Cross-national Study of Factors Contributing to Women

Entrepreneurship in USA and Sri Lanka

Author: Choshini Catherine Berliniya Perera

BA (Hons) International Business & Marketing

University of Greenwich, UK

19th of April 2018

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Table of Contents

Header Sheet ....................................................................................................................................... 01

Title Page .................................................................................................................... 02
Acknowledgement ....................................................................................................... 03
Table of Content ......................................................................................................... 04

Chapter One .............................................................................................................................................. 05

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 06
Background of the Study ............................................................................................ 06
Problem Statement ...................................................................................................... 07
Research Question ...................................................................................................... 08
Research Objectives ..................................................................................................... 09
Significance of the Study ............................................................................................. 09
Structure of the dissertation ......................................................................................... 10

Chapter Two ............................................................................................................................................. 11

Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 11

2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 11
2.2 Key Definitions ...................................................................................................... 11
2.3 Factors contributing towards women entrepreneurship ......................................... 13
2.3.1 Economic Factors............................................................................................. 14
2.3.2 Cultural Factors ................................................................................................ 18
2.3.3 Psychological factors ....................................................................................... 19
2.3.4 Other Factors .................................................................................................... 20

Chapter Three ............................................................................................................................................ 24

Methodology
3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 24
3.2. Sampling Procedure .............................................................................................. 24
3.3. Conceptual Framework ......................................................................................... 26
3.4. Variable Definitions .............................................................................................. 27
3.5 Data and Data collection ........................................................................................ 28

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3.6 Data analysis ......................................................................................................... 29

3.7 Summary. .............................................................................................................. 30

Chapter Four ...................................................................................................................... 31

Data Presentation and Analysis

4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 31

4.2 Data analysis .......................................................................................................... 31

4.3 Key Findings .......................................................................................................... 35

Chapter Five ................................................................................................................. 37

Conclusion
5.1 Summary ................................................................................................................ 37
5.2 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 37
5.3 Recommendations .................................................................................................. 38
5.4 Limitations of the study ......................................................................................... 39
5.5 Suggestions for future Studies ............................................................................... 40

Reference List .............................................................................................................. 41

Appendixes ................................................................................................................. 49

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Chapter One
Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

The term entrepreneurship was introduced by Richard Cantillon in the year 1755
(Cherukara & Manalel, 2011). Development of entrepreneurship is a natural result of social
evolution (Hannah & Freeman, 1997 as cited in Cherukara & Manalel, 2011).
Entrepreneurship and innovation are vital aspects of a country’s economy which should be
given attention for the growth and development of a nation.
Throughout the decades entrepreneurship has evolved overcoming economic, cultural
and gender barriers. Nevertheless studies have shown gender differences in entrepreneurship
(Lockyer and George, 2012). Gender difference is also a common issue in the labour market.
According to the International Labour Office (2016) employment-to-population ratio of female
was 46 per cent and correspondingly employment-to-population ratio of male was 72 per cent
globally in 2015.
Sri Lanka is categorized as a lower-middle income country with a population of 21.4
million, with GDP per capita income of $ 4,065 as at the year 2018 (World Bank, 2018).
According to department of census and Statistics (2016) labour force participation rate of
female in the year 2016 was 35.9 per cent whereas male representation was 75.1 per cent. This
is a clear reflection of the gap between the female and male contribution towards the economy.
Vice versa according to the World Bank statistics (2017) United States of America has a
population of 320 million, yet the gender gap of labour participation in the year 2015 is just 10
per cent (International Labour Office, 2016).
Studies have found that if female participation increases up to the same level of male
participation in the economy, annual global gross domestic product would add up to 26 per
cent or would increase up to US$ 28 trillion by 2025, assuming a business-as usual scenario
(International Labour Office, 2016). This implies the importance of female contribution not
just to a country’s economy, but its importance to the global economy.
Regardless of gender, there are other factors which contribute towards the success or
failure of entrepreneurship whether it’s a highly developed country like USA or a developing
country like Sri Lanka. A research conducted by Gamage, et al., (2003) have found that present

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entrepreneurship models in Sri Lanka are mostly based on personality trait theory and personal
achievements. Furthermore, their empirical research about entrepreneurial motivation of Sri
Lankans have come to find that the motivation is planted as a necessity to satisfy sense of social
intimacy rather than self-achievement in conscious or unconscious manner. Studies also have
shown that social power, social relationships and collectivism creates a background for
entrepreneurial motivation for Sri Lankans (Financial Times, 2012). Likewise there are
numerous traits and factors which contribute towards a woman owning entrepreneurship status
and there are many cultural and personal characteristic, belief systems and attitudes which
cause a woman to become a successful entrepreneur regardless of the nation.
Empowering women entrepreneurship would not stop by economic prosperity but
would also result in the improvement of their standards of living. With the growing importance
in women entrepreneurship , this study gives an insight of the practical value in being able
to identify and analyse the factors contributing to their success, especially to find out the
reasons why Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs strive for global recognition, fame and success
while women entrepreneurs from highly developed countries like USA climb-up the ladder
fast.

1.2 Problem Statement

Entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka has become a prominent topic in the past few years due to
the uprising tech eco system running around the world empowering prospected entrepreneurs
regardless of their gender. One common uprising problem is the gap between the two genders
not only in the labour market but also in the entrepreneurship status, not only in Sri Lanka but
around the world as well. Therefore the focus is to understand what factors contributes towards
the success of female entrepreneurs and identify the practical limitations and challenges faced
by Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs as third world developing nationals and the strategies they
could adopt in order to successfully overcome such difficulties through comparison of learning
between those two nations.
According to OECD with the persistence of increasing the contribution of women
entrepreneurship in the global economy, highlights the importance of studying women
entrepreneurship as it has given the acknowledgement as a significantly untapped source of
economic growth. A multiple country study has been conducted on women’s participation in
entrepreneurship but the study emphasizes on gender inequality in global entrepreneurship

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(Neupert, et al., 2006). Most of the Sri Lankan entrepreneurial studies have been conducted
revolving around men there is a lack in women based entrepreneurial studies (Ranasinghe,
1996; Ranasinghe, 2008). Minniti and Naudé, (2010) and Jamali (2009) have identified that
there is a shortage of reliable data on women entrepreneurship particularly in emerging and
developing countries.
There is a clear literature gap of discovering economic, cultural, psychological and other
factors which contributes and influences Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs. It has also resulted
in the deficiency of research on their success stories and has thus constrained our
understanding on their special characteristics contributing to success.
According to the future studies suggested by Ranasinghe, (2008) there is a literature gap
concerning the effect of culture on entrepreneurial success in Sri Lanka and he further suggests
that exploring factors such as social, economic, political, legal and business environment
affecting the woman entrepreneurship would be advantageous to better understood what
contributes for the success of Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs. Lussier, et al., (2016) have
suggested future researchers to find out how regulatory framework, economy, cultural
environment affects the businesses’ success and failure and then to develop cultural control
variables to test the model in other countries. Further Billore (2011) also have suggested for
future researchers to work on a comparative study model to compare the challenges faced by
women entrepreneurs between genders or and between members of developing and developed
economies.
Still a minority only represents as women entrepreneurs showcasing an existence of market
failure focusing on the discrimination against women becoming successful entrepreneurs.
Further the study suggests that this market failure needs to be addressed by the policy makers
for the maximum utilization of this potential economic group. Even though researchers have
found common issues faced by women entrepreneurs globally, a qualitative comparative
research has not been conducted between USA and Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs. The
above identified gap will be explored through two comparative case studies on women
entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka and USA.

1.3 Research Questions

The following research question was constructed based on the above discussions.
1. What are the factors contributing towards the success of women entrepreneurship in
USA and Sri Lanka?

