Topic: IMPACT OF NETWORKING ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP PARTICIPATION IN SMEs Introduction

In this dynamic business world entrepreneurship has inferred special significance, as it is a key driver to economic development. The objectives of industrial development, regional growth, and employment generation depend upon entrepreneurship. Consequently entrepreneurs are, thus the seeds of industrial development and the fruits of this development are greater employment job opportunities to unemployed people. Entrepreneurship leads to higher income, increases in per capita income, higher standard of living, and individual saving, revenue to the government in the form of various taxes. Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs have altered the pathway of economies, and markets. They have developed new products and services. They give way to innovation and creativity which is a vital tool for economic development and prosperity. Entrepreneurship has introduced quantum leaps in technology and more productive exploitation of it. Many innovations have changed the society and altered our life style. The rising tide of women entrepreneurs in unmistakable. Little is known about the causes and consequences of this rapid growth in entrepreneurship among women (Weiler and Bernasek, 2001). One of the chief barriers to such work is lack of data on women entrepreneurs (Moore and Buttner, 1997). Exposure to entrepreneurial experience through household or personal experience increases the likelihood of entrepreneurship (Carroll and Mosakowski, 1987; Roberts, 1991; Sorensen, 2005). The likelihood of entering selfemployment increases with educational level (Dolinsky et al., 1993), though less at the doctoral level (Roberts, 1991). The recent spin-off literature has emphasized both the characteristics of the parent firms (Gompers et al., 2005) as well as characteristics of the individuals (Shane and Khurana, 2003; Roberts, 1991) as important determinants of the likelihood to spin off new. Significance of the Study: Women entrepreneurs and networking has attracted a lot of attention all over the world. This new concept is diffusing in manufacturing as well as service enterprises world wide including developing countries. Changing competitive conditions both in public and private sector are leading to seek and adopt networking techniques to raise productivity, efficiency and quality to compete in world market. Macroeconomic instability, low levels of education, poor work ethics, poor networking facility and labour relations in Pakistan would seen to present barriers to the use of these techniques. A key issue, therefore, is whether networking can help women entrepreneurs face specific problems in setting up businesses those are different from rest of the world. The main purpose of the research is to explore and critically examine in a descriptive and analytical manner the relevance and applicability of networking approaches to enhance 1

women entrepreneurship. The study will focus to promote entrepreneurship in general and women entrepreneurship in particular. The I will emphasis to explore whether networking plays imperative role to encourage and enhance women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. Objectives of the study The main purpose of the research is to explore and critically examine in a descriptive and analytical manner the relevance and applicability of networking approaches to both manufacturing and services sector in a developing country context. The objectives of the research in the above context will be: a) To explore, study and analyze critically the characteristics, philosophy, and role of networking on women entrepreneurship. b) To discuss critically the relevance of networking practices as a success model in the socio economic context of Pakistani entrepreneurs generally and gender entrepreneurs particularly. c) To examine and explore the role of networking to motivate and encourage women entrepreneurs in patriarchal traditions. d) To study and examine the impact of networking on women entrepreneurship particularly in the socio economic environment of Pakistan. Contribution This study will help to understand the women entrepreneurs problems and issues to start new businesses. In the light of world entrepreneurship promotion this study will provide a strong base to start women entrepreneurship and encourage women entrepreneurs. This study will explore and help to create women entrepreneurs and their participation will increase. As a result of that the women will become more empower. Hence it will help to reduce unemployment amongst women. This study will contribute for the policy makers to take corrective measure for the future purposes.

Literature/Past Research Review: Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs have altered the pathway of economies, and markets. They have developed new products and services. Entrepreneurship has introduced quantum leaps in technology and more productive exploitation of it. Many innovations have 2

