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Performance
Performance-oriented factors for oriented
women entrepreneurs – a scale factors

development perspective
Pooja Jha and Munish Makkad 329
Department of Management, Birla Institute of Technology, Noida, India, and
Received 1 August 2017
Sanjiv Mittal Revised 1 November 2017
14 November 2017
Department of Management, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Accepted 14 November 2017
New Delhi, India

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to conceptualize, develop and validate a scale reflecting performance
dimensions of women entrepreneurs. The study intends to address the important aspects of women
entrepreneur such as identifying factors influencing performance of women entrepreneur in emerging
economies including India, and to develop a reliable and valid scale for measuring performance from women
entrepreneurs’ perspective, which will help to explain the phenomena of entrepreneurship among women by
using a holistic approach.
Design/methodology/approach – In-depth literature reviews were conducted to identify manifest item
measuring the latent scale dimensions. Semi-structured interview with women entrepreneurs also contributed
toward item generation. A total of 1,032 valid and usable questionnaires were used for the final statistical data
analysis. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) also conducted to confirm factors-item composition considered
for the study.
Findings – A final scale comprising six dimensions of entrepreneurial performance has been developed.
These dimensions are business environment, motivation (pull/push), training and skill development,
networking and market information, socio–cultural and financial. Dimensions are reflecting perception of
women entrepreneurs on performance. Psychometrically properties of the proposed scale were tested and the
model fitness was established through CFA.
Research limitations/implications – The proposed scale will be beneficial for both existing and
nascent entrepreneurs toward gaining awareness regarding what accounts for their performance
enhancement in the respective ventures undertaken. At the same time, the finding carries implications for
regulatory bodies and policymakers as well, which are engaged in drafting guidelines catering to the
development of women entrepreneurship in respective economies.
Originality/value – The authors believe that the proposed scale offers superior ability to explain factors
that affect the performance of women entrepreneurs in emerging economies such as India.
Keywords Performance, Scale development, Developing economies, Women entrepreneurship
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Women represent about 50 per cent of world’s population and have shown their
remarkable presence in the labor force for the past two decades. Despite being equal in
number as well as taking part in economic activities, there are big differences in the
Journal of Entrepreneurship in
results they achieve or wages they earn. Frumen (2016), in a report submitted to the Emerging Economies
World Bank, concluded that smaller percentage of women compared to men are involved Vol. 10 No. 2, 2018
pp. 329-360
in a trade or self-registered companies; also, they are more involved in low productivity © Emerald Publishing Limited
2053-4604
or informal employment. DOI 10.1108/JEEE-08-2017-0053
JEEE A global concern for ameliorating the status of women has been expressed and
10,2 deliberated in many ways. There is no doubt that women all over the world have made
tremendous progress (Kabeer, 2012). A recent study estimates that by 2025, the world gross
domestic product (GDP) growth will spur to around $28tn provided equal opportunities are
given to both the gender. Their socio–economic status has improved; however, problems
persist in the context of their health, marriage, education, employment, social equality, social
330 discrimination, violence and atrocities committed against them. This causes a global
concern for women empowerment. In India, the later part of the 1980s witnessed an
unprecedented spur in policy perspectives on women (Singh and Belwal, 2008).
Entrepreneurship and enterprises contribute to emerging economies in several ways: as
an important way-out to change innovative ideas into startup opportunities, revival of social
networks, new employment and upscale productivity. For emerging economies, it is more
important to have a balanced approach toward national framework conditions and
entrepreneurial framework condition depending upon their desired economic development
(Acs, 2006). Such economies present both economic opportunities and challenges. Increasing
entrepreneurial activities can be viewed as a way to improve access to economic
opportunities for women in emerging economies. There is a huge potential to improve global
economic conditions through a better understanding of the tools that empower these women
entrepreneurs. This emanates from the fact that 224 million women worldwide are actively
pursuing their own business (Kelley et al., 2012).
India currently ranks 70 out of 77 nations on the Female Entrepreneurship Index, but
moving up that index might not be as complex as it seems. Long-term structural reforms are
required, but in the short term, there are a few examples from around the globe, which
indicate how targeted policy measures can deliver specific goals even when the rest of the
infrastructure (such as ease of doing business, access to credit facilities and affordable
childcare) may not be in place. Further, a study by Ghani et al. (2016) finds an apparent
pattern of gender segmentation in both manufacturing and services in India. About 90 per
cent of employees in women-owned business in unorganized manufacturing are women.
Sub-optimal results emanating from women’s performance is a matter of concern for
both developed and developing economies. There are several reasons behind low outcome,
including socio–cultural norms, business environment, lack of infrastructure and
unawareness. Research on women entrepreneurs and factors that influences their
performance has been extensively carried out in developed countries, which help them
gaining knowledge about noble business concepts and guide them toward success path. But
such investigations are majorly in the context of developed economies with scant research
pertaining to emerging/developing economies (Lerner et al., 1997).
The idea and practice of women entrepreneurs is not a recent phenomenon, but nurturing
it in a way to achieve economic gains and social development is emerging as a new trend.
Considering the above view, the present study aims at focusing on factors that help them
in establishing a stable business. Developing countries vary widely on social structure,
family ethos, work style and institutional policies that are not gender specific. Such
disparity affects women’s access to entrepreneurial opportunities and affects her
performance (OECD, 2000). Women entrepreneurs facing structural barriers on these
grounds will have a debatable impact on the performance of their venture. Moreover, in
developing economies, these factors vary with social, technical, economic and political
conditions and create specific barriers that arguably impacts women entrepreneurs’
performance and provide a suitable environment. A number of researchers (Brush et al.,
2004; Minniti et al., 2005) pointed out that research investigations that can help in
understanding factors influencing growth and performance of women entrepreneurs at the Performance
local level are required from the build-up to the survival stage. oriented
In developing countries, women entrepreneurs encounter two major challenges: First,
business identity as a formal registered unit, and second, lacking access to potential
factors
opportunities to promote business. Thus, a strong support from the environment and
policies enables women to establish business and create employment (ILO, 2007). A decent
number of researches were undertaken to examine factors that impact women’s
performance in developed countries (Inman, 1999; Smith-Hunter, 2003; Morris, 2001; Smith- 331
Hunter and Engelhardt, 2004). On the basis of studies from developed economies, many
research activities are taking place in countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and
Tanzania (ILO, 2007; OECD, 2000; Stein et al., 2013; Naser et al., 2009; Hossain et al., 2009;
Shah, 2013). Developing economies are still struggling for setting up culture for women
entrepreneurs, especially in a country such as India, where women have to continually battle
with their economic status and existing social norms. In India, women entrepreneurs make
notable augmentation to the economy, contributing 3.90 per cent of industrial output and
representing a labor force of nearly 8 million people (IFC Mckinsey, 2011). Women
consistently have been launching new enterprises at twice the rate of men, though these are
largely skewed toward smaller-sized enterprises. Many organizations and researchers are
working to find out the best suitable gender-specific environment for women to start their
enterprise and sustain it with optimum growth, but most of the researches stress upon only
a few factors of women entrepreneurs’ performance in developing economies; consequently,
a holistic approach is missing in most of the investigations done thus far.
Although a few studies have been carried out on women entrepreneurs’ performance,
explored literature review clearly suggests that in developing economies, not many quality
studies have been carried out so far on entrepreneur performances. The available researches
on women entrepreneurs have, by and large, focused on their demographics and the
problems they face while establishing their enterprise. Socio–cultural aspects found as a
predominant factor. Moreover, the researchers majorly focus on the issues of women
entrepreneurs from formal sectors only. India, admittedly, lacks computerized database, and
owing to the irregularity of maintenance data pertaining to entrepreneur’s profile causes
nullity (Singh 1993; Cohen, 1996; Biswas, 2000; Ganesan et al., 2002; Suganthi, 2009;
Bharathi, 2009; Tlaiss, 2013).
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the most comprehensive work on individual
factors affecting the performance of women entrepreneurs in developing economies was
noted in literature by Lerner et al., (1997); Runyan et al. (2008); and Hossain et al. (2009),
which had identified factors and proposed conceptual framework. However, even these
studies have certain lacks and limitations, although each study identified a few factors that
affect the performance of women entrepreneurs and its business in developing economies.
Factors identified by Lerner et al. (1997) and Hossain et al. (2009) were not validated using
structural equation modeling (SEM). Another research by (Runyan et al., 2008) provides
important insights for scale development and validation conducted in a developed nation
such as the USA on entrepreneurial orientation, but not specifically on women
entrepreneurs. Another research was conducted by Krishnan and Kamalanabhan (2013) on
the scale development for women entrepreneurial attitude and competencies; this study also
suffers from limitations such as focusing majorly on demographics with a small sample size
of 200 women entrepreneurs drawn from selected districts of Karnataka, India. So, the
results of the study cannot be generalized. Nevertheless, this research takes to the fore
Indian women entrepreneurs’ perspective, understand their condition and highlight the
same to research fraternity and practitioners. A synoptic view of the existing literature
JEEE suggests that there is a dearth of studies on factors performance of women entrepreneurs in
10,2 developing economies. The current study additionally highlights the importance of
examining the variability and measurement of factors which impact the performance of
women entrepreneurs in developing economies such as India.
The significant questions we aim to address here are, first, how women entrepreneurship
propagates in developing economies. Although women entrepreneurship have been studied
332 and discussed by many researchers, their understanding of the connection between factors
and performance had often been unclear. Thus, our research explains the phenomena of
entrepreneurship among women by using a holistic approach with reference to developing
economies such as India. Our second research question involves identifying factors that
influence the women entrepreneurs’ performance and differences among performance
factors in developed and developing economies. Finally, as a third endeavor, the present
study aims to develop a reliable and valid performance-oriented scale from the women
entrepreneurs’ perspective. We address these research questions and new instrument
development process within the context of the literature based on factors affecting women
entrepreneurs (Jamali, 2009; Hisrich and Brush, 1985; Brush and Chaganti, 1998 and
Krishnan and Kamalanabhan, 2013).
In the view of the above discussion, the aim of the present study is to explore the
prevalence of entrepreneurship among women in developing economies and to identify the
factors that influence women entrepreneurs’ performance in developing economies. Further,
the research aims at developing and testing a multi-factor performance assessment scale
from the women entrepreneurs’ point of view. This research intends to make a wider
contribution in view of the rapidly changing business trend and technology. Women would
prefer to enter self-employment or will be compelled to do so in an economic reforms
scenario. The study attempts to gauge the perception of women entrepreneurs toward the
environmental opportunities with a view to enhance their business prospect, in both formal
and informal sectors. This will lead to the wider generalizability of the results.
The present research will provide clear grounds on the determinants influencing the
performance of women entrepreneurs in developing economies, thereby contributing toward
gender-specific entrepreneurial policy formulations. This will additionally provide insight
toward the designing of an entrepreneurial development program, provision of supportive
mechanisms, financial assistance and vocational counseling in developing economy such as
India.
This paper is organized as follows. We initiate by introducing women entrepreneurs’
current international status and factors in Section 1 that influence performance in
developing economies. Section 2 provides the review of the extant literature; Section 3
provides the scale development methodology; Section 4 details the statistical analysis and
findings; and discussion and conclusion and implications are given in Section 5. Finally, the
study concludes by offering limitations and directions for future research.

