Motivational factors for Women Entrepreneurship in the Patriarchal

Pakistan Society

Introduction:

The number of women entrepreneur are lower than men’s. But, the percent of women
entrepreneurs is higher in countries where the general income per capita is small and where
women have no other option for making a living (Pines.ma, Lerner, & Schwartz, 2014).

There are several opportunities for women entrepreneurship at micro, meso and macro levels
of the society. The women entrepreneurs identified opportunities for their new business
ventures through various mechanisms, including work experience in the same field or
personal aspirations sometimes influenced by friends and husbands. The opportunities
women entrepreneurs face were mostly identified at the micro level (e.g. opportunity
identification and strong motivation), and are related to personal characteristics of self-
efficacy, resilience and autonomy (Jamali, 2009).

Entrepreneurial motivation is seen as objectives and goals that entrepreneurs seek to achieve
through business ownership. These entrepreneurial objectives are presumed to determine the
behavioral patterns of the entrepreneurs and indirectly, the success of their business
(Robichaud, McGraw, & Roger, 2001).

Motivation is the set of forces that initiate behavior and determine its form, direction,
intensity and duration (Okafor, & Amalu, 2010).

Reasons for motivation in contrast to developed countries are little bit different in the sense
that these reasons involve pull (needing a challenge, wanting to try something on their own,
to be independent or show others that they are capable of doing well in business, interest in a
particular craft and having time on their hands to pursue their interests) as well as push
(financial rewards, to help the family financially or because their husbands are unemployed)
factors (Das, 2012)

One of the reasons for starting a business are to increase income, to obtain job security, and to
secure independence (Benzing, Cbu.HM, & Kara, 2009). Increased participation of women in
the labor force is posing a number of challenges. Among other challenges, managing work
and family responsibilities is one of the most significant challenges women face (Frone.mr,
Russel, & Cooper, 1992).

However, the legacy of gendered organizational culture combined with personal and
domestic circumstances and the need to gain independence and control plays an important
part in women decision to change direction and to get motivation to think out of the box for
some innovative ideas. The original motivation for entering entrepreneurship were not being
satisfied by the jobs careers (Patterson, 2007).

Huge number of studies are being conducted on the challenges faced by the women
entrepreneurs and motivations. But emphasis of study of motivational factors for women
entrepreneurs in the countries where general per capita income is small or are developing
countries and are patriarchal societies such as Pakistan. Therefore, this study focus on the
motivational factors for women entrepreneurship in the patriarchal society of Pakistan. As
ongoing national efforts to alleviate poverty in developing countries in relation to the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Greater opportunities for women to become
entrepreneurs will help much in poverty reduction (Tambunan, 2009). The aim of this study is
to explore the motivational factors for women entrepreneurship in the Pakistan where men
are considered to be the main ruler. The purpose of the study is to explore the motivational
factor for entrepreneurship in order to enable the women to exploit these motivational factors
to become successful entrepreneurs and contribute to the economy and society.

Literature Review:

Lack of Equality

In three studies on gender and entrepreneurship conducted in Israel in recent years, the
majority of the findings showed few or no gender differences. These findings reinforce the
explanation for women’s entrepreneurial inferiority as resulting from social and economic
exclusion and lack of equality, whose influence tends to grow stronger in times of economic
crisis. From the perspective of diversity, equality and inclusion, entrepreneurship can be
viewed as having the potential of becoming the mean of economic inclusion for women and
other marginalized groups (such as the Arabs in Israel), especially in low-income countries, in
which they suffer from lack of equal opportunities and social exclusion (Pines.MA, Lerner, &
Schwartz, 2014)

Push and Pull Factors

Like many other entrepreneurs around the world, the primary motivations for starting a
business are to increase income and obtain job security. These income motivations dominate
the internal reward motivations related to independence and intrinsic motives. If
entrepreneurs are motivated primarily by income potential, then increasing the profitability of
business ownership should encourage more SME start-ups. Simplifying registration/licensing,
revising the labor code, and reducing payroll taxes are a few ways to increase business
income and encourage further SME development (Benzing, Cbu.HM, & Kara, 2009).

At micro-level factors, the women entrepreneurs identified opportunities for their new
business ventures through various mechanisms, including work experience in the same field
or personal aspirations sometimes influenced by friends and husbands. In terms of push
factors, labor market discrimination and frustration with gender pay discrepancies and glass
ceiling barriers, the need for a double income to sustain the family were the motivational
factors. Various pull factors were the pursuit of challenge, creativity, and financial
independence (Jamali, 2009).
There is some controversy in corporate literature dealing with the level of education of
women business owners. Certain research papers (Brush 1992; Singh et al.2001) conclude
that women business owners have a better overall education than the majority of the
population, including their male counterparts (Cowling and Taylor (). While others (Hisrich
and Brush 1983; Birley et al. 1987; Naranjo-Valencia et al. ) conclude that the overall level of
education of business owners is the same, regardless of sex, and that any real differences that
do exist refer to the type of education received (Verheul and Thurik ; Yang and Li 2011). The
debate stems from the fact that generally speaking, the studies carried out to date use very
small sample sizes within a very specific geographical area.
As far as the types of education are concerned, Lee and Rogoll (1997) state that women
business owners, for the most part, are successful in higher education and are satisfied with
the education received. Nevertheless, this is once again a matter that generates a great deal of
debate. On the one hand, certain researchers (Neider 1987; Dolinsky et al.1993) conclude that
the benefits of training received by men business owners are greater than those of their
female counterparts: Whereas the former have mostly graduated in technical or business-
related studies, women opt for less specialized