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1.4 Research Objectives

To identify and analyse the economic, cultural, psychological, and other factors which
contributes towards the success of women entrepreneurs in USA and Sri Lanka and thereby
identify what strategies should be adopted as an individual and as a government to overcome
challenges, if any, faced by women entrepreneurs in an economy.

1.5 Significance of the Study

Women entrepreneurship is precisely important for a country like Sri Lanka since more
than half of the population in Sri Lanka are women but still their active participation in the
economy is only 34.7 percent (Department of Census and Statistics, 2014). The quantity of Sri
Lankan females representing the employer category is approximately 0.9 percent from the
totally employed population in 2013 (Department of Census and Statistics, 2014). Sri Lanka’s
latest available statistics about the total economically inactive population shows that 75.3
percent are women whereas men represent only 24.7 in the year 2016. Such statistical
environments implies huge underutilised manpower reservoir that could be utilised for the
development of the nation. Hillary Clinton has stated that, “Women are the largest untapped
reservoir of talent in the world”. Therefore the society as a whole will benefit by empowering
such individuals especially women since women calculates of more than half of the global
population as well. Labour force participation of women can be increased either by attracting
more women as employees or as employers that is women entrepreneurs (Attygalle, et al.,
2014) and this study focuses on identifying ways to attract more women as employers or rather
entrepreneurs to the economy.
However the purpose of this cross-national study is to identify, understand and compare
the differences and analyse the economic, cultural, psychological, and other factors which
contribute towards the success of women entrepreneurs in USA and Sri Lanka. Thereby
identify the reasons behind one’s success and one’s dawdle. By comparing a highly advanced
country like USA with a third world developing country like Sri Lanka this study intends to
highlight the strategies that the developing nation could adopt by studying the success factors
of the highly developed nation which is United States of America.
To the best of author’s knowledge, this study is the first research which addresses and
analyses the factors which contributes towards the success of women entrepreneurship in Sri

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Lanka and USA through a comparative research.

1.6 Structure of the dissertation

The main body of the project consist of five chapters. The first chapter illustrates an
introduction to the study. Second chapter consists a critical literature review identifying and
analysing the factors contributing towards the success of women entrepreneurs and the
challenges they face in relation to the subjective factors categorised in the discussion. Third
chapter consists the methodology of the study along with a graphical representation of the
factors explicated in the literature review. Chapter four delivers and highlights the findings of
the study. Finally, chapter five gives a summary of the study concluding all the data, theories,
and opinions gathered by the sources, and individuals providing recommendations to those
individuals, industrial experts, or government policy makers for growth and for further
improvement.

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Chapter Two.
Literature Review

2.1 Introduction
Literature review performed in this chapter gives a theoretical insight of factors
contributing towards the success of women entrepreneurs in both developed and developing
economies. First section explicates a review of definitions given by different subject experts
about women entrepreneurship derived from secondary sources. The second section comprises
of contributory factors and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. Finally the chapter ends
with a comparative summary concluding all the factors contributing towards women
entrepreneurship while briefly outlining few constraints as well.

2.2 Key Definitions

“There is no doubt in my mind that without the involvement of women in the economy, in
politics, in peace-making, in every aspect of society, you can't realize a country's full potential”
(Hillary Clinton, 2012).
According to Schumpeter (1934:pp.75) as cited in Edoho (2016) entrepreneurship is
characterized as the “fundamental phenomenon for economic development” the author further
suggests that entrepreneurship transpires under five conditions, they are; new production
methods, new products, new markets, new materials, or new organizations. Ranasinghe (2008)
states that entrepreneurship is a decisive factor for any country’s economic development.
Entrepreneurship performs as a key problem and as a fundamental tool in the growth of the
economy (Gupta & York, 2008). Women entrepreneurship is one of the fastest economic
strategy to boost development through creating employment opportunities, reducing poverty
and through innovation around the world (Bullough, et al., 2014). According to Morris (2001)
entrepreneurship facilitates structural change and regional development in the economy and
also it contributes towards the increase in GDP (gross domestic production) in the countries.
The exceptionally specific instrument of entrepreneurship is innovation (Drucker,
2015). A modern economist, Janet Yellen (2017) advocates that promoting entrepreneurship
could play a greater role in workforce development, and she further highlights entrepreneurship
as a fundamental strength of the American economy. Not only for developed countries but also
for emerging countries entrepreneurship is more like an economic instrument for the boost of

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our economies.
Entrepreneurship is defined as a fundamental driving force for economic development
in economists’ point of view but in mangers’ point of view entrepreneurship is more like
business, whereas investors and entrepreneurs seek for opportunities in the markets willing to
invest their time and money to multiply their ROI (Return on Investments). Agarwal and Lenka
(2015) defined entrepreneurship as the process of starting a new business.
However, entrepreneurship can be defined in many ways the researcher observed that
it has many dimensions to it. It is an ill-defined and multidimensional concept (Verheul &
Thurik, 2001). “Entrepreneurship is the special collection of skills possessed by an
entrepreneur” (The Economist, 2009). The definition or the real meaning of entrepreneurship
may vary from scientist to, economist to, socialist to manager’s point of view. However the
researcher’s point of view in entrepreneurship is that it is a status that could be obtained by any
individual regardless of their gender or the region they live in, but agreeing to all the above
statements author believes that that individual must possess certain entrepreneurial set of skills
and characteristics which would be discussed in the forthcoming sections of this study.
Literature pertaining to the definition of an entrepreneur such as according to
Schumpeter (1934,p.75) as cited in Edoho (2016) an entrepreneur is an innovator. Cherukara
and Manalel, (2011) identifies an entrepreneur as an individual who organise businesses and
assesses risks involved for the return in profit. An entrepreneur should be an individual who
gives birth to a new business venture (Naser, et al., 2009) and that individual should be a person
who seeks for opportunities and should have the capability to convert those opportunities into
profit generating business organizations. Greve and Salaff (2003) defines an entrepreneur as
anyone who owns, launches, manages, and takes risks of an economic venture.
However male and female entrepreneurs pursue different business interests, their
business and personal profile differs, have different goals, values and visions, and their
structure of the business also different (Fischer, et al. 1993; Brush, 1992; Chaganti and
Parasuraman, 1996; Verheul and Thurik, 2001).
Even though there is a huge importance in endowing women entrepreneurship the
number of women entrepreneurs still lags behind than of male entrepreneurs in both local and
global contexts in any economies.
However female entrepreneurs are not only an incredible engine for growth in the
economy but also an engine for justifiable growth distribution (The guardian, 2014). Agarwal
and Lenka, (2015) further stated that female entrepreneurship has been recognized as
employment creators, wealth generators and problem solvers of the society. Therefore

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empowering women entrepreneurship is extremely crucial. Which is why now we can see that
the governments around the world integrated with local and international bodies such as IMF,
UN and its subsidiaries empowers women entrepreneurship and even multinational
corporations encourages, promotes women’s participation even in the corporates across the
world, which ultimately would add value to the global economy.

2.3 Factors contributing towards women entrepreneurship

This research will explore the factors contributing towards the success of female
entrepreneurship and identify the differences through a factor comparison as mentioned above.
Variety of major factors identified by the researcher will be presented factor by factor, section
by section comparing and analysing against with the available literature of those two countries.
Two main dimensions to the findings, which are; positive factors contributing towards the
success of women entrepreneurship described above and the negative factors will consist of
the constrictions, obstacles and controversies which have arisen in the past will be presented in
this section.
The researcher has observed that entrepreneurial success could be defined depending
on two main elements; financial success and non-financial success. Financial success can be
measured by evaluating the financial performance of the company and non-financial measures
could be such as, emotional satisfaction, work-life balance, to which extent the customer is
satisfied and the community is empowered, etc.
Entrepreneurial success, according to scholars, especially those focused in developed
countries, is measured in terms of growth in profit, added value, total turnover, market share
and asset growth (Majumdar, 2008). Studies also have introduced different kind of mechanisms
to measure the success rate of entrepreneurship in general, such as key performance measures
like primary performance measures which includes sales, revenue, net assets worth, number of
employees and growth in employees (Botha, 2006).

