Factors influencing women’s entrepreneurial success: A multi-analytical approach

Abstract

Read online

Women entrepreneurs are significant contributors to the economic development of any country and their role becomes more vital in improving the economic condition of developing countries. This highlights the important role of women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their entrepreneurial success. Therefore, the current study extends the entrepreneurship literature by examining the effects of factors like personality traits (PT), motivation and commitment (MC), availability of financial resources (AFR), and government support (GS) on entrepreneurial success (ES) of women-owned SMEs. Using a purposive sampling technique data from 255 women-owned SMEs were collected. A multi-analytical approach was employed to analyze the data. The Structural equation modeling (SEM) results indicated that PT, MC, AFR, and GS have a direct effect of ES whereas MC also mediated the link between PT and ES, and the results reveal that in presence of MC the effects of PT on ES become more significant. SEM results revealed that PT and AFR are the most important factors related to entrepreneurial success. On the contrary, ANN analysis revealed that “motivation and commitment” is the most influencing factor. These findings can guide business practitioners and policymakers in the envisioned strategy formulation to encourage women entrepreneurs who can contribute to their country’s sustainable economic growth.

Keywords

• entrepreneurial success
• female entrepreneurship
• influencing factors
• structural equation model
• artificial neural network
• Pakistan