2. Related studies/literature review

Without a straight and systematic definition of an entrepreneur, the challenges and gap will
always remain there to understand the entrepreneurial phenomenon (Hoang and Antoncic,
2003). Mostly, researchers and academicians identify entrepreneurs as risk-takers (Moore
et al., 1999). There are definitions that describe entrepreneurship as a chain of actions an
entrepreneur undertakes to set up the enterprise. A person with an ability to develop profit-
making business with available opportunities is considered as an entrepreneur (Hurley,
1999; Walokar, 2001). All the definitions presented so far by academicians and researcher
lack depth and dimensions. Also, these definitions cover the single aspect of
entrepreneurship and not the whole canvas. With such variety of definitions, it’s difficult to Performance
co-relate women entrepreneurs with this phenomenon (Heald-Fisher, 2010). oriented
The participation of women in economic activities has increased over the years, and they
have become clearly visible in small-scale industries (Stein et al., 2013). Also, gender
factors
differences are clearly visible around entrepreneurship (Moores, 2009).
As per the report by (EU, 2008), women entrepreneurs face three major barriers:
(1) economic (financial credibility); 333
(2) contextual (social and cultural issues); and
(3) soft issues (education and human capital).

There has been a remarkable increase in the numbers of women-owned enterprises in the
past one decade globally (Marlow and McAdam, 2013). In India, women entrepreneurs are
rapidly launching new enterprises, mainly small scale units; still, the participation and
success rate are significantly lower than Latin America and European countries (World
Bank, 2010). In an attempt to improve the situation, Indian Government agencies have
introduced several schemes for women entrepreneurs.
In past two decades, academic research on women entrepreneurship in developed
economies studied the main themes such as characteristics, motivation, barriers,
networking, finance, business performance and growth (Carter and Marlow, 2003). These
studies provide a wider description of a group of women business owners who had been
neglected for long by researchers and authorities. Although a number of studies also
suggested that starting and setting up a business is equally harder for both men and
women, others had cited that men have certain advantages over women (Birley, 1989).
Women entrepreneurship in developing economies is actually a new phenomenon,
although rapidly growing worldwide (GEM 2004). The lack of studies on entrepreneurship
in developing economies is why research on women entrepreneurs is presumably less and
also motivated by prejudices against women in developing economies is being an
entrepreneur. Earlier women entrepreneurs tend to be a part of traditional sectors of small
rural enterprises with fewer growth opportunities (Brush, 2006; Evers and Walters, 2000),
which is also the case in India, where women feature only in agriculture and small rural
enterprises. Small sector enterprises from both formal and informal sectors are the key
component for women who want to participate in livelihood activities from rural and urban
areas. Women involved in self-enterprise always tend to get on the losing side whenever it’s
a count on business size, type, profit and growth (Hisrich and Brush, 1984; Rosa and
Hamilton, 1994).Moreover, they are considered underperformers (Ahl, 2004).
Enterprises run by women entrepreneur’s faces variety of issues at every stage, from
acquiring basic resources to running enterprise and maintaining the external relations. In
particular, small enterprises of women in developing economies lack directions, and
constraints to business development are connected with employment, poor book-keeping,
fewer market opportunities and product understanding (Della-Giusta and Phillips, 2006).
Still, this phenomenon of entrepreneurial development among women is considered quite
revolutionary; the rate of women entrepreneurial activity in developing economies is equal
to 45.5 per cent, which is higher than developed economies (GEM, 2010). As far as women-
owned enterprise’s start up, growth and closure are concerned, it’s pointed out by Naser
et al. (2009) that a large number of women takes part in startups owing to nature of activities
usually required such as low skills, low education requirement and low entry barriers.
During the growth phase, women-owned business suffers from networking problems, lack
of market and product information, work–life balance and lack of capital. The mentioned
JEEE issues during growth phase closure rate are high in case of women entrepreneurs (Della-
10,2 Giusta and Phillips, 2006).
Lerner et al. (1997) presented a study stating that women entrepreneurs play an
important role in developing economies such as any developed economy. But they don’t
have any set model to follow, which help them run their enterprise successfully. He also
claimed that women entrepreneurs performance such as the size of business, profitability,
334 gross revenues and income is dependent on factors that all come together to enhance her
conduct in business.
Opportunities and barriers faced by women entrepreneurs are influenced by both formal
and informal sectors and internal and external factors. We can discuss these to discover the
factors affecting the performance of women entrepreneurs in developing economies:

Culture
Past studies indicate culture as one of the important factors that influence start-ups of
women entrepreneurs. This includes religion, value, ethnic diversity and marital status
(Wube, 2010). Variations among societies and its impact on women’s decision to be an
entrepreneur and to run her enterprise are shaped by social principles among different
cultures. Also, women entrepreneurs in developing countries mainly confront problems
related to culture and social norms. (Hossain et al., 2009, Naser et al., 2009; Liñán et al., 2011;
Moriano et al., 2012). Among the developing economies, including India, results show that
the family responsibilities and child care both plays as personal reasons to take up venture
or quitting venture (Belwal et al., 2012).
Cultural constraints influence the perception of women entrepreneurs, often women in
developing economies are brought up with values such as not to associate herself with any
virtues required to conduct business: conflicts, assertiveness, ruthlessness and decisive
(Della-Giusta and Phillips, 2006). Society, as per patriarchal values, grafted women’s role for
household deeds, with no right on property, so women basically owned small enterprises as
it would be pretended that large business involves men’s presence. To overcome such
obstacles, attitude of both women and society need to change. A case study presented by
Kabir and Huo (2011) highlights that women across almost half of population face social and
cultural hindrances before taking start-up activities, that too when women are learning
about entrepreneurial processes and their success stories from all over the world. Srivastava
et al. (2017) described social valuation and social norms as one of the potential dimensions
that affect the performance of women entrepreneurs in India. The investigation conducted
by Arasti et al. (2012), on Iranian women entrepreneurs’ growth orientation, results that
social connection, cultural norms and social values influences women entrepreneurs
performance in business development. Another study presented by Javadian and Singh
(2012) shows that cultural norms and social values create an impact on women
entrepreneurs’ performance. Further, in Arab nations, women entrepreneurs struggle a lot to
establish themselves and confirm their place as a business owner.

Networking
Existing literature suggests that networking influences women entrepreneurs’ enterprise in
an effective manner (Farr-Wharton and Brunetto, 2007). Mainly, women entrepreneurs are
part of an informal networking system; their participation in formal networking is less than
that of men. Women’s networking is mainly influenced by family connections, which is not
much when considered in business terms. Her lack of networking creates barriers in business
awareness as well (Manolova et al., 2007, 2008; Hossain et al., 2009). Networking plays an
essential role in collaborating and binding firms together in all different levels irrespective of
the formal and informal enterprises. Also, networking provides business women a broad Performance
range of sources, which help in running the business in all odd situations (Staber, 2001). oriented
Another study presented by Anggadwita et al. (2017) shows that entrepreneurial activity
such as networking is one of the major factor that impacts the performance of women
factors
entrepreneurs.
A number of studies explored that networking is of two types: formal (suppliers,
customers and formal organizations) and informal (family and friends) networking (Low
and MacMillan, 1988; O’Donnell et al., 2001). Previous research on networking has 335
recognized that business women who involve in networking and secure vital information
always perform better than women without any networking activities (Brush et al., 2001).
Social networking is another important aspect and explained by many researchers as it
helps in opportunity recognition and entrepreneurial judgment, which help to grow business
in right direction (Singh et al., 2000; and Davidsson and Honig, 2003)

Financials
Many researchers (Moore and Buttner, 1997; Fielden et al., 2003; Carter, 2000) argue that
women entrepreneurs lack experience in financial matters. Availability of financial
resources is one the major problems faced by women entrepreneurs throughout her
entrepreneurial journey. Almost all the past research and reports indicate the lack of capital,
lack of collateral and financial institutional limitation as the factor that influences women’s
capability to run a business (Naser et al., 2009). Past studies indicate that women face more
difficulties than men to begin and pursue business activities (Carter et al., 2001; IFC
Mckinsey, 2011; Jayawarna et al., 2013). Research work by Afrin et al. (2010) pointed out that
because securing finance is one of the major challenges, mostly rural entrepreneurship is
taken up by women’s, which is supported by microcredit schemes with easy availability.
Past researchers (Hisrich and Brush, 1984) pointed out shortage and non- availability of
capital leads to issues such as not paying for staffs, weak credit record and non-timely
product delivery. These issues later make negative mindset for women about their credit
and work attitude. Recent research work by Hasan and Almubarak (2016) suggests that
women entrepreneurs’ performance indirectly influenced by the stereotyping toward
women. This stereotyping majorly hampers their access to credit. Add to this, society’s
limited trust in women’s capability hinders their access to load or to get any other financial
support from credit institutions (Javadian and Singh, 2012).

Motivational factors
In developing economies, women entrepreneurs are influenced by push and pull
motivational factors. The push factors are associated with negative situations such as low
income, lack of opportunities, low satisfaction, low in-house bargaining power, rigid
working hours and low decision-making freedom (Orhan and Scott, 2001; Robinson, 2001).
The pull factors are associated with positives attributes such as freedom in decisions,
flexibility with family and work, more in-house bargaining power, status in society and
independence (Sinha, 2003; Suganthi, 2009; Lockyer and George, 2012; Bosma et al., 2012;
Tlaiss, 2013). With better work–life balance and self-employment flexibility, women
entrepreneurs tend to achieve greater performance and opportunities in running a business
successfully (Browne et al., 2007). Moreover, it could be argued that pull factor is the reason
mostly women becoming self-employed. Past studies identified reasons for women to
become self-employed for financial independence, autonomy, making difference in society,
flexibility in working hours and becoming a role model (McKay, 2001, Still and Timms,
2000).
JEEE Maintaining work–life balance, particularly household responsibility and spatial
10,2 mobility, which needs time, hampers women entrepreneurs’ potential to perform and
balance between household, i.e. private sphere, and enterprise, i.e. public sphere (Allen and
Truman, 1993; Moore and Buttner, 1997; Moore, 2002; Brush, 2006). Women, on realizing
their goals and capabilities, tend to set up their own business and leave their existing jobs
(Walker et al., 2011). The lower salary structure of female employees as compare to the male
336 counterparts, compels them to setup their own business rather than being paid
indiscriminately (Welsh et al., 2014).
Other than income, women’s risk-taking ability and maintenance of work–life balance is
also a motivational factor, which impacts their performance in business (Marti. et al., 2014).
Men’s motivation involves necessity, while women’s involve opportunity.