In order to ascertain the success and to assess the factors contributing towards the
financial success of women entrepreneurship, the researcher has taken three main criterias for
the ease of measurements, they are; growth in sales and or profits, growth in employees, and
upturn in net assets owned by the company. Also non- financial success wholly depends on the
self-satisfaction or rather emotional satisfaction of one’s opinion about whatever their

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achievement.
The success of entrepreneurial eco system in 132 countries are measured by the Global
Entrepreneurship Index which is issued by the Global Development and Entrepreneurship
Institute annually ranking each country according to their performance. The report mentions a
rich understanding of how these economies perform in both domestic context and international
context is provided and a clear view of the strengths and bottlenecks of the entrepreneurial
ecosystem is provided. Even though Sri Lanka is listed in GEI, the country has lost its
entrepreneurial status by falling from being 71 st in 2015 to 97th in 2016 (World Economic
Forum, 2015). Therefore to up bring Sri Lanka back to its status identifying the key factors and
comparing with a developed national is very much essential.
Following factors have been recognised by the author as factors contributing towards
the success of Sri Lankan and American women entrepreneurs and the study will continue
analysing these factors against those two nations.

2.3.1 Economic Factors

Key economic factors include such as rate of interest, cost of labour, government
policies, tax schemes, and management (Business Dictionary, n.d.). In spite of this, the
researcher of the study has taken only the most relevant handful of economic factors into
consideration, in order to make the cross-national analysis much more appropriate. The
economic factors in this study refers to access for capital, interest rates, government policies,
human capital, employment and unemployment rates, and opportunities created by the
economies.
Access to Capital
Studies have found that female entrepreneurs in general have limited access to capital,
limited knowledge in business and financial management (Wijeyratnam & Perera, 2013;
Lockyer & George, 2012). Shortage in access for credit is mostly because both investors and
lenders are reluctant to provide capital to women in general (Allen & Truman, 1993) mainly
because they lack access to asset collaterals (Ifthikar & Senathiraja, 2014). U.S. women
entrepreneurs seek for seed investments from other established American business owners
(Smith, et al., 2012).
Females are most likely to get internal source of finance such as from personal savings
and loans, lend from friends and relatives than external source of finance such as business
loans, share capital, government grants and subsidies (Read, 2002). This is because obtaining

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loans from friends and relatives involves lesser risk and this has an emotional aspect as well.
On the other hand obtaining loans for low interest rates helps businesses to grow.
In the case of Sri Lanka there is a lack of micro-finance schemes with low interest rates
which pulls off the potential entrepreneurs initiating businesses in general. The author further
highlights the difficulty in finding collateral access to low interest credit facilities as one of the
key barriers for Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs. Contradictorily on the other hand as a
favourable factor the author also have found that it is easy for women to obtain loans from
banks and financial institutions since the level of credibility of women are thought to be high
in settling loan payments and meeting the requirements (Wijeyratnam & Perera, 2013).
However this depends on the amount, the business profile, and status of the company.
According to the second-annual Ernst & Young G20 Entrepreneurship Barometer,
(2013) U.S. is ranked as one of the top five countries for launching a small business and ranked
first as the country which has the easiest access to seed funding for start-ups.
American banks grant special loan schemes for women entrepreneurs such as; Small
Business Administration's loan programs (Hecht, 2015). Further now online lending companies
and platforms like Fundera (Fundera Inc, 2018), Funding Circle (Funding Circle Holdings
Limited, 2018) further open doors for women entrepreneurs to virtually access the capital
market. Further implies that Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs have lesser access to capital and
financial markets which, and whatsoever no way to access it virtually, which hinder the
progress compared to American women entrepreneurs. However Sri Lanka is in the process of
building its virtual capital market network.
However the researcher’s observation is that, none of the Sri Lankan banks nor do any
financial institutes grant special loan schemes with favourable interest rates open to women
entrepreneurs to the date. But majority of the banks facilitates special savings accounts schemes
with higher interest rates for women than to men. For instance ‘Anagi’ savings account from
Commercial Bank Sri Lanka and ‘Anagi’ account holders are given the facility to obtain ‘Gold
Loan’ which is jewellery pawning facility (Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, 2018), ‘Sthree’
from NSB (National Savings Bank, 2018), and ‘Ladies 1st’ from Sampath Bank (Sampath Bank
PLC, 2018). Thus the financial and the economic framework of the country further implies that
women are encouraged to save more as house wives or working women than to obtain loans
for business or for investment purposes.
Lack of access for women is a common problem rather a global problem which needs
to be addressed by international bodies, financial institutes and the government policies to
empower women owning businesses.

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Human capital
Human capital accumulation and labour market dynamics also play vital roles in a
country’s economy. According to Minniti et al. (2006) prevalence rate of female
entrepreneurship have tendency to be higher in developing countries than in developed
countries. This is mainly because the need to overcome poverty and women in developing
countries face higher barriers to enter the formal labour market, mainly due to labour market
discrimination for women (Minniti and Naudi, 2010). Studies also have found that women are
the first to be fired and the last to find new employment opportunities (Welter et al., 2003)
which ultimately compel them to start off their own businesses. Contradictorily studies also
have proven that women in less developed nations face more barriers to formal economic
participation than to those in emerging countries (Allen et al; 2008).
Wijeyratnam & Perera, (2013) highlights that there is a labour shortage in Sri Lanka
which threats the success of the future. The reasons possibly could be due to ample of women
labour being exported to Middle East countries and another major issue is that high trend of
‘brain drain’ flowing from Sri Lanka to highly developed countries.
However, cost of labour is high in USA than in Sri Lanka yet quality of labour is known
to be high in USA compared to Sri Lankan labour due to ease of access to education and
advanced technology. In terms of quality US women entrepreneurs are much favoured because
computer literacy rate and level of education is averagely higher in US labour than of Sri
Lankan labour. Therefore the quality of labour is higher in America than in Sri Lanka. However
in terms of cost for labour, Sri Lankan female entrepreneurs are favoured than of to US women
entrepreneurs as the labour is cheap, and thus it increases the tendency to initiate businesses.

Employment and unemployment rates

Unemployment rate in USA is 4.1% in January 2018 (US Bureay of labour statistical,
2018) unemployment rate in Sri Lanka is 4.2% in January 2018 (Trading economics, 2018).
This actually implies stagnation in the labour market of USA and evaluating the
Unemployment rate against the two countries requires different mechanisms. Recession push
theory suggests that unemployment compel to give new birth to new firms because people are
‘pushed’ into entrepreneurship after redundancy (Storey, 1982). Study conducted in
Pennsylvania by Robinson (2001) cited in Wajih (2011) states that reasons for women to start
firms are not always led by positive factors but also due to destructive conditions such as lack
of employment opportunities, low income in the family, and dissatisfaction with a current job

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or the need for flexibility in work.

One way or another, unemployment which seems to be as a negative factor also
contributes towards entrepreneurship, because losing one’s job may lead them to start their
own business and be their own boss.

Government Policies
The success or failure of women's entrepreneurship could be influenced by a collection
of economic conditions such as: Government paradigms, policies, attitudes towards business
ownership, and government continuation of programs and policies in support of entrepreneurial
activities (Namdari, et al., 2012). Affirmative entrepreneurial policies are contributory factors
to boost women entrepreneurship.