This study clears that the entrepreneurs always reconciled a push factor away from
employment with a follow up pull factor towards entrepreneurship, for example a push factor
relating to a gendered nature of organizational culture would be given followed by a domestic
or personal factor that enticded the women towards entrepreneurship. It is no longer enough
to suggest that theses women either jumped the corporate ship or gained new wings.
Therefore, it was clear there were number of factors that the women considered before
making the career transition with no one dominant factor but a combination. Three
interrelated themes emerged from the women narratives; domestic/personal circumstances,
gendered organizational culture, and a need for independence and control (Patterson, 2007).

Women are motivated by reconciling the demands of work and family. Women entrepreneurs
are likely to cite wanting to achieve a better work/life balance, thereby reflecting the
stereotypical view that it is women who ultimately have to juggle employment or
entrepreneurship with caring responsibilities (Humbert.AL, & Drew, 2010).

UAE women entrepreneurs start their businesses with the primary motivation of proving
themselves, being independent, or being their own bosses (Itani, Sidani, & Baalbaki, 2009).
 H0.
Push Factors
(Increase Income,
Job Security, Labor
market
discripencies).

Entrepreneural
Motivation

Pull Factors
(pursuit of
challenge, creativity,
and financial
independence).

Push and Pull factors are not positively associated with women entrepreneurship motivation.
H1. Push Factors are positively associated with women entrepreneurship motivation.
H2. Pull Factors are positively associated with women entrepreneurship motivation.

Methodology:

The methodology adapted for this research is quantitative in nature. A survey has been
conducted in which 100 questionnaires are being filled from the selected samples.
After collecting data, as data is primary, the analysis will be done through SPSS, and PLS-
SEM for testing hypothesis which are obtained from literature review. The sample selected
will be all women business entrepreneurs in any field of business or any type of business.
Data will be collected through mails, face to face, by hand or any other possible way in which
the data can be calculated. The help of online questionnaire will also be taken to lower help in
data collection procedure. For data analysis by the use of SPSS and PLS-SEM regression,
reliability and validity will be checked.
Findings:

By the help of two SPSS and PLS-SEM, regression analysis, reliability and validity was
being done. The results are as follows:

Regression Analysis:
The results of regression analysis shows that the R square of the study is above 60% which
means that the Pull and Push factors are the main reasons for motivation for women
entrepreneurship in the patriarchal society of Pakistan.
Results of T-test were also significant which says that both the independent variables (pull
and push factors) significantly influence the dependent variable (motivation).
According to F-test results pull and push factors jointly affect the motivation of women
entrepreneurship in the patriarchal society of Pakistan.

Reliability Analysis:
Reliability of the data is checked through SPSS. As Chronbash Alpha is a measure of
reliability, its results shows that the data is reliable and consistent.

Validity Analysis:
KMO test is being used for checking the validity of the data. Which shows that the collected
data is valid and the questionnaire used for the research is accurate.

Conclusion:
As this study is being conducted in the context of patriarchal society of Pakistan, it is
concluded than like other developing countries where the reasons for women
entrepreneurship motivation is due to push and pull factors, in Pakistan the factors behind the
motivation of women entrepreneurship is the combination of both, means that there is a
desire in women’s for empowerment and self-actualization and self-esteem as well as need to
earn money and to deal with the problem of gender inequality.
Pakistani women have very strong desire and also there is a need to meet the problems they
face. Both the pull and push factors strongly influence the Pakistani women to become a
women entrepreneur.

Recommendations:

This study is unique as there are very less studies of this nature are being conducted in the
context of patriarchal society of Pakistan. So, this study can become a base for further
research on this issue. Researchers can manipulate the sample size and can insert any
theoretical lens in their research to conduct further research on this issue. One theoretical lens
which can be proposed is the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory of motivation.

References:
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Tambunan, T. (2009), “Women entrepreneurship in Asian developing countries: Their

development and main constraints”, Journal of Development and Agricultural Economics,
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Pines, A.M., Lerner, M. and Schwartz, D. (2010), “Gender differences in entrepreneurship:

Equality, diversity and inclusion in times of global crisis”, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:
An International Journal, Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 186-198.

Tambunan, T. (2009), “Women entrepreneurship in Asian developing countries: Their

development and main constraints”, Journal of Development and Agricultural Economics,
Vol. 1(2), pp. 027-040.

Benzing, C., Cbu, H.M. and Kara, O. (2009), “Entrepreneurs in Turkey: A Factor Analysis of
Motivations, Success Factors, and Problems”, Journal of Small Business Management, Vol.
47(1), pp. 58–91.

Humbert, A.L. and Drew, E. (2010), “Gender, entrepreneurship and motivational factors in an
Irish context”, International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 173-
196.

Jamali, D. (2009), “Constraints and opportunities facing women entrepreneurs in developing

countries. A relational perspective”, Gender in Management: An International Journal, Vol.
24 No. 4, pp. 232-251.