Training and development

Training and development influence the decision and performance of women entrepreneurs,
irrespective of the size and stage of business. Conceptual and empirical evidence suggests that
training related to financial, human resources, technical and management skills is regarded as
key to run enterprise (Azam Roomi and Harrison, 2010; Wube, 2010). The dearth of enterprise
management training availability was seen as a significant hindrance to business
development by women entrepreneurs. As per empirical findings by Burns (2010) major
section of respondents are not formally trained or educated with any sort of skills and training
program that can help them in starting and running their business successfully. However, the
study observed that small section of respondents had been part of any professional program
before starting their business. Further, the results suggest that there is a requirement to
prepare and deliver for women entrepreneurs’ specific training or education programs by
national and regional representative institutes for nurturing women enterprises. Training and
education program related to innovation and opportunity recognition, business idea, startup
and business growth considerations, preparing strategic customer care, networking skills,
marketing management, selling skills and negotiation skills should be imparted to all women
entrepreneurs as priority program before venturing (Roomi and Harrison, 2008). Formal and
customized training for women entrepreneurs is potential to develop the growth of women
enterprises (Botha, 2006; Davis, 2012; Shah, 2013). The problem of inadequate education and
business training impacts the performance of women entrepreneurs much more than man
(Chirwa, 2008). Women entrepreneurs lacking in technical skills, market information, product
information, managerial skills and business promotion skills face issues in their business
growth and cannot add any value to the business (Belwal et al., 2012). Srivastava et al. (2017)
described women entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial education prefers startup rather than
going for salaried job. Thus, previous training and skill development can be viewed as
effective interest generating factors toward entrepreneurship.
Cobo (2012) established that both hard and soft skills are important for women
entrepreneurs to start a business and run it successfully; both skills can be gained through a
training program and socializing process. Pharm and Sritharan (2013) suggested that
training programs should be made essential for all nascent as well as established women
entrepreneurs. In a survey of 90 women entrepreneurs, a major response trend showed
women’s opinion pointing toward lack of training on marketing, selling and negotiations
with buyers hindering their performance and market survival. Lack of basic training leads
to lesser opportunities or lower growth prospects for women entrepreneurs (De Vita et al.,
2014). Women entrepreneurs face various problems without formal training, i.e. work–life
balance, time management, customer management and management of finances (Ramadani
et al., 2013).
Business environment Performance
The macro environment as a whole is a considerable and complex factor that influences oriented
women entrepreneur’s enterprises and growth (Wube, 2010). Representative institutions
comprising several layers, owing to the lack of understanding of women entrepreneurs,
factors
awareness, expertise, time and huge communication gap racks up that hamper direction and
growth of enterprises. A decent number of empirical studies on business environment
indicate that government policies can provide support and strengthen women 337
entrepreneurs’ position (Naser et al., 2009; Hossain et al., 2009; Stein et al., 2013; E and Y
report, 2010; Shah, 2013; Roomi and Harrison, 2008).
The existing literature supports the fact that to perform better in an entrepreneurial process,
it is important to have awareness about business operation know-how (Allen and Truman,
1993). Faisal et al. (2017) points out that government authority needs to understand the
interrelationships of hurdles that hamper and create challenges for women entrepreneurship.
Public policies and institutional gender-specific rule and regulation can help women
entrepreneurs perform well in business (Hanson, 2009). To strengthen and protect women
entrepreneurs, it is very important to frame proper policies that support women against all
odds; policy points given by Rabbani and Chowdhury, (2013) can be helpful to create more
entrepreneurial-friendly environment for women in developing economies:
� policies to remove obstacles related to business setups, formalization and growth;
� market access;
� control over economic and financial resources;
� strengthen social protection and social inclusion (Including women entrepreneurs
with disabilities);
� create easy legalization process with loans; and
� setup of gender-specific incubation centers (one point solution; ILO, 2007).

Women entrepreneurs were found to be lacking in adequate confidence to run their business,
owing to the lack of support from the government body, as observed in a study based in
Bahrain by Belwal et al. (2014). Mostly women entrepreneurs’ performance hampered owing
to of the difficulties such as the system of government, unstable environment, inexplicable
regulatory system, overregulation and contractual obligation (Alturki and Braswell, 2010).

3. Scale development methodology

The scale designed to measure the performance of women entrepreneurs in developing
economies follows the Hinkin’s (1995) methodology for scale development process.
According to the scale development process by Hinkin (1995), first, is the generation of items
to measure the construct. The items are developed on the basis of a solid theoretical base,
which defines the constructs and what these constructs will measure. This study uses both
the deductive and inductive approach to construct a scale to measure the performance of
women entrepreneurs.
Deductive approach – The extensive review of the literature has been carried out to
identify the items, which demonstrate content validity. This will help in the formation of an
initial pool of items from related studies. Also, this approach helps a researcher to
understand the phenomenon to be investigated. The research work of (Lerner et al., 1997)
considered a base study to generate items and dimensions. A total number of 32 items were
pooled through this approach.
JEEE Inductive approach – Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the
10,2 women entrepreneurs to capture their feelings about current entrepreneurial environment
and opportunities. Seventy women entrepreneurs from formal and informal sectors were
interviewed. Fifteen items were developed in the interview process. In the case of an
inductive approach, the semi-structured interview objective was compiled on the basis of
research work of Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) and Krishnan and Kamalanabhan
338 (2013). The details of the research steps carried out for this study have been depicted in
Appendix 1. The details of the interview are given below.

3.1 Development and conduction of interview

Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were carried out to develop new items for the scale.
The non-probability sampling technique comprising of purposive sampling technique was
undertaken for the selection of participants for the interview. Thus, women entrepreneurs
who had completed tenures of above two years with a minimum of two employees were
selected as they ought to have developed views. The participation criteria include women
entrepreneurs from both formal and informal sector to understand complete scenario and
condition of women business owners from multiple angles.
The women entrepreneurs were informed earlier about the purpose of conducting the
semi-structured interview. Face-to-face interviews were held to explain all the terminologies
used, which later help us to simplify questionnaire as per women entrepreneurs ease and
understanding. Each interview lasted for the time period of 1hour approx. Using content
analysis, those items that were mentioned more than 15 times were taken into consideration.
The analysis of interview is depicted in Table I.

3.2 Questionnaire development

The survey instrument for the present research was developed on the basis of inferences
generated from the inductive (qualitative interviews) and deductive (literature review)
approaches. Initially, the survey instrument consisted of 44 statements. A five-point Likert
scale was used to evaluate each of the statement, indicating 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree).
The first two segments of the questionnaire covered women entrepreneurs’
demographics (age, marital status, number and age of children, level of education, family
status, monthly income, information about the major contributor in the family, experience as
employee and experience as entrepreneur) and the nature of her business (sector, firm’s
status, ownership status, no. of firm years, no. of employees and growth phase), respectively.
The second part of the questionnaire consisted of statements based on a Likert scale.