changed the society and altered our life style. Scholars seem to have reached consensus about the 1980s being the turning point when entrepreneurship rates reversed their long term downward trend (Blau, 1987; Ace and Audretsch 1993; Carlsson and Karlsson 1999; Carree and Thurik 2000a; Carree, Van Stel, Thurik and Wennekers 2001). Large firms have been subjected to waves of downsizing and restructuring and entrepreneurship has been re-discovered (Carree 1997; Gavron, Cowling, Holtham, and Westall 1998; Thurik 1999; Wennekers and Thurik 1999). A careful but systematic shift in economic activity that was taking place away from large firms to small firms, predominantly in young enterprises. When it comes to defining and measuring entrepreneurship , scholars have proposed a broad array of definitions (Hebert and Link, 1989; Van Praag, 1999). The origin and determinants of entrepreneurship span a wide spectrum of theories and explanations (Brock and Evans, 1989; Carree, 1997; Carree, Van Stel, Thurik, and Wennekers, 2001; Gavron, Cowling, Holtham, and Westall, 1998; OECD, 1998a). Despite the lack of consensus the scholars appears to agree that the level of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activity varies across countries and over time (Rees and Shah, 1986; Blanchflower, 2000; Blanchflower and Meyer, 1994; Wit and Van Winder, 1989). The relative pitch of women entrepreneurs in the last decade has been nothing short of revolutionary (Weiler and Bernasek, 2001). It is evident from the data that rapid increase in entrepreneurship among women, as both the creation of firms as well as sales per firm grew more rapidly for women than men entrepreneurs (Bureau Census, 1995). According to the (National Association of Women Business Owners, NFWBO, 1995) there were 7.7 million women owned businesses in the US employing 15.5 million people and generating approximately $ 1.4 sales. Current estimates indicate that women owned businesses account for 30% of the total businesses, which is likely to increase in the times to come. Early in the evolution of an industry, the identification and acquisition of new knowledge is critical and network relations will relatively fluid and decentralized, as in the emerging multimedia sector (Fuchs and Wolf, 1997). In industries where product development, testing and commercialization take place over an extended period of time and require longterm investments, network relations tend to persist, as in the technology sector (Walker et al., 1997). Mechanisms may be behavioral, reflecting learning (Bandura, 1997), ecological, reflecting competition (Aldrich, 1999), or institutional, reflecting imitation, coercion or other processes (Staber, 1998a). Firms and networks of firms may not know in advance what needs to be done, but they need to have sufficient variation in their relationships to discover new information and learn new competencies (Levitt and March, 1988). Powell described it is conditions of uncertainty, which are environment in which networks are most likely to thrive, place a premium on constant learning and innovation (Powell, 1990). Interfirm cooperation is expected to be effective especially when knowledge is not fully codifiable but nonetheless important for innovation and risk taking (Storper, 1995). Loose coupling reduces the risk of repeating mistakes (Masuch, 1985), and escalating commitments and raises the likelihood that the networks has competencies necessary to adapt to new conditions (Ross and Staw, 1993).

Key Questions/Hypothesis to be investigated: The key questions being posed or hypothesis tested in the thesis. In this study we are going to frame the following hypotheses: H1: H2: H3: It is expected that business networking will facilitate and encourage women entrepreneurship generally and women entrepreneurship particularly The business networking will help to enhance womens participation in small medium enterprises (SMEs) It is expected that business networking will help to mentor womenentrepreneurial competitiveness in the Kivis/Pakistani socio economic context H4: The business networking will help to enhance women entrepreneurship and women entrepreneurs in Pakistan and hence will empower women Research Design A survey based primary data will be used to examine relationship between networking entrepreneurship and women empowerment It will also examine the moderating impact of networking towards women participation in entrepreneurship and SMEs. The study will be conducted in two phases with independent sample. Phase-1 will consist of try-out or pilot study in which we will screen out the potential respondents of this study, while phase-2 will constitute the main study and consist of hypotheses testing. The instrument will be designed to collect data on women entrepreneurs, their enterprises and operating environments. The working definition of SME and women entrepreneurs is carefully framed in line with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Small Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) Pakistan. The lower end of the business spectrum represented by subsistence enterprise will be screened out in order to focus the survey on those enterprises which have potential for growth and upgrading. Three types of questions regarding ownership, number of employees and business premises will be included at the beginning to eliminate subsistence and household enterprises. Instrument The questionnaire will be used and administered to the respondents directly. The available instruments concerning related variables will be explored for proper reliability and validity or will be developed indigenously. This will guide us to promote horizontal and vertical enterprise-to-enterprise and individual to enterprise links in the women entrepreneurs and improve access to business development services. Data Analysis

After data collection and coding, the appropriate data analytic techniques including descriptive and multivariate analyses will be carried out keeping in view the objective of the study by using latest available version of SPSS.

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