Barriers to Entrepreneurship

Abstract
Barriers to women entrepreneurship are numerous but they are all
treated with equal importance in prior research. We believe prioritisation
will advance our understanding further. Hence, we start by identifying
barriers from earlier studies and explore possible causality among them.
A framework based on cause and effect relationship among barriers is
proposed. Decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL)
technique was used to establish this causality. Our analysis identifies
five of the 14 barriers as causal. They are as follows: lack of education,
experience and training opportunities; spatial mobility and lack of family
support; lack of institutional support; lack of entrepreneurial management;
and problem in acquiring financial resources. Women entrepreneurs,
scholars and policymakers will gain greater understanding
through this causal framework of barriers. Knowledge and containment
of these barriers will help in fostering a more conducive environment
for enabling more women to attempt entrepreneurship.

Review of Existing Literature

As mentioned above, numerous studies have been conducted on barriers
to women entrepreneurship in various contexts. Maina (2015) identified
that imbalance between business and household responsibilities and
insufficient business skills influenced the performance of micro- and
small enterprises owned by women in Kiambu, Kenya. Loveline, Uchenna
and Karubi (2014) examined 31 women entrepreneurs in retail and
service sectors in Malaysia and identified several challenges, such as
severe competition, unreliable suppliers, excessive household responsibilities,
improper credit management and lack of skilful employees.
Halkias et al. (2011) found that women entrepreneurship in Nigeria
was influenced by family dynamics and micro-financing; while Nigerian
women were well supported by family, micro-financing remained a
major barrier. Chitsike (2000) stressed the need for imparting to women,
skills necessary to cross-cultural barriers and come out openly to undertake
entrepreneurial ventures. Such skill development programmes
would include the following: enhancement of managerial skills, personal
skills, negotiating skills, self-awareness and assertiveness. He further
stated that programmes also needed to concentrate on educating men to
develop within them an awareness of the influence of their behaviour
towards women. Sadi and Al-Ghazali (2010) investigated how difficult
it was for women to run their own enterprises in Saudi Arabia. They
revealed that while self-achievement was the greatest motivation for
women engaged in business in Saudi Arabia, key barriers were as
followsinsufficient institutional support, lack of market studies, lack
of cooperation from the government departments, lack of support from
the society, societal restrictions and oligopolistic approach of investors.
Marlow (1997) asserted that experience of women of self-employment
would be tainted by patriarchal expectations if women began new small
firms due to their feeling of being thwarted as females; credibility issues
arose due to belonging to their gender; womans idea of business success
differed from men due to the fact that their (womens) ambitions were
shaped by gendered experience; and women resorted to self-employment
to meet demands of domestic and waged labour.
Raghuvanshi et al. 223
Carter and Allen (1997) identifies that access to capital (in form of
loans and other private sources) to grow and expand businesses, and a
personal banking association with focus on growth and profit, contributed
considerably to the size of women-owned firms. Results further suggested
that access to financial resources largely influenced firm size, significantly
affecting the intention and lifestyle choice of an entrepreneur.
Al-Sadi, Belwal and Al-Badi (2011) identified the factors hindering
women entrepreneurship in Al-Batinah (Oman) and discovered that
barriers associated with education and training infrastructure, occupation,
behaviour, sociocultural factors, judicial system and role-affected
female entrepreneurs. The major barriers to women entrepreneurship
were as follows: insufficient financial support, lack of industrial support,
lack of knowledge to work in participation, insufficient access to latest
technology, lack of training opportunities, unawareness about the opportunities,
pressure to achieve and fear of interacting with males. Personal
mobility affected women without driving license. This affected those
females more who run their business ventures alone. Further, womens
entrepreneurship became restricted after marriage and dropouts occurred
if families after marriage turned out to be unsupportive.
Winn (2005) argued that women with children were penalised by
policies upon entering the workplace, thereby begetting womens
dependence. Programmes ignored such women that were not employed
by big organisations which discouraged women from initiating their own
ventures. Tax structures catered to larger capital-intensive organisations
which discouraged labour-intensive enterprises. Lending practices
oriented towards high-growth enterprises restricted micro-, small- and
medium-enterprise development and micro-enterprises. Legislations and
policies subordinated a married womans status to that of her husband,
rendering women second-class citizens. Further, women who chose
to follow unconventional paths, by virtue of their decision, put their
children at economic and social disadvantages.
Sharma (2013) identified the following barriers to women entrepreneurship:
family ties; male-dominated society; exploitation by middle
men; insufficient educational background; societal barriers; insufficient
raw material; problem in accessing financial resources; intense competition;
high production cost; legal formalities; restricted mobility; absence
of entrepreneurial aptitude; insufficient managerial capabilities; low
risk-bearing capacity and lack of self-confidence.
In developing countries of Asia, women are denied independence
which hinders entrepreneurial efforts. Sinha (2005) asserted that as compared
to other regions in Asia, this phenomenon is more prevalent in
224 The Journal of Entrepreneurship 26(2)
South Asian nations. In these regions, women do not enjoy freedom and
basic human rights; equality with men in terms of economic activities is
far-fetched. Some other research on womens entrepreneurship in the
Asian region also supports these findings (Das, 2000; Dhameja, 2002;
Goheer, 2003; Prasad, 1998).
Several womens enterprises in Bangladesh do not have fundamental
form and marketing opportunities, social and regulatory support (Asian
Development Bank, 2001). In Nepal, female entrepreneurs have to face
the following challenges: limited access to finance and marketing networks;
low propensity to take risk; and limited access to land and assets;
limited access to latest technology; fear of sexual harassment and lack of
personal security; lack of self-confidence; intense competition from
organisations in national and global markets; and sociocultural barriers,
such as sole responsibility of family and spatial mobility (Acharya,
Acharya, & Sharma, 1999). Roomi and Parrot (2008) revealed that
female entrepreneurs did not get the similar opportunities as men because
of inherent discriminatory sociocultural values and customs. Several
other scholars have, in the past, examined the various barriers to women
entrepreneurship in different contexts (e.g., Akehurst et al., 2012; Allen
et al., 2008; Bosma et al., 2004; Hussain et al., 2015; Kevane & Wydick,
2001; Mathew, 2010; McElwee & Al-Riyami, 2003; Robb, 2002; Watson
& Robinson, 2003).
The authors have, in this study, identified 14 barriers to womens entrepreneurship
from the available literature. Majority of the barriers are
those which are common across the globe and which also have been
mentioned most frequently in past studies. The summary of these
barriers is given in Table 1.