3.3 Sampling and data collection

The survey was conducted during August 2016-August 2017 in the form of a questionnaire.
Data were collected from Delhi and National Capital Region, Jaipur, Gujarat, Karnataka
and Maharashtra from institutions such as Khadi and Village Industries Commission and
District Industries Centre for rural development, National Institute for Entrepreneurship and
Small Business Development, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, National
Small Industries Corporation, Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneur and National
Commission for Women. These selected states are where the phenomenon of the
entrepreneur is more pronounced (Ministry of MSME, 2012). MSME Annual Report 2011-
2012, Govt. of India). The abovementioned organizations were used to access women
entrepreneurs from formal/registered sectors. The respondent comprised an informal/
unregistered sector as well. The purposive sampling technique was used to ensure that the
S.No Items Frequency count
Performance
oriented
1 My decision of self-enterprise is affected as the role of women entrepreneurs in 48 factors
my culture is not sufficiently and properly defined
2 I feel that technology plays an important role in overcoming cultural barriers 53
such as social media platforms
3 My informal network keeps me aware/updated about the changes in 54
surroundings that are necessary for conducting business 339
4 My enterprise will further grow if I give more attention to the networking 49
activities
5 My involvement in the business will be influenced by customized training 51
program for women based on her needs
6 My viability with potential will increase if I receive training program enabling 48
me to use social media to promote my business
7 Government support with incubation centers with one-stop solution is 56
important to my involvement in self-enterprise
8 Government policies with customized schemes for women are helpful to 47
enhance my performance in self-enterprise
9 My involvement in developing self-enterprise is because of the desire to gain 45
better bargaining power in-house (future decisions and kids’ future)
10 My involvement in developing self-enterprise is because of the desire to be like 21
my role model
11 I will be more involved in my entrepreneur projects if I have the knowledge and 38
awareness about the different gender-specific or customized credit schemes
12 I will be less involved/feel less motivated in my entrepreneurial project if I find 46
the bank officials to be uncooperative to me Table I.
Items obtained
Source: Prepared by the authors through interview

respondents selected had appropriate information about the entrepreneurial environment

and opportunities. The questionnaires were self-administrated as well as mailed to the
respondents. The respondents were included in the survey after taking the verbal consent
from the subjects.
The selection criteria for the sample were as follows:
� The women entrepreneurs must be head of the business and play an active role in
running the business.
� The business must be in operations for at least two years.
� The business must have minimum of two employees.
� The business must stand-alone irrespective of the formal and informal sectors
(registered and unregistered).

Initially, 1,669 prospective respondents were contacted for the survey, out of which 1,431
agreed to be the part of the survey. A total of 1,032 valid and complete responses have been
used for the final study having a response rate of around 72 per cent.
Detailed sampling procedure has been depicted in the flow chart (Figure 1).

3.4 Expert opinion/pre-testing

After obtaining the list of 44 items from the deductive and inductive approaches, it was
reviewed by 7 academicians and 10 domain experts to establish the content validity of the
44 items. The content validity of a construct can be defined as the extent to which the
JEEE
10,2

340

Figure 1.
Sample selection tree

measure spans the domain of the construct’s theoretical definition (Rungtusanatham, 1998).
The academicians and experts were having at least ten years of experience in their
respective areas of expertise. The participants examined the instrument for its
comprehensibility, bias and appropriateness of the items. Finally eight items were removed
on the basis of suggestions provided by the panelist. The remaining 36 items was subjected
to pilot testing.

3.5 Pilot testing

Pilot testing was conducted with an aim to refine the measurement scale by checking the
internal reliability of the measurement scale (Churchiu, 1979). The instrument was examined
for its reliability by conducting a pilot study on 30 women entrepreneurs. The reliability was
established with the help Cronbach’s alpha. The reliability was found to be 0.89, which is
above 0.7 (Nunnally, 1978). Further, an item-to-total correlation was checked. Items having a
value greater or equal to 0.4 are acceptable (Nunnally, 1978). After taking into account, the
item to total correlation, 3 items were found to possessed value less than 0.4 and thus
dropped from further analysis. The reliability of the scale increased to 0.87 after removing
the item having an item to total correlation less than 0.4. A table stating the items dropped at
different stages of scale development process has been presented in Appendix 2. Finally, all
the items that were part of the final study along with their sources have been presented in
Appendix 3.

4. Statistical data analysis and findings

A number of validated tools and procedures were used to analyze the data. The steps
followed in analyzing the data were: assessment of the construct reliability, conduction of
the factor analysis and finally confirmation of the findings through a confirmatory factor
analysis.
4.1 Exploratory factor analysis Performance
The filled questionnaires were coded in the SPSS software package version 20. Exploratory oriented
factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on 33 items, for identifying latent factors. As per
Churchill (1979), factor analysis is performed to verify empirically conceptualized
factors
constructs. Before running the EFA on the data, the crucial statistics associated with the
EFA was confirmed. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was found to be significant (approx. chi-
square = 7852.41, df = 406, p < 0.01) inferring that variables are correlated in the population.
Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) is performed to measure the adequacy of sample size and was
341
obtained as 0.87, much above the cut-off criteria of 0.6 (Kaiser and Rice, 1974). An
exploratory principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted, to
find out the possible grouping of 33 items. The result extracted six meaningful constructs
comprising of 29 items. Four items were dropped because three items had factor loadings
below 0.5, whereas one item was cross-loaded on the other factors. The total variance
explained was 72.55 per cent. The results of exploratory factor analysis have been presented
in Appendix 4.
After examining the items making up the six dimensions, the dimension were named as
follows:
(1) Financial – the rotated matrix reflected that respondents have perceived this factor
to be the most important factor with the explained variance of 26.66 per cent. It
measures women’s awareness and attitude toward start-up capital, access to credit
and its availability and procedures, unregistered firm and bank official’s response.
(2) Networking – is the next important factor, which accounts for 15.28 per cent of the
variance. It measures the women’s attitude toward building formal/informal
networks required for business success. It also shows their awareness about the
opportunity of future business success.
(3) Business environment – has been revealed to be the third most important factor
with the explained variance of 11.080 per cent. It measures the women’s attitude
and awareness about overall policies and regulations, incubation centers and
gender-specific schemes available by government and foreign agencies.
(4) Training – explains 8.25 per cent of the total variance. It measures the women’s
skills development to maintain her business with skill enhancement program on
management, social media and to overcome with business failures and be more
competent with changes.
(5) Motivation – explains 6.11 per cent of the total variance. It measures the
importance of women’s business earnings in supporting self and/or family. It also
explains women’s attitude toward “business as women’s career option”, which
includes her in-house bargaining power and work–life balance.
(6) Socio–cultural – explains 5.13 per cent of the total variance. It measures the
dominance of surrounded culture and their attitude toward women in business.
Here technology plays significance role to overcome these social barriers.

