous research undertaken in different countries such as: Ivory Coast, Ethiopia,
Mali, Morocco, Senegal, Zimbabwe – de Groot (2001) and Sweden – Holmquist and
Sundin (2002)). Factors such as spouse and father’s positions do not seem to be an issue
for women in Bangladesh. The fact that most of the women who took part in the survey
are educated or semi-educated and they are unemployed means that they are coming
from middle class families. The high rate of single women participating in the survey
makes it irrelevant when they were asked about their spouses. Thus, spouses and
fathers have no influence on women involvement in business development in
Bangladesh.

Financial resources
The participants were asked to express their level of agreement with availability of
financial resources to start their business enterprises. Table III shows that it is
important for women in Bangladesh to obtain financial support and to secure a start-up
capital before launching their own businesses. Given that the vast majority of the
participants are without work or housewives, it is going to be difficult for them to
secure a start up capital or even to find any source of finance. In this regard, Carter et al.
(2001) made the point that women entrepreneurs find it difficult to raise the start-up
capital since they do not have the required wealth; they cannot secure the required
collateral to obtain a bank’s loan; due to their social position they cannot establish
financial network available to men and they cannot establish good relationships with
banks since they encounter gender discrimination and stereotyping.

Results of the regression analysis

To establish the relationship between women business development and the factors
discussed in this study, a stepwise regression was executed. Under the stepwise
regression model, a procedure is built to select predictor variables one by one that
allows the most significant variable to enter at each step. Significant explanatory
variables are included in the final regression mode. The result of the regressions is
presented in Table IV. It is evident from the table that factors such as women’s
membership in associations was negatively and significantly affects women decision
to develop a business. The factor accounted for 29 percent of women’s decision on
whether to get involved in developing their own businesses. Another factor that
appeared to be positively and significantly associated with a women’s decision in
 Women business
B t-statistics Significance
development
Model 1
Constant 4.949 0.000
Participation in women associations 20.580 2 2.667 0.018
F ¼ 7.13 Sign. F ¼ 0.018 Adj. R 2 ¼ 0.29
Model 2 219
Constant 3.423 0.005
Participation in women associations 20.944 2 4.212 0.001
Advocacy and decision making 0.611 2.727 0.017
F ¼ 8.910 Sign. F ¼ 0.004 Adj. R 2 ¼ 0.513
Model 3
Constant 5.842 0.000
Participation in women associations 20.898 2 5.463 0.000
Advocacy and decision making 0.866 4.830 0.000
Knowledge 20.543 2 3.508 0.004 Table IV.
F ¼ 15.208 Sign. F ¼ 0.000 Adj. R 2 ¼ 0.740 Regression analysis

developing their businesses was advocacy of decision making (self-fulfillment). This

factor accounted for more that 22 percent of the variations in the women decision as
reflected by the reported adjusted R 2. The last factor that appeared to be negatively
and significantly correlated with a women’s decision to become entrepreneurs is their
knowledge. This factor also appeared to explain 22 percent of women decision’s to take
part in business development.
The result of the regression analysis is not surprising. Women actively
participating in women’s association may have little time to start-up or run their
own businesses. These women are viewed as being politically active. Hence, they have
little incentive to develop their own businesses. Another reason might be that there is a
negative perception on those who are actively participating in women association in
terms of existing socio-cultural point of view. Knowledgeable women tend to join the
education sector. This profession separates males from females and many conservative
families want to see the daughters joining this sector. The only positive and significant
factor that appeared to affect a women’s decision in developing their own businesses is
advocacy of decision making (self-fulfillment). It is very likely that rich women or
women coming from the middle class or upper class to specialize in business studies
rather than specializing in education. They try to realize self-fulfillment by developing
their own businesses. They have the academic qualifications and the financial means
to launch their own businesses. Middle and upper class families tend to be less
conservative than poor families. Hence, these women receive social as well as financial
support from their families. Since their parents and relatives have developed good
relationships with bank managers and suppliers, they will find it easy to find their way
to different sources of finance and to suppliers. After all, banks managers as well as
suppliers will rely on the fathers’ or an influential relative’s name to lend them money
or to deal with them.

