Barriers to rural women entrepreneurs in Oman

Abstract

Purpose: Analyses barriers confronted by women entrepreneurs living and running businesses in rural Oman. The study identifies numerous problems including: accessing funding for new ventures and innovative activities, a lack of skills based training and limited family support.Design/methodology/approach: Draws on 57 responses to a semi-structured questionnaire, and face to face qualitative interviews with five women entrepreneurs. Quantitative responses are evaluated and ranked in terms of their mean score, standard deviation and the intensity of each factor. Five qualitative cases are presented. Findings:Although Oman is arguably one of the more progressive Arab countries regarding gender equality and women empowerment, the findings identify socio-cultural issues that hamper women's entrepreneurial ventures and their success. The findings are discussed using three dimensions of entrepreneurship identified by Wenneker and Thurik (1999): conditions leading to entrepreneurship, characteristics of entrepreneurship and outcomes of entrepreneurship. Practical Implications:Suggests that Omani policy makers should consider how to better support women entrepreneurs so that they can diversify household income and contribute to the socio-economic development of the region and make suggestions on how this can be achieved.Originality/Value: Research on rural women entrepreneurship in the context of an Arab country is scarce. This study provides an overview of the obstacles, the opportunities and the support required for the development of the rural women entrepreneurship in this region.

Lived Experiences of Females With Entrepreneurship in Sudan: Networking, Social Expectations, and Family Support

“…The research, supported by Lindvert et al (2015), concluded that government support is crucial for entrepreneurship; yet women perceive that the government will not provide adequate support and thus avoid asking for assistance. Ghouse et al (2017) found that female entrepreneurs identified that support and incentive from the government are difficult to find, supporting the findings of the study. Di Gregorio (2013) found that value creation emerged from the opportunities and resources available to develop new business and increase revenue.…”

“…In this research, 89% of participants operated businesses in the service sector perceived suitable for women. The findings remain consistent with Ghouse et al (2017), who confirmed that family ambivalence, gender bias, and social norms act as obstacles to female entrepreneurial ability.…”

“…Literature explicitly documented that securing and lack of funds as the main challenge for female entrepreneurs in developed and developing countries (Ghouse et al, 2017). In addition, the data from the research remains consistent with the assertion in past literature.…”

“…Di Gregorio (2013) found that value creation emerged from the opportunities and resources available to develop new business and increase revenue. The findings revealed that women perceived that the government is not useful, with no opportunities nor support available (Ghouse et al, 2017), which hindered women from value creation.…”

“Bargaining with Patriarchy” and Entrepreneurship: Narratives of Malay Muslim Women Entrepreneurs in Malaysia

“…Women are overloaded with the double burden of managing their businesses and of caring for their families (Agarwal and Lenka 2015;Stoner, Hartman and Arora 1990;Rehman and Roomi 2012). As such, women continue to have inadequate entrepreneurial knowledge of their surroundings, have limited experience in creating networks and miss the opportunity to participate in activities conducted by the associations (Ghouse et al 2017;Mazlina and Punitha 2016;Ilhaamie et al 2014).…”