Other Economic Factors:

Access for Markets
Another benefit US women entrepreneurs have is their huge population of 300 million
and wider and super easy access to the international market, their local market is huge; but Sri
Lankan women entrepreneurs have limited access and a smaller market of a population of 20
millions
Economic Downturn
Inflation affects entrepreneurial growth in countries in many forms such as; if the
country’s inflation rate is high, it will lose price competitiveness in the international market.
Mainly because currency s debased, and that causes reduction in purchasing power this
demotivate entrepreneurs’ in general entering international market. Further causes mal-
investment and creates business cycles which general have a negative impact on country’s
entrepreneurial and economic growth.
However, business cycle determinate the number of entrepreneurs that economy
produce. Recession could possibly increase the number of new enterprises through many
forms. Such as investment in second handed cheap plant and machinery from liquidated
businesses, perhaps labour rates become cheaper due to high inflation rate during recession
(Westhead, et al., 2011).

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2.3.2 Cultural Factors

Culture acts as a muted language (Groysberg, et al., 2018). Ranasinghe (2008) explains
that culture indirectly have an impact on the success of entrepreneurship. This means people in
the environment, what they value, priorities according to their culture, accepted way of doing
things, religions and belief systems, cultural recommendations and critics plays a role in the
society as to what it encourages and not. Hypothetically for an example a woman starting up
an alcohol business in Sri Lanka or India may be highly condemned, but this maybe encouraged
in developed westernised cultures. This is because what is valued by one culture may not be
encouraged by another. Further women appearing in most of the advertisements in Arabian
countries are not entertained, and there are instances where multinational marketing campaigns
have failed in those continents purely due to cultural factors. Morrison (2001) explains cultural
background in the context of entrepreneurship is defined as to how entrepreneurs are brought
up, developed and to which they regard their behaviour to be accepted.
According to Nilufer (2001) socio-cultural factors in emerging countries influence
female’s decision to become an entrepreneur. Ranasinghe, (2008) also states that culture and
religion are considered as factors contributing towards success of Sri Lankan female
entrepreneurs. However Sri Lankan entrepreneurs shows cultural difference than to those in
western countries and Gamage et al. (2003) also gives evidence on that the existing
entrepreneurship models in Sri Lanka are mostly based on the assumptions of individual
accomplishments and personality trait theory.

Findings in Sri Lanka have found that sociocultural barriers also attributable to limit
access for capital; such as habit of not saving due to low household income and deficiency of
employment skills due to limited education (Ifthikar & Senathiraja, 2014) and limited financial
knowledge to manage the finances appropriately. This is a vicious cycle of poverty which needs
to be eliminated by policy makers in the economy and education fields. However studies also
have found that education system of Sri Lanka motivates individual dependency on
employment therefore signifies low self-confidence in self-employment (Lussier, et al, 2016).
However as Kodithuwakku and Perera (2003) finds that, the entry of women into business is a
‘recent development in orthodox, traditional, socio-cultural environment’ of Sri Lankan
society.
The United States of America is recognized globally for its culture of entrepreneurship
(Global Entrepreneur Summit, 2017) and it is ranked first in the world for having a culture of

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entrepreneurship (Ernst & Young G20 Entrepreneurship Barometer, 2013). America promotes
policies and programs which encourages in talent development, entrepreneurial culture, and
capital for SMEs (Global Entrepreneur Summit, 2017). Even in US women face cultural
challenges such as gender inequality, low recognition for women owned enterprises so on and
so forth, yet the opportunities created in the well-known ‘land of opportunity’ for women
entrepreneurs and the recognition is comparatively far more greater than the opportunities
created for women in Sri Lanka. At the same time, hypothetically even if the contribution of
the factors are high and the same in both the countries, if the environment is different, then still
there will be a noticeable difference in the success of women entrepreneurs between those
countries.
OECD (2004) have stated that female entrepreneurship is both about the role in
entrepreneurship and women’s position in the society as well. Agarwal and Lenka, (2015) also
advocates that, serial contribution of women is a necessary for overall socio-economic and
cultural progress of a country and according to Duffy et al. (2006) failure to understand how
women succeed in widely differing cultures puts educators, policy makers, educators at a
disadvantage in this time of globalization.

2.3.3 Psychological factors

In this section, the researcher emphasises on the psychological factors which have a
positive influence on women entrepreneurs in regard with entrepreneurial tendency. Human
motivation theory by McClelland's also have advocated that every individual has one of three
key driving motivators. They are power, need for achievement, or relationship. A study in Sri
Lanka also have found that social power, social relations and collectivism drives for
entrepreneurial motivation for Sri Lankans (Gamage et al. (2003).

There is a correlation between psychology and culture, which is why it is essential to

identify and analyse the differences in those two contexts in relation to the western and south
Asian culture to identify the personality traits which contributes towards the success of women
entrepreneurs. According to White et al. (1992) as cited by Duffy et al. (2006) three personal
characteristics have been noticed which could influence the success of a woman entrepreneur.
They are; self-efficiency, an internal locus of control, and the willpower. Internal locus of
control concept was introduced by Julian B. Rotter in 1954. The concept refers to the degree
to which a person’s belief that he or she has control over the outcome of events in their lives.

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These women in common have similar characteristics but different cultural values and norms
which also have an indirect influence on their nature of businesses. High-achieving women
tend to share specific characteristics, experiences, and belief systems regardless of their culture
or countries they live in (Duffy, et al., 2006) and an entrepreneur role is frequently
characterized as being more masculine than feminine (Baughn, et al., 2006).
The literature about the decision in entering entrepreneurship has identified push
(necessity) and pull (opportunity) factors (World Bank, 2014) both push and pull factors boosts
motivation for women (Brush, 1992). Pull factors are generally considered as the tendency to
become one’s own boss, to have full authority, the status, self-esteem, recognition, independent
attitude and hustling attitude for money. Push factors are usually refers to; family status,
dissatisfaction to do a job and having to work under someone, loss of flexibility on the job,
family breakup, family member’s sickness or the death of the main income generator that is
husband (Agarwal and Lenka, 2015). Empirical evidence about push and pull factors have
identified that female entrepreneurs in developed nations were inspired and motivated by
having the need for achievement where as women entrepreneurs from the emerging countries
have found out to be motivated by a combination of both pull and push factors (Orhan and
Scott, 2001). For instance majority of women entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka may encounter
various push factors influencing their entrepreneurial tendency in such a developing economic
context, such as gender discrimination and inequality issues in the labour market, losing the
main income generator of the family, and so on, and pull factors maybe such as seeking for
social status, independency, need to earn more money and so on. In which some of the push
factors are negative economic factors. Nevertheless push factors contributes women
entrepreneurship to upsurge, because such difficulties leads women entrepreneurs to provide
themselves self-employment.

2.3.4 Other Factors

Literature in this study outlines other factors such as regulatory framework, access for
technology, entrepreneurial learning and experiences which possibly have an impact on women
entrepreneurs.
Technological factors
Access for Technology and knowledge for women is a main concern in both developing
and even in developed countries as well. Today no business can survive without technology.
More the advancement in technology greater the benefit for the business. Therefore it is not
mind-boggling to understand that, if wom en business owners get wider access to

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technology they can succeed in a short time span. Thereby businesses can gain competitive
advantage by increasing their production and level of efficiency. Swierczek & Ha, (2007)
explains that deficiency in new technology and equipment are key factors which limits the
development of Micro and Small Scale Enterprise (MSE) and that the government needs to
support MSEs performance (Swierczek & Ha, 2007). The major concern is whether women in
general have access to such technology, especially this is a major concern in developing
countries, and even if they do, there is a doubt about their computer literacy level. It is even
worse in a developing country like Sri Lanka than in America, where the computer literacy rate
of women shows 26.0% in the first half of the year 2016 (Department of Census and Statistics
Sri Lanka, 2016) and similarly low access to advanced technologies were found to be obstacles
among SMEs in Sri Lanka (Wijeyratnam & Perera, 2013). However technology is a massive
factor which contributes towards the success of women entrepreneurship but the success rate
could be further improved by giving more access to technology and by educating them more
through government intervention.