4.2 Confirmatory factor analysis

As per Fabrigar et al. (1999), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) assesses unidimensionality
and permits testing of specific hypotheses. In this present research, a CFA-based
measurement model was run through AMOS 21. CFA was conducted to ascertain, reliability
and validity estimates along with model fit indices.
JEEE CFA allows testing very specific hypotheses regarding the number of factors, factor
10,2 loadings and factor inter-correlations. The final model has been shown in Figure 2.
4.2.1 Reliability analysis. Constructs were found to be reliable as their individual
composite reliability (CR) values are greater than the floor estimate of 0.7 (Nunnally and
Bernstein, 1978; Table IV). The construct wise reliability was established. In addition, the
overall reliability of the measurement model was also established by achieving a Cronbach
342 alpha statistic of 0.89, as presented in Table II.

Figure 2.
Measurement model

Cronbach’s alpha No. of items

Table II.
Reliability statistics 0.89 29
4.2.2 Validity analysis. Toward establishing the validity of independent constructs and over Performance
all measurement model CFA has been carried out. Three types of validity measures have oriented
been conducted, namely, content validity, construct validity (comprising of convergent
validity and discriminant validity) and nomological validity.
factors
4.2.2.1 Content validity. The content validity of a construct can be defined as the degree
to which the measure spans the domain of the construct’s theoretical definition
(Rungtusanatham, 1998). Content validity of the instrument was established in consultation
343
with professional domain experts and patient.
4.2.2.2 Construct validity. It involves the assessment of the degree to which an
operationalization correctly measures its targeted variables (O’Learly-Kelly and Vokurka,
1998). According to them, establishing construct validity involves the empirical assessment
of unidimensionality, reliability and validity (convergent and discriminant). In the present
study, to check unidimensionality, zero order CFA was run for all the constructs. Individual
items in the model were examined to see how closely they represent the same construct. A
comparative fit index (CFI) of 0.90 or above for the model implies the existence of strong
evidence of unidimensionality (Byrne, 1994). The CFI values obtained for the model is well
above 0.90. Upon satisfaction of unidimensionality and reliability parameters, the scale was
further subjected to empirical validation analysis. After the satisfactory results of
unidimensionality and reliability, the scale was further empirically validated.
4.2.2.2.1 Convergent validity. Convergent validity refers to the degree to which
multiple methods of measuring a variable provide the same results (O’Leary-Kelly and
Vokurka, 1998). Convergent validity can be established with the help of CR based on
Cronbach’s alpha and average variance extracted (AVE). Following criteria must be
satisfied toward ensuring convergent validity: CR > 0.7, CR > AVE and AVE > 0.5 (Hair
et al., 2010).
The alpha value of all the five constructs is higher than 0.7. AVE of five individual
constructs were found to be greater than 0.5. Further, in case of all five individual constructs,
the CR statistic is significantly greater than their respective AVE statistic (Table III). Thus,
all individual constructs satisfied the statistical conditions of convergent validity.
4.2.2.2.2 Discriminant validity. Discriminant validity is established if a measure does
not correlate very highly with other measures from which it is supposed to differ (O’Leary-
Kelly and Vokurka, 1998). Discriminant validity is ascertained on the basis of AVE, average
shared variance (ASV) and maximum shared variance (MSV). Discriminant validity is
achieved if the criteria MSV < AVE and ASV < AVE is achieved (Hair et al., 2010). As
evident from the result depicted in Table III, the AVE values of the entire construct are
larger than their corresponding squared inter-construct correlations, which in turn, confirm
the discriminant validity.
4.2.2.3 Nomological validity. Nomological validity refers to ascertaining the logical
relation between a particular model construct and items on which the same is reflected upon.
The obtained measurement model has been duly checked for nomological validity in terms
of construct-item.
4.2.3 Model fit estimation – measurement model. Upon satisfaction of reliability and
validity of individual constructs as well as for the overall measurement model (Figure 2), the
study proceeded to determine the fitness of the overall measurement model based on model
fit indices generated as a part of AMOS output. Model fit is assessed on the basis of CMIN/
df, P-value, CFI, goodness of fit index (GFI), adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI) and root
mean square error of approximation (RMSEA; Table IV). All the fit indices were found to be
satisfactory and meeting the defined criteria. Bentler (1990) recommended the following
0
10,2

344
JEEE

Table III.

factor model
psychometric
Validity-based

properties of six-
Construct CR AVE MSV ASV Training Network Financial Culture Motivation Business Environment

Training 0.850 0.534 0.332 0.185 0.731

Network 0.885 0.607 0.289 0.184 0.423 0.779
Financial 0.934 0.741 0.181 0.101 0.229 0.398 0.861
Culture 0.943 0.768 0.332 0.170 0.576 0.361 0.235 0.876
Motivation 0.920 0.697 0.289 0.193 0.523 0.538 0.239 0.492 0.835
Business Environment 0.817 0.527 0.181 0.125 0.298 0.405 0.425 0.299 0.317 0.726

Source: Gakingston MS-Excel Validity Master Output

cut-off values for these indices: (i) CMIN/df (normed chi-square) < 3, (ii) AGFI > 0.80, (iii) Performance
CFI > 0.90, (iv) RMSEA < 0.05, (v) p-value > 0.05 and (vi) GFI > 0.90. oriented
All five constructs forming the part of model reflected good results with respect to seven
model fit indices comprising of five goodness of fit and two badness of fit indices. This
factors
established fitness of the proposed measurement model (Table IV). Further, the indices of
default model were found to have higher convergence toward the saturated model indices
compared to the indices of independent model as indicated by AMOS output.
345
5. Discussion and conclusions
The existing literature suggested that there is a lack of validated scale to measure the
performance of women entrepreneurs in developing economies. The objective of this study
is to identify the factors that influence the performance of women entrepreneurs and to
develop and validate a scale reflecting performance factors that could present clearer and
wider views on the phenomenon of women entrepreneurship. To achieve these objectives,
the theoretical work and conceptual framework of Lerner et al. (1997) was followed. In line
with the scale development approach proposed by Seth et al. (2008), the present study
developed items using both exploratory interviews and review of existing literature. The
results of EFA extracted meaningful six factors of the performance named as training and
development, socio–cultural, motivation, networking and marketing information, financial
and business environment. As per results, all six factors were distinct and unco-related.
The issues related to finance is perceived as the most important factor influencing the
performance of women entrepreneurs. It is important for women entrepreneurs to obtain
financial support with minimum hurdles such as non-requirement of collateral, healthy
relationship with banks and its employees and gender-specific schemes. Moreover, as
suggested by Carter et.al (2003) stereotyping and gender discrimination is the major reason
behind women entrepreneurs’ inability to raise start-up capital for their business enterprise.
Past studies related to financial issues of women entrepreneurs emphasized upon
availability of start-up capital is always a major hurdle to women irrespective of developed
or developing economies (Watson, 2002; Gatewood et al., 2003; Brush et al., 2004 and Alsos
et al., 2006)
Networking constitutes the second most important factor influencing the performance of
women entrepreneurs in developing economies such as India. The literature states that most
of the women in business are only confined to informal or family connections in the name of
networking. Provision of platforms and forums by industry bodies such as FIWA and
FICCI, which help women entrepreneurs to build networking with new business, product
and market are much needed to fuel their performance in business. Previous studies by