Conclusion
This study set out to investigate business development by women in Bangladesh.
A number of factors captured by previous studies were tested in this empirical study.
IJOA Descriptive statistics showed that the following factors affect women decision towards
17,3 business development: desire for financial independence and decision making; market
and informational network availability of a start-up capital; knowledge, skills and
experience; and responsibility towards children. On the other hand, the regression
analysis showed that factors such as women membership in professional associations,
advocacy and decision making (self-fulfillment) and women knowledge were the main
220 factors influencing women decisions to become self-employed. These three factors
were responsible for 75 percent of women business development decisions. The result
of the analysis seems to point out that business development is almost completely
restricted to middle and upper class women. In realty, these two categories of social
classes in Bangladesh account for a small proportion of the total population. Hence, a
significant proportion of the Bangladeshi society is not taking part in business
development. To increase women involvement in the economic development of
Bangladesh, the government together with the NGOs operating in Bangladesh should
target this group of women who have the potential to start up their own business but
they are deprived due to the lack of financial resources or social values prevent them
from developing their own businesses. Religious leaders can also play an active role in
incorporating women in the economic development of Bangladesh.
The adjustment and/or improvement of aforesaid factors enhance women
entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh. A concerted effort from the
government, NGOs, civil society and local community is therefore considered necessary.
It should be emphasized that the focus of this study was on the semi-educated or
educated women living in the capital city of Dhaka. To give a clear picture of factors
that may affect women business development in Bangladesh, women representing
other parts of the country should be included in the survey of a future study. A future
study that identifies a number of successful women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh and
the reason behind their success can help policy makers formulating their strategy
towards incorporating women in future economic development of the country.

Notes
1. The choice of the ten variables was based on the fact that these variables were heavily
investigated in previous studies. Exploring the same factors provides a legitimate ground for
comparison.
2. The main reason for determining the Cronbach’s alpha is to assess the reliability of the
respondents’ answers to all sections of the questionnaire, rather than specific sections of the
questionnaire.

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About the authors

Amzad Hossain is an Assistant Professor of Economics and Chairman of Finance and Banking
Department, Al Ain University of Science and Technology, UAE. He has also worked as an
Assistant Professor and/or Lecturer at the Ajman University, UAE; Multimedia University,
Malaysia; and National University of Malaysia. He also possesses three years of industry
experience in community development. He has published nine research papers in international
reputed journals including Emerald journals. He has presented and published about 25 research
papers at international and national conferences around the world. He has also undertaken
consultancy projects at private sectors. His research interests covers sustainable business, small
business and regional economic developments. Amzad Hossain is the corresponding author and
can be contacted at: amzad4@yahoo.com
Kamal Naser is a full Professor of Accounting and Finance with more than 25 years of
academic experience in universities operating in Palestine, UK, Qatar, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait,
Libya, and UAE. He has also held many administrative positions such as Head of Department,
IJOA College Dean, and Vice-president at several universities. He is an active researcher and published
more than 45 research papers in reputable international academic journals. He is also serving on
17,3 the editorial board of a number of international academic journals. He was also involved in many
consultancy projects commissioned by the UNDP, ODA, and Kuwait Fund. His research covers
the areas of corporate social responsibility and corporate disclosure, financial sector’s
contribution to economic development, women entrepreneurship in the Arab countries,
determinants of dividend policy, Middle-East banking and finance and Middle-Eastern stock
224 markets.
Asif Zaman is a Lecturer at the College of Business Administration, Al Ain University of
Science and Technology.
Rana Nuseibeh is a Link Officer at the National Health Service (NHS), Cardiff, UK. She has
published research papers in a number of international academic journals.

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