Legal factors
Any legal business is abided by the law enforcement in their countries. Legal
framework of any country has a major impact on the performance of any businesses. This could
be in favour for the entrepreneurs or could lead to demotivate entrepreneurship as well,
especially women entrepreneurship. Policy makers of the country should adopt favourable
policy schemes which up bring women entrepreneurship within the country. However Most of
the researchers have found out tax schemes, and business regulations as legal barriers hindering
implementation and running of the businesses (Gurnani, 2016) and in most of the cases women
entrepreneurs’ experiences are even adverse. For example in Arab, Neither women can own
lands nor drive vehicles, which takes away their independency, level of self-esteem, and even
steals their equal rights. In fact legal factors should diverse in creating a positive impact than
negatively influencing entrepreneurship. For instance, United States has developed a strong
legal framework implementing some good laws encouraging women entrepreneurs in the field,
which other developing country like Sri Lanka could learn from. The Department of State is
working on in promoting legislative and policy frameworks that increase women’s economic
empowerment.
According to the U.S. State Department (2016) Trade agreement acts such as African
Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) has been implemented to increase trade access to women
entrepreneurs. This agreement has enabled U.S. companies to invest in women’s SME

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businesses and by this not only U.S. entrepreneurs benefits, but it’s a door for global
opportunity as U.S. trade representative offices has been able to successfully negotiate Trade
and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFAs) with countries like Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka,
Pakistan and Afghanistan to clearly identify and remove legal and discriminatory barriers
which hinders women’s ability to access and take advantage of trade opportunities while
developing a strong support system.
Nonetheless Sri Lankan constitute does not encourage any form of gender
discriminating laws linked with assets acquisition nor business registration which may hinder
the success of women entrepreneurs. The constitution contains clauses which promotes gender
equality by means of contribution to the economy (The World Bank Group, n.d). Now it’s high
time for Sri Lanka as well to give much focus on expanding the potentials by implementing
strong and empowering legal framework than trying to get rid of barriers.

Entrepreneurial learning
This section of the research will contain the availability of learning facility and the
access for entrepreneurial education and training in those two economic contexts. According
to Porter (1994) as cited by Jones & English (2004: p 417), entrepreneurial education means
the ability to take calculated risks, capability of imagination and creativity in business.
However naturally inhabited entrepreneurial skills could be further sharpened to create a
positive impact on the community, by facilitating adequate training and education to the
potential female entrepreneurs. Studies have shown that women entrepreneurs in developing
countries have very limited access to entrepreneurial training and education compared to
female nationalities in developed countries. A research conducted in women entrepreneurship
in developing countries in Asia specifically provided evidence that poor level of education,
lack of training opportunities, lack of access to formal credit and other facilities affect the rate
of women entrepreneurship (Tambunan,2009).
Majority of the people have brilliant, billion dollar ideas, but the problem is, that they
don’t know how to execute. In the case of women, quite critical because majority of the women
have limited knowledge in terms of finances, operations of the supply chain, etc. This could be
eliminated by facilitating more training and special educational system for potential women
entrepreneurs as an approach to empower women entrepreneurs.
Other factors such as lack of technical knowledge, guidance, government training,
support from the family, poor network and networking skills have been realised as other
success barricades in a woman’s entrepreneurial journey (Agarwal and Lanka, 2015) which

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should be converted into benefiting factors by providing them proper guidance, training,
motivating and supporting them by acquaintances, and by encouraging them to build up a
strong industrial network.
Conclusion
As identified and analysed in the above context there are four main factors that
contributes on equal basis as factors determining women entrepreneurship in both the USA and
Sri Lanka, they are Economic, Socio – cultural, Psychological and Other contributory factors.
As highlighted above out of these factors Socio – cultural factor has a greater influence and
determination power over women entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka. Being a south Asian country
a greater tendency towards social ethics and norms are visible thus it decides women’s
motivation towards entrepreneurship. As compared to westernised countries like the US the
cultural barricade hinders growth and motivation of women entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka
despite the numerous number of programmes conducted by the government to promote women
towards self-employment and entrepreneurship. This context is further analysed in the next
chapter through the use of data collected and supportive evidence

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Chapter Three
Methodology

3.1 Introduction
This chapter explains the methodological aspects of this research. This third chapter
consists of several sections, such as sampling procedure, conceptual framework, and set of
variable definitions, method of data collection and data analysis technique, finally the
methodology chapter concludes with a summary.

3.2. Sampling Procedure

The associated study is about what contributes to the success of women entrepreneurs
in a comparison study of two different countries. A qualitative research has been carried out
and data has been gathered through primary data sources. Purposive sampling technique has
been carried out. Therefore the non-probability sample of this study is made up of six
successful women entrepreneurs, three from each country, U.S. and Sri Lanka. A detailed
description of the respondents and their business organizations are presented in a form of a
table.

Representation Name and the Profile Summary of the Respondents.

Designation of the
Respondents.
R1 Name: Stacey Cohen Company Name: ABC Inc. (Company
Designation: President & withheld as per the respondent’s request).
CEO Company summary: A full-service marketing
Country: U.S.A. communications firm.
Success Factor of the business: Increased
revenue of approximately 40% over the last 10
years (Financial Success)
R2 Name: Cheryl Collins Company Name: Women Entrepreneurs
Designation: Founder, Worldwide (WEW).
Speaker & Consultant Company summary: Global movement &

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Country: U.S.A. Forum. Business of empowering women

Entrepreneurs around the world.
Success Factor of the business: The respondent
declared to be successful in the field and to be
self-satisfied.
R3 Name: Cheryl Edison Company Name: Edison International.
Designation: Founder and Company summary: Global market
C.E.O., to market strategy development and innovation acceleration
for products, services & initiator and consultancy company.
places, Speaker & Success Factor of the business: Portfolio of
Consultant in Edison multinational clients across 30 countries
International. (Linked-In, 2018).

Country: U.S.A.
R4 Name: Felicia Adhihetty Company Name: B-Connected (Pvt) Limited.
Designation: Founder and Company summary: A human resource
C.E.O. management & Event management company.
Country: Sri Lanka Success Factor of the business: Expanded
business operations from Event management to
human resource management and then to
corporate and secretary services. Grew from two
employees to 5 employees.
R5 Name: Jayamalee Company Name: T J Materials, Pvt. (Ltd).
Mahalgamage Company summary: Construction company
Designation: Founder and specialised in manufacturing interlock blocks.
C.E.O. of ‘Thomas Success Factor of the business: 65% profits
Jayasena, Materials Pvt. generated after two years of commencement.
(Ltd).
Country: Sri Lanka

R6 Name: Yusra Aziz Eliyas Company Name: ‘Podi Jobs’

Designation: Founder and Company summary: first freelance platform in
C.E.O., (solopreneur) Sri Lanka

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Country: Sri Lanka Success Factor of the business: Developed

zero to 1800 freelancer base and do 80-100 jobs
per month.

3.3. Conceptual Framework

After reassessing the literature review performed in the previous chapter, the researcher
has constructed a conceptual framework in accordance with the study. The conceptual
framework (Figure 1) is an overview of the main themes presented in the literature. For
instance, the following diagram displays the factors which contributes towards the success of
women entrepreneurs in two different national environments. Thus, the following contributory
factors have been used to construct the questionnaire for the interviews.