Indices Recommended value Model fit indices

GFI � 0.90 0.917

P-value � 0.05 0.894
CFI � 0.90 0.976
CMIN/df <3 1.55
AGFI � 0.80 0.899
RMSEA # 0.05 0.036
P close � 0.05 0.999
Table IV.
Source: AMOS output Model fit statistics
JEEE Aldrich, 1989; Miller et al., 2006; and Farr-Wharton and Brunetto, 2007 also supported the
10,2 outcome that formal and informal networks are prerequisites for business success.
Business environment is another significant factor carrying critical determinants which
in turn influences women entrepreneurial performance. This factor comprises mainly with
gender-specific business development schemes, incubation centers, infrastructure and
lenient policies that would minimize the entry barriers that they face during start up and
346 later with business expansion. A study of 449 women entrepreneurs by Naser et al. (2009)
concludes and supports that overall gender-specific policies and regulations availability by
the Government and non-government organizations will boost her performance.
Training and development is another crucial factor. Findings of Naser et al. (2009) and
Azam Roomi and Harrison (2010) also lend support to this outcome and consider training as
one of the major factors influencing women entrepreneurs’ direction and attitudes. The
finding suggested that a customized training program for women entrepreneurs is essential
at each stage of businesses to enhance the performance of women entrepreneurs.
EFA procedure, extracted another significant factor, namely, motivation, which
influences the performance of women entrepreneurs. This is the outcome of both negative
and positive attributes of motivation. Achieving financial independence, better in-house
bargaining power and work–life balance motivates women entrepreneurs to enhance their
performance and revenue generation potential. These results are supported by the findings
of earlier research by Carter et al. (2003) and Morris et al. (2006), which found that
motivation, is associated with business growth.
Cultural and social norms constitute another key factor affecting women entrepreneurs’
decision from enterprise start-up to taking it to next level of growth. This factor is indicated
within the existing literature works of Lerner et al. (1997) and Liñán et al. (2011). Women in
developing economies (especially India) with vast cultural diversity encounter social
problems in business.
Past studies on women entrepreneurs’ performance were mostly conducted on single
factors with small sample size as pointed out by Krishnan and Kamalanabhan (2013). To
bridge this gap, the present research adopted a holistic approach and considered a
comprehensive set of factors that can possibly influence the performance of women
entrepreneurs. The sample size used in this study is considerably sufficient and comprise of
respondents from both formal and informal sectors. To the best of the knowledge of authors,
the study is the first of its kind, wherein scale has been developed and validated with an aim
to identify factors affecting the performance of women entrepreneurs.

6. Implications
Developing economies such as China, Malaysia, Thailand and India have witnessed steady
growth in the micro, small and medium enterprises over a period owing to the participation
of women entrepreneurs (Tambunan, 2009; Ghani et al., 2013). Considering such surge in
women-owned businesses, researchers are trying to explore the factors affecting women
entrepreneurs and their performance potential. A synoptic view of the existing literature
revealed that there is a lack of sufficient research on measuring the performance of women
entrepreneurs.

6.1 Managerial implications

The present work contributes toward women entrepreneurs’ research and scale
development process.
Findings of the present study reflect women entrepreneur’s views toward the key
factors impacting their performance. Women entrepreneurs’ decision toward
development, financial independence and availability of networking, skills and work– Performance
life balance are major factors Lerner et al. (1997). Second, the present study has been oriented
conducted in the context of both categories of women entrepreneurs’ viz. formal and
informal, with the final study sample exhibiting an adequate representation of the
factors
entrepreneurs from both categories. Such an approach facilitates in a better
understanding of the women entrepreneurs current situation and their needs. The
research constitutes first major study on women entrepreneurs’ performance with scale
development and tested and validated in developing economic backdrop. Women 347
entrepreneurs have a prospect to conduct SWOT analysis. This helps officials to design
and develop specific need based training programs for women entrepreneurs, which
help them to enhance their skills, capabilities and performance in business (Hasan and
Almubarak, 2016).

6.2 Industrial implications

The proposed study also reflects the industrial supports to women entrepreneurs for their
sustainability and to identify the territories where the performance is weaker:
� Promotional institutions – with the help of a scale, finding out the factors that create
barriers for women entrepreneurs, to design, develop and conduct gender-specific
training program for all stages of business development.
� Credit institutions – this scale also helps in better understanding of easy accessibility
of credits, preparing gender specific and focused credits schemes. It will give a clearer
understanding of communication gap between women entrepreneurs and credit
officers.
� Representational institution – with the help of this study association will
understand the need for more and more women representations on board, which, in
turn, increases the ability to make formal and informal networking as well as can
set up incubation centers for women entrepreneurs to study more about their
movements.
� Regulatory institutions – study can help them in framing new policies and
initiatives, scraping old schemes, which do not add any sort of benefits. Also,
research can help them with drafting more gender-specific framework for getting
land, market and products to sell and buy (Grey, 2010 and Ahmad, 2011).

6.3 Theoretical implications

Women entrepreneurs value their participation in the economic activity. In this study,
business owned by women expressed their views about the factors creating barriers toward
or triggers their performance in business.
The proposed scale can be used by academicians and researchers to measure the factors
that influence the performance of women entrepreneurs. Further, the factors keep on
changing for women entrepreneurial performance with variations in their demographics,
time and environment. Thus, to study and understand factors prevalent in the different
environment, findings of this study can be helpful and of practical use. Additionally, this
study offers implications to the organizations entrusted with the formulation of policies and
regulations connected with women entrepreneurship. The present study is expected to
create awareness/developing entrepreneurial environment for women entrepreneurs. This
scale can help in finding out individual factors and work on the reasons resulting in poor
performance among women entrepreneurs. It will also help in business research by
JEEE providing them wider perspectives on economic, social and industrial dimensions. It unties
10,2 the entryway for researchers to study the problems on a national level and contribute in
women entrepreneur’s performance dimensions.

7. Limitations and scope of future research

348 This is a pan-India study. The sample area restriction in terms of a single nation can limit
the researcher’s ability to generalize the result. In particular, we rely on survey data because
no secondary data have been found to exist regarding women entrepreneurs in the
registered and unregistered sectors with any agency for research purpose. Future
researchers can target further filtration and refinement of the conceptualized performance
factors, as this was a first attempt to develop a scale with such holistic approach. Lastly, in
this study six dimensions are identified each with some strength and weakness to
performance, it would be interesting to further study and add or subtract factors in the
context of varying demographics.
However, this newly developed scale shows competent psychometric properties and will
help researchers with government and non-government agencies to better understand
women entrepreneurs’ condition and needs.