Figure 3.1 conceptual framework of the study.

Economic Factors

Socio-cultural Factors
Success of Women
Psychological Factors Entrepreneurship

Other contributory Factors

Figure 3.1. Conceptual Framework

3.4. Variable Definitions

According to the elements extracted from the literature, this study considers four main

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factors which contributes towards the success of women entrepreneurship as illustrated in the
conceptual framework and is further reinterpreted in this section.
Entrepreneurship is characterized as the “fundamental phenomenon for economic
development”. (Schumpeter, 1934: pp 75 as cited in Edoho, 2016: pp. 279-294). Women
entrepreneurship is one of the fastest economic strategy to boost development through creating
employment opportunities, reducing poverty and through innovation around the world
(Bullough, et al., 2014). Therefore exploring ways to improve women entrepreneurship is vital.
3.4.1. Economic Factors
Economic factors covers a wider extent in this research, in which comprises a cluster
of economic elements which influences entrepreneurship and precisely women
entrepreneurship. They are; access to capital, human capital, government policies, employment
and unemployment rates, and the opportunities created by the economies. According to
Business Case Studies (n.d.) economic factors refers to changes in costs and prices of goods,
inflation rates, interest rates, wage rates, exchange rates and its ability to affect the profitability
of businesses.
3.4.2. Cultural Factors
Hofstede (1984: pp 21) defines culture as “the collective programming of the mind
which distinguishes the members of one group from another”. Cultural norms define what is
encouraged, discouraged, accepted, or rejected within a group. According to a research
conducted by Ranasinghe (2008) have found out that the culture have created a positive impact
for the success of Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs.
3.4.3. Psychological Factors
According to Mitton (1989) an entrepreneur is a person who displays certain
psychological characteristics that could include commitment to work, a need for control and
the capability to cope with challenges and uncertainty. Drucker (1985) states that the
foundation of entrepreneurship lies in concept and theory rather than in intuition, and it is a
behaviour rather than personality trait. Therefore behavioural study also plays a vital role in
identifying and empowering the talented individuals, specifically women entrepreneurs in this
case.

3.4.4. Other contributory Factors

This refers to other factors which directly or indirectly influences women
entrepreneurship. The following factors are taken into consideration for this study. They are;
technological factors, legal factors, and entrepreneurial education and experiences.

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Legal factors
Legal factors refers to the impact caused by a country’s legal framework in developing
women entrepreneurship. Institutional and legal contexts plays an important role in women
entrepreneurship, which possibly influences its nature and its impending economic
contribution (Aidis et al., 2006).
Technological factors
Technological factors refers to the access for technology and knowledge or rather the
impact of computer literacy level on developing women entrepreneurship. Low access to
advanced technologies were found to be obstacles among SMEs in Sri Lanka (Wijeyratnam &
Perera, 2013). Women are mostly based in SME sector. Nevertheless technology is a massive
factor which contributes towards the success of women entrepreneurship but the success rate
could be further improved by giving more access to technology and by educating them more
through government intervention.

Entrepreneurial learning
Entrepreneurial learning refers to the impact it causes on an individual’s entrepreneurial
journey, and the availability of related education and training as contributory factors towards
success of women entrepreneurship in those two economic contexts. Entrepreneurship is
renowned as an educational innovation as it drives people to learn about learning (Charney and
Libecap, 2003 as cited by Jones & English, 2004: p 417).

3.5 Data and Data collection

Data collection in this research comprises of two distinct phases. First phase involves
analysing the collection of secondary data sources in the literature review chapter. Second
phase involves collecting primary data by interviewing successful women entrepreneurs who
have founded and operates profitable, legally established businesses.
Data has been gathered by interviewing six successful women entrepreneurs in total,
three from each country; U.S.A. and Sri Lanka. This kind of purposive sampling technique is
used to identify and explore the differential factors contributing to success of women
entrepreneurship in those two contradictory economies.
Success factor of these female entrepreneurs in this research is determined by the
growth in either Sales, profits, number of employees, expansion of net worth, etc., as supported
by the literature.

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Respondents were informed about the purpose of the interviews and their prior approval
has been obtained orally and in written form. The interviews are semi structured and the
information has been recorded by the researcher with the consent of the respondents. All the
interviews have been recorded and saved accordingly. The respondents were given the freedom
of choice whether to disclose their company name in this research report. Further all six
interviews were conducted solely in English language, and on an average of sixty to seventy
minutes per interview.
All the respondents were found via ‘Linked-In’ and appointments were coordinated
through ‘Linked-In’ messages, emails, and phone calls in advance. Overseas interviews were
conducted via ‘WhatsApp’ calls and face to face interviews have been conducted with the local
participants. This study also had paid close attention to the details of non-verbal
communications such as variations of the voice tone, and body languages during the course of
interviews as it was fuelling my interest in behaviourism. All the questions were open ended
and semi-structured. Most of the prospected respondents replied immediately both local and
international contacts. However it was difficult in the beginning to get responses from a lot
women entrepreneurs due to their busy schedules, but after trying about for weeks I was able
to conduct interviews with six of them, and apart from that I received 2 email respondents were
not taken into account as it was not in accordance with my research methodology. Interview
questions were asked to bring out the interesting stories that they have experienced with an
expectation to understand the participant and their success story.

3.6 Data analysis

Interviews were transcribed accordingly and coded manually under the factors that are
identified in the conceptual framework. Interview quotations are used as evidence in this
qualitative research. Data analysis has been done through qualitative data analysing
techniques such as thematic analysis by presenting their statements as quotes to identify the
key findings and explore the differential factors contributing to success of women
entrepreneurs in those two economies adding my thoughts, opinions and suggestions and
conclude the summary.
3.7 Summary.
Chapter three consists of the overall summary of the fundamental concepts which are
in relation with the research interest in a nutshell and demonstrates the relationship with the
purpose of the research title, while it justifies the data collection instruments. Further this

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chapter illustrates the mechanisms, and methodologies employed in the process of deriving
solutions for the research problems throughout the process of data collection. The section
further covers the facets of consistency and the authentication in the collected data.

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Chapter Four
Data Presentation and Analysis

4.1 Introduction
The analysis of the gathered data is presented here. Data has been analysed using
thematic analysing technique. This chapter also delivers the key findings of the study as
solutions for the research problem and answers to the above stated research question. Key
findings are analysed based on the responses received during the interviews from the
interviewees. The most important and relevant responses are presented here in form of quotes.
Purpose of this chapter is to identify the diverse key factors and common factors
contributing towards the success of women entrepreneurship in two different economies.

4.2 Data analysis

Data has been gathered as answers to the questions asked from the respondents at the
interviews. The questions were prepared based on the key factors derived from the literature
review. Some of the questions are constructed with the purpose of obtaining answers in relation
with one specific factor, and some are prepared as a combination of two factors. Common
perceptions are summarised under each section of factors and key responses highlighted and
presented in form of quotes.

4.2.1. Economic Factors

Access to capital
All of the respondents preferred internal source of finance. Although U.S. respondents
had different opinions about it. However R6 Lankan respondent has been able to start off her
business with zero cost. Which is a bootstrapped start-up.
R2: “All capital that I accessed was due to previous years of working in the corporate sector
and benefits obtained”.
R3: “My way of accessing capital and new markets pretty different. I don’t usually vouch for
FDI. Which is pretty common, but not my way of investments, I don’t recommend that approach as a
business and entrepreneurial consultant, if I want to enter a new market, I normally hire people from
there, I don’t invest a bunch of money in an unknown unfamiliar market. Its always good to start small.
But yeah…bunch of money would do the needful for you”.