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355
Corresponding author
Pooja Jha can be contacted at: mailpoojajha@gmail.com
JEEE Appendix 1. Research methodology adopted for the development of scale to measure
10,2 the performance of women entrepreneurs

356
Appendix 2 Performance
oriented
factors
Stages of item
S. No. dropping Item dropped Reasons for dropping

1 Pre-testing High interest rate on bank credit affects my To establish content

2 Pilot testing
3 EFA
Source: Prepared by the authors
involvement in self enterprise validity 357
Financial help from my family and friend
affects my involvement in self enterprise
My religious binding affects my
involvement in self enterprise
My entrepreneurial activity clashes with the
culture in my region
Cultural differences toward women is the
reason I always hesitate to take bold
decision for my enterprise
My formal networking benefits my
enterprise with more options of supply
chain
My networking with vendors helps me in
getting reasonable price for raw material
My self-enterprise is related to my previous
qualification or skill I acquired
Training program on legal aspects of Item-to-total corelation
business registration process will help in less than 0.5
business setup
My desire to enjoy the luxurious life style is
the main factor of my involvement in self
enterprise
Government rules on property rights for
female are important to my involvement in
developing self-enterprise
Training program on employee training Factor loading below 0.5
and customer services will help me in Factor loading below 0.5
maintain good relation Factor loading below 0.5
The desire to make use of my technical and Cross Loading
professional skills is the main factor of my
involvement in developing self-enterprise
Supervise, recruit and hire employees is
important for my business Table AI.
Deciding on new competitive product and
price is important to my involvement in self
List of items dropped
enterprise at different stages of
scale development
process
0
10,2

358
JEEE

Item-source
Table AII.
Items list Source
Appendix 3

My entrepreneur project will be enhanced provided I receive start-up capital from lending agencies Hossain et al. (2009)
I will be more involved in my entrepreneur projects if I have access to credit from the government organization Naser et al. (2009)
I will be more involved in my entrepreneur projects if I have the knowledge and awareness about the different gender specific or customized credit schemes Semi-structured interview
My credit access from bank get affected if my firm is smaller and unregistered IFC report (2011)
I will be less involved/feel less motivated in my entrepreneurial project, if I find the bank officials to be uncooperative to me Semi-structured interview
My involvement in my enterprise get affected due gender inequalities and entrepreneurial activity considered as men’s zone Liñán et al. (2011)
My networking is spanned across people of different culture and religions Semi-structured interview
My decision of self-enterprise is affected as the role of women entrepreneurs in my culture is not sufficiently and properly defined Semi-structured interview
As a women entrepreneur I face problems in doing business and moving around Naser et al. (2009)
I feel that technology plays an important role in overcoming cultural barriers Semi-structured interview
My network in the business market affects my decision to build self-enterprise Hossain et al. (2009)
My informal network keeps me aware/updated about the changes in surrounding which is necessary for conducting business Semi-structured interview
My formal network affects my search for new business and new market Farr-Wharton and Brunetto (2007)
My networking with necessary contacts to grow my enterprise successfully Manolova et al. (2007)
My enterprise will further grow, if I give more attention to the networking activities Semi-structured interview
My involvement in the business will be influenced by customized training program for women based on her needs Semi-structured interview
My involvement in the business will be influenced by the reasonable training program cost and its proximity Azam Roomi and Harrison (2010)
My involvement in the business will be positively influenced by training program based on essential business management skills Azam Roomi and Harrison (2010)
My viability with potential will increase, if I receive training program enabling me to use social media to promote my business Semi-structure interview
Training program on business failure and its sign and causes will help in taking correct decision on time Botha (2006)
My main reason for involvement in developing self-enterprise, is to become financial independent Naser et.al. (2009)
The desire for flexibility to allow balance between work, family and other interests is the main factor of my involvement in developing self-enterprise Lockyer and George (2012)
My involvement in developing self-enterprise is because it gives me freedom to follow/adapt my own approach to work Jayawarna et al. (2013)
My involvement in developing self-enterprise is because of the desire to be like my role model Bosma et al. (2012)
My involvement in developing self-enterprise is because of the desire to gain better bargaining power in house (future decisions and kids future) Semi-structured interview
Government assistance with business development schemes are important to my involvement in developing self-enterprise Shah (2013)
Government support with incubation centers with one-stop solution are important to my involvement in self-enterprise Semi-structured interview
Government policies with customized schemes for women are helpful to enhances my performance in self-enterprise Semi-structured interview
Government policies with simplification of procedure are important for my business Shah (2013)

Source: Prepared by the authors

 Factor Coefficient
Dimensions loading1 alpha2 KMO3

D1.FINANCIAL Appendix 4.
My entrepreneur project will be enhanced provided I receive start-up capital from lending agencies 0.668 0.932 0.902
I will be more involved in my entrepreneur projects if I have access to credit from the government 0.816
organization
I will be more involved in my entrepreneur projects if I have the knowledge and awareness about the different 0.638
gender specific or customized credit schemes
My credit access from bank get affected if my firm is smaller and unregistered 0.621
I will be less involved/feel less motivated in my entrepreneurial project if I find the bank officials to be 0.776
uncooperative to me
D2.CULTURE
My involvement in my enterprise get affected due gender inequalities and entrepreneurial activity considered 0.922 . 0.872
as men’s zone 0.943
My Association is spanned across people of different culture and religions 0.921 .
My decision of self-enterprise is affected as the role of women entrepreneurs in my culture is not sufficiently 0.858
and properly defined
As a women entrepreneur I face problems in doing business and moving around 0.789
I feel that technology plays an important role in overcoming cultural barriers such as social media platforms 0.921
D3.NETWORKING/SOCIAL CAPITAL
My network in the business market affects my decision to build self-enterprise 0.659 0.882 0.863
My informal network keeps me aware/updated about the changes in surrounding, which is necessary for 0.773
conducting business
My formal network affects my search for new business and new market 0.685
My networking with necessary contacts to grow my enterprise successfully 0.821
My enterprise will further grow, if I give more attention to the networking activities 0.856
D4.TRAINING
My involvement in the business will be influenced by customized training program for women based on her 0.816 0.842 0.832
needs
My involvement in the business will be influenced by the reasonable training program cost and its proximity 0.678
My involvement in the business will be positively influenced by training program based on essential business 0.774
management skills
(continued)

0
entrepreneurs
women
performance of
results of
Table AIII.
Factor extraction
359
factors
oriented
Performance
0
10,2

360
JEEE

Table AIII.
Factor Coefficient
Dimensions loading1 alpha2 KMO3

My viability with potential will increase, if I receive training program enabling me to use social media to 0.801
promote my business
Training program on business failure and its sign and causes will help in taking correct decision on time 0.856
D5.MOTIVATION
My main reason for involvement in developing self-enterprise is to become financial independent 0.768 0.917 0.893
The desire for flexibility to allow balance between work, Family and other interests is the main factor of my 0.716
involvement in developing self-enterprise
My involvement in developing self-enterprise is because it gives me freedom to follow/adapt my own approach 0.745
to work
My involvement in developing self-enterprise is because of my desire to be like my role model 0.894
My involvement in developing self-enterprise is because of the desire to gain better bargaining power in house 0.976
(future decisions and kids future)
D6.BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Government assistance with business development schemes are important to my involvement in developing 0.871 0.816 0.801
self-enterprise
Government support with incubation centers with one stop solution are important to my involvement in self- 0.763
enterprise
Government policies with customized schemes for women are helpful to enhances my performance in self- 0.643
enterprise
Govt. policies with simplification of procedure are important for my business 0.854

Source: Prepared by the authors; 1Factor loadings greater than 0.5 is acceptable (Hair et al., 1995); 2alpha values of 70 per cent or higher are
considered acceptable (Nunnally, 1978); 3KMO static value above 0.6 being acceptable (Kim and Mueller, 1978)