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Human capital
Most of the respondents have faced difficulty in finding quality or rather skilled labour
in both countries.

R1: “It is difficult to find good talent where we are located 20 miles outside Manhattan; many
communication professionals prefer to work in Manhattan because the salaries are higher and there
are more growth opportunities”.
R2: “At the time I ventured into becoming an entrepreneur, the economy was deep into the
struggle of the global economic recession, therefore, many avenues of support were closed. I was
somewhat fortunate to have worked in the corporate world and had access to benefits accrued”.

R4: “Access for labour is not a problem, but quality of labour is definitely a problem today in
Sri Lanka, to eliminate this problem, students should be encouraged to follow up internships while
studying which is common is western countries, and should be encouraged to learn English”
R5: “Skilled labour is really difficult to find, and in my industry people don’t stay working at
one company for a long period of time, I think, because Sri Lanka has already converted to a service
sector, manufacturing industry is dying.
R6: “Podi jobs is built on labour, a lot of unskilled labour is signed with us as freelancers.
Sometimes there were times, where we had to complete their work (and she laughed) seated next to
them on guiding to make sure the work is quality and on time when delivering to the client. The cost of
course varies. Experienced freelancers are actually really expansive, and new comers are really cheap”

Government Policies
All the respondents wanted government intervention to improve their businesses,
opportunities in the market, etc. They believed that more business opportunities could be
created if the government implement effective policies.

R1: “Make it easier for Minority Women Business Enterprises to get governmental projects;
RFP process is arduous”

R2: “Unfortunately, again it depends on what the cultural environment and atmosphere is like
within a country. Speaking about the United States of America, there are opportunities that the
government has created, an individual just must take the time to seek them out. Also, to understand
that just because an individual applies for something and they meet the criteria, it is resilience that will

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eventually prove to be successful”.

R6: “Governments should intensify the global payment methods to open wider doors to
international e-commerce” and
“invest in international exhibitions, introduce new different tax schemes to e-commerce
platforms, so that it encourages many e-commerce start-ups to come up”

4.2.2. Cultural Factors

All the respondents from U.S. as expected shared that they have positive culture which
encourages women entrepreneurs. However Sri Lankan respondents had different viewpoints
to talk about such as;
R5: “It is less supportive when you compare with advanced westernised countries. Not that I
mean our culture is bad, no, not definitely, but most of our people don’t think transparently, we live in
our comforted boxed frames, so how can we even see our peoples’ highest potentials, if we don’t change,
if we don’t open doors, we are not living in the King’s time to be limited only to cook and take care of
people, definitely it is our responsibility, we love that, but what I’m trying to say is our culture has
limited the whole womankind into that box, but you see what a waste of talent is that?, But it’s actually
changing in our country, there are goods and bads in every culture, atleast we are better than Abc
country (and she smirked)”.

R6: “Bit of both, women are not recognised as decision makers, culture is now changing, which
is good”

4.2.3. Psychological Factors

Answers were obtained in a combination of questions with economic and cultural
factors. All the respondents shared that they had the entrepreneurial spirit, the motivation and
passion to run their own companies. Some respondents shared how their childhood experiences
paved the path to their entrepreneurial journey.

R1: “No, I have an entrepreneurial spirit - - started my first business when I was 14”.
R2: “Some challenges were the dissolution of opportunities created by the global economic
recession. I overcame these challenges by taking an assessing my life and re-inventing myself”.
R3: “No! None of them, It was my vision, I always wanted to become a business women”
R4: “Family reasons as main priority, I always wanted to make use of my talent and experience

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and be a good mother and be closer to my children all the time, so I left my job, and I thought why not
I work from home, and start my own business, here I’ve started my own business, if you want something,
you just need to make the first step, all others will fall in to the right place, but you should have a
passion for it, and commitment is a must”

4.2.4. Other Factors

Technological factors
Knowledge, accessibility and availability for technology did not have a huge difference among
the respondents from the interviewees.
R2: “Programs involving introducing women to technology are more prevalent in schools,
universities, etc. There is more of a focus, especially where the STEAM programs are offered. Many
introductions are starting at the grade school level”.
R3: “Good in U.S.”
R4: “Colombo has access to everything, but province wise, village wise needs to be improved”
R6: “A lot of access but very limited knowledge as to operate. Sometimes when connecting new
freelancers to employers, there were instances where we had to sit and do the work within the computer
with them, sometimes we have done the job for the client.
Legal factors
Respondents were questioned to understand the differences and the legal framework of
their domestic country to discover the favourable and unfavourable legal factors influencing
women entrepreneurship. Each had different opinions about this. Especially the U.S.
respondents actually had two contradicting viewpoints about this.
R1: “Neutral on this, as it depends on many factors”
R2: “Women who pursue entrepreneurship understand the realization that there are challenges
to every aspect of society. Procedures for becoming an entrepreneur are somewhat the same. I do not
see any legal obstacles.
R3: “We have a strong regulatory network around the country, A lot of new ruled have been
passed to protect women labour and entrepreneurs, which Is really good, and I hope other countries
will also eventually adopt those, especially those Middle East countries, where women are not even
allowed to drive, which is pathetic”
R4: “We have good labour rules like minimum wage and benefits but we don’t have a
retirement plan scheme for the private sector, for people like us, which is so sad but the government
really need to look into those matters.
R5: “I think we have a good legal system but for some reason a lot of young fellows are

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reluctant to make their businesses legally registered, I don’t know why, maybe because they are too
afraid to be legally abide by the law, so in that case maybe the society’s attitude towards law should be
changed”.
R6:” Bit of both, legal framework is not well protected, positive and supportive, mainly in my
line of business”.

Entrepreneurial learning
Questions were structured to analyse to what extent the education, training and
experiences matters. All of the respondents said that they have had relevant work experience
before starting their own businesses and majority of the respondents said that they have had
relevant education in line with their business. However they had different thoughts about
having undergone training and academic learning in entrepreneurship as mentioned below.
R1: “Yes, as a Minority Women owned business, I took advantage of an educational offering.
In 2016, I completed a certificate program in Media, Technology and Entertainment at NYU Leonard
Stern School of Business”.
R2: “Yes, early on I was mentored under a group of entrepreneurs. There major business focus
was global.”
R3: “Yes! On the job field training”
R4: “No! For the recruitment I had background but for event management it just passion
definitely. Commitment is more important thing”
R5: “Not really, but I come from an entrepreneurial family background, and I think it’s more
like I‘ve been trained since childhood unintentionally”
R6: “I’m a business and IT graduate, and I have work experience in the IT sector, and I believe
that work experience has a lot to do more than a paper qualification.

4.3 Key Findings

Key findings presents the answers derived from the thematic analysis conducted in the
previous section as solutions for the research problem and answers to the questions. Factors
influencing the success of women entrepreneurship is driven by a several key factors and these
have been identified from secondary sources in the literature review and primary data has been
gathered by conducting interviews.
The key findings of factors contributing to women entrepreneurship can be
summarised as follows; U.S.A. is a highly advanced developed country, therefore U.S. women
entrepreneurs have greater access for capital, education technology, quality labour, compared

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to Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs. The researcher was able to identify one of the key reason
behind Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs to have limited access for capital is that Sri Lankan
women entrepreneurs are not risk takers compared to U.S. entrepreneurs.
Studies in America have shown that obtaining start-up capital from banks and available
capital from family and family businesses as pathways to success for American female
entrepreneurs (Fairlie and Robb, 2008; Waldinger, R., et al. 1993; Smith, et al. 2012). R4:
“Always internal finance, because I’m not a risk taker”
Studies also found established reliable virtual capital market in U.S.A. and had
customised virtual capital schemes to empower women entrepreneurs. This kind of model does
not exist in Sri Lanka. This is one contributory factor for U.S. women entrepreneurs for their
success, where Sri Lankans can learn from. It was also found that Sri Lankan women have
minimal knowledge about the local and international bodies which provides funding for them.
I t was also found that U.S. has wider access for quality labour, Because they have
access for quality education as well, whereas Sri Lankan faces issues like brain drain flowing
to western countries and unskilled labour such as women going to middle east as house wives,
and technically skilled labour going overseas to work as well. These are contributory factors
for U.S. women entrepreneurs since they have access for quality labour to be employed in their
businesses, but Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs responded that they have a big problem is
finding skilled labour (R4, R5, R6).
It was also found that U.S.A. culture has natural empowering atmosphere for women
entrepreneurs to thrive for success, and the regulatory system is also protecting for women
entrepreneurs towards success. Nevertheless psychology factors contributing towards success
found to be similar in both the countries, since it solely depends on one’s capability and
willpower to accomplish its own goals.

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Chapter Five
Conclusion

5.1 Summary

The purpose of the research is to carry out a comparative study about women
entrepreneurship in U.S.A. and Sri Lanka, to identify the differences between those two
contexts. Thereby recognize the economic, cultural, psychological and other factors which
contributes towards the success of women entrepreneurs. The objective of the study is to
identify the strategies that could be adopted as an individual, organization or as a
government to overcome such challenges entitled to be faced by women entrepreneurs.
Conceptual framework has been prepared for graphical and better understanding of the
factors contributing to women entrepreneurship. Furthermore a qualitative research has
been carried out and data has been gathered through primary data sources by conducting
semi-structured interviews. Hence 6 women entrepreneurs in total have been interviewed
3 from each country (U.S.A. and Sri Lanka). Finally data analysis has been done through
qualitative data analysing techniques, such as thematic analysing technique. Finally key
findings were constructed after analysing the data gathered by the respondents.

5.2 Conclusion

This research was intended to identify and analyse the economic, cultural,
psychological, and other factors which contributes towards the success of women
entrepreneurs in USA and Sri Lanka. It is justifiable to state that researcher has
accomplished the main objective of the study, since the key findings of the research and
the literature review reveals the common factors which contributes towards the success of
women entrepreneurs in both continents, while showcasing and highlighting the
differential factors which contributes towards the success of women entrepreneurs in one
nation which gives a lesson to the women entrepreneurs, and policy makers in the other
nation. Thereby the researcher intended to empower women entrepreneurship by
contributing via an effective research and was successfully able to identify extremely new
factors which has not been explored by any other researcher so far. Such as lack of virtual
capital market in Sri Lanka and non-existing virtual credit schemes to women entrepreneurs
in Sri Lanka. The researcher intends to provide recommendations to the policy makers,

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existing and prospected women entrepreneurs to improve and empower women

entrepreneurship within in the country.

5.3 Recommendations

Recommendations are constructed after analysing the secondary and primary data
gathered from literature sources and from the interviews.

Recommendations: 01- Women entrepreneurs should be given more access to capital to

start their businesses, and should educate women about the availability of capital and
financial management thereby they would possibly obtain finance from external sources
and expand their businesses.

Action Point: 01- The governments, financial institutes, or local and international bodies
should introduce special credit schemes preferably with low interest rates to encourage
more women start businesses, and such favoured schemes would remove this debt phobia
from their minds.

Recommendations: 02- Intensify the virtual capital market in Sri Lanka.

Action Point: 02- Spread awareness about on how to access capital virtually.

Recommendations: 03- Braid drain to developed countries, and housewives being exports
to Middle East country should be limited, the government could have earned more than
double by empowering those women to start their own businesses in the country.

Action Point: 03- The government should provide the necessary education, training and
resources. Thereby the country will be able to retain its skilled labour within the country
which would benefit the existing women entrepreneurs with skilled labour, and produce
more women entrepreneurs thereby who would contribute economies to grow.

Recommendations: 04- Government to sponsor entrepreneurial eco system to build up in

the country.
Action Point: 04- Implement effective policies to empower women entrepreneurship.

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Recommendations: 05- Intensify the accessibility of technology, and build up the education
system to remove the gap in computer literacy level.
Action Point: 05- Make required adjustments to the parliament budget, increase the rate of
education in the parliament budget.

Recommendations: 06- The regulatory framework of the country should be construct to

ensure gender equality both in labour market and in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Action Point: 06- Government should interfere to make the relevant adjustments in the
constitution.

Recommendations: 07 and Action Point: 07-

The education curriculum should have subjects and activities which sharpens their
entrepreneurial skills and innovativeness.

5.4 Limitations of the study

Similar to any other research the author encountered few major limitation when
conducting this research which was unavoidable. Such as the comparison was conducted
only between two countries, and overseas interviews were conducted via phone call not
face to face. Even though the literature review elaborated many factors, applying all of the
factors on the interview questions was not practical due to time factor and space. As a result
there were limitations faced during the data analysis.
Even though a lot of women entrepreneurs were initially contacted, only a very limited
number replied, and even from that only few was able to give an appointment due to their
busy schedules. Getting an appointment not only from overseas contacts, but even from Sri
Lankan women entrepreneurs was a big hassle. However, even though the researcher was
interested to interview as much number as possible, due to time factor the study could not
take a lot of heads, and the interviews had to be limited to around 60 to 70 minutes in
average per interview.

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5.5 Suggestions for future Studies

Further researchers can conduct the same study between two other countries in the same
economic status (either developing or developed countries). The same can be conducted to
explore the factors contributing to failure of entrepreneurship in a country or between countries.
The same methodology can be taken to analyse the differences between ages, preferably to find
the key differences among young and old women entrepreneurs, else men entrepreneurs. By
this it will help the researchers to explore different dimensions in entrepreneurship.

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Appendixes

Interview Questions

1. Briefly explain about your company/ Nature of business.

2. Give a brief introduction of your entrepreneurial journey so far?

3. As a female, how did you access capital at the initial stage of your
business? (internal source of finance or external source)

{Sources of internal finance: Personal funds, Selling of Assets, Family and

Friends}.
{sources of external finance: Overdrafts, Trade Credit, Government Grants,
Sponsorships, Donations}.

4. Which way do you think is the easiest and the best way to acquire the
required capital for your establishment or expansion of your business?
(Steven ,2014; james,2012)
5. What is your awareness level of local or international bodies which
provides funding for SME businesses?

6. How did the labour market of your country supported in your

entrepreneurial journey? In terms of access for labour/ quality and cost
of labour?

7. Were you compelled to start your own business due to uncertainty in the
job market or due to other economic reasons?

8. What are the challenges you have faced in your economy?

- how did you overcome those?

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9. What do you have to say about the impact of government policies on

your business? (positive influences /negative influences)

10. How do you think the government can intervene to enhance more
business opportunities in the economy?

11. What do you think about your country’s cultural impact on women
entrepreneurship? (Is it supportive or less supportive?)

12. What are the cultural challenges you have faced in your country?
-how did you overcome those?

13. How do you think about knowledge and access to technology for women
entrepreneurs in your country?

14. How do you think the legal framework of your country sustain women
entrepreneurship? (positive or negative)

15. Do you have relevant education? Like business or in line with your nature
of your business?
16. Have you undergone any training or academic learning in
entrepreneurship?

17. Did you have relevant work experience before starting this business?

18. How do you think the government or any local bodies could contribute to
facilitates the adequate entrepreneurial education & training to empower
women entrepreneurship in your country?

19. Do you have any other areas/ viewpoints you that you think we haven’t
covered?

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