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Purpose: This paper examines whether household economic status mediates the effect of microcredit on entrepreneurial success amongst women microcredit clients and if this effect is conditional on the borrower's marital status. Design/methodology/approach: This cross-sectional study uses primary data collected through a structured questionnaire from microcredit borrowers in Tanzania. The selection of the respondents for the survey involved categorising them based on their loan amount and length of membership in the program and randomly picking them for study participation. To realise the study objective, we used the moderated mediation model and employed the Linear-Based Regression Model 8 of the Hayes PROCESS macro V4.1 for SPSS. Findings: The findings show that the loan amount and household economic status positively and significantly affect entrepreneurial success. However, the effect of microcredit on entrepreneurial success is mediated by household economic status. On the other hand, the direct and indirect effects of microcredit on entrepreneurial success differ depending on the borrowers' marital status, with married borrowers being negatively affected. Originality/value: Microfinance supporters suggest that microcredit is vital for enterprise development and other socioeconomic outcomes. However, the results are inconclusive, including the role of household economic status. This study provides empirical insights into the moderated mediation effect of household economic status on the relationship between microcredit and entrepreneurial success. The study's findings and limitations suggest considering not only microcredit and related factors but also the essential role of family factors in future research and design of microfinance services in efforts to support and grow microcredit-assisted women-owned businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The phenomenon of selling upakara products is increasing due to high demand, especially from Balinese women who work outside the home. In this modern era, they prefer to buy ready-made upakara equipment, creating new business opportunities. This has led to home industries making tumpeng/penek for upakara purposes, such as the one coordinated by Mrs. Nyoman Putri in Banjar Batur, Batubulan. To compete, tumpeng businesses need digital-based accounting and marketing systems. However, business actors often lack knowledge in these areas. This service aims to improve partners' abilities in accounting, digital marketing, and entrepreneurial independence by mentoring and lectures. The result is enhanced business independence, better cost calculation, and increased tumpeng sales in Gianyar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Extant research offers conflicting views about the size and nature of gender‐related disparities in venture financing and venture performance. We theorize that gender‐related frictions in debt financing, the most common source of capital for new ventures, materially impair the performance of women‐led ventures but that these frictions decline with financial development. We find strong support for these predictions in a meta‐analysis of 63 primary studies in which we use financial development to instrument for the impact of gender‐related financial frictions on venture performance; in fact, in the absence of gender‐related financial frictions, ventures led by women would modestly outperform ventures led by men. We also find that gender‐related financial frictions are greater for access to, than the terms of, debt financing. Managerial Summary: We use meta‐analysis to offer a quantitative synthesis of the research on gender, venture finance, and venture performance. We find evidence that women encounter gender‐related frictions in obtaining debt financing for their ventures, materially impairing their ventures' performance. In fact, in the absence of these frictions, ventures led by women would modestly outperform ventures led by men. We also find that gender‐related frictions in venture finance are greater for access to, than the terms of, debt financing and that these frictions tend to be stronger in countries with less developed financial institutions and markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article emphasizes the enduring and escalating influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in economic development, highlighting its potential to significantly enhance efficiency for practitioners across various job roles. Topics explored also encompass the critical interplay between AI and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in shaping industry strategies and decision-making, underscoring the need for economic developers to grasp and leverage these dynamics effectively.

Purpose: Research on women-owned businesses is more extensive in developed countries than in developing countries. This prompted the authors to investigate the factors that affect women entrepreneurs' motives to start a business and the challenges they faced in running their businesses in India. Design/methodology/approach: Data for the analysis were collected from 620 respondents using a structured questionnaire and in-depth interviews with 20 women entrepreneurs. The data were then analyzed using descriptive and factor analysis in the statistical software "SPSS" (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). Findings: The findings showed that the primary motivation for women to launch their own business was to achieve self-employment. Other motivations include increasing income and allowing women to follow their passion. Factor analysis indicates that women entrepreneurs are more motivated by push than pull factors. The research also shows that women encounter challenges in their entrepreneurial journey, such as access to financing, issues with gender equality and social and cultural obligations. Originality/value: The study on women entrepreneurs in the Indian context is limited. This study responds to a need of better understanding of women motivations and challenges. By studying these constructs, the study shows that start-up motives and challenges faced by female entrepreneurs are unique to different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent shifts in societal discourse have led digital platforms to support equity, inclusivity, and diversity by introducing identity-signaling features, for example, indicators of owner race or gender. In this work, we explore whether, when, and how using those features may impact retailer demand. We tackle this question via a multimethod study. We begin by conducting a controlled experiment on Prolific.co, presenting subjects with actual Google Places business profiles for a set of Black-owned restaurants in Chicago. We randomly vary the presence of Black- and women-owned labels in these profiles and assess subjects' expectations of popularity and quality along various restaurant dimensions. Our results demonstrate that the Black-owned label, in particular, drives significant increases in all outcomes with the effects arising primarily from Black and democratically liberal subjects. Next, we conduct an archival analysis of the effect label adoption has on the physical foot traffic that retailers receive based on SafeGraph's mobile patterns database. Our difference-in-differences estimations yield consistent results; we find evidence of a positive average effect on foot traffic volumes. Further, we show that a rise in visitors from liberal-leaning geographies drives these effects. We discuss implications for digital platform operators and retailers. This paper was accepted by Duncan Simester, marketing. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.01168. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the mediating effect of access to finance in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and MSME performance of women businesses in Kaduna State, Nigeria. To achieve this purpose, a sample size of 356 owners and/or managers who operate businesses in the Kaduna State and are registered in the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Program (GEEP) 2.0 were selected. The study employs a multi-stage sampling technique, incorporating Likert scale-based questions for data collection. Data analysis involves Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLSEM) using Smart PLS 4 and the results indicate a positive significant effect of entrepreneurial orientation on MSME performance of women businesses, suggesting that higher levels of entrepreneurial orientation are linked with enhanced performance. The Mediation analysis reveals that access to finance mediates the effect between entrepreneurial orientation and MSME performance of women businesses. The study recommends targeted financial support programs and enhanced financial inclusion to improve access to finance for women entrepreneurs. While acknowledging limitations, the research underscores the importance of entrepreneurial orientation and financial access in fostering the MSME performance of women businesses, providing valuable insights for policymakers, practitioners, and academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the ethical issue of gender inequality in entrepreneurial financing, we examine the effect of angel investors' political ideology, the conservatism–liberalism continuum, on their investments in women-owned ventures. We propose that more conservative angel investors tend to have a lower percentage of investments in women-owned ventures in their portfolios. Moreover, drawing on the gender role congruity theory, we show that when investing in women-owned ventures, more conservative angels favor women-owned ventures with a higher percentage of male co-founders and operating in women-dominated industries. Our analysis, based on a longitudinal sample of 172 angels from 2010 to 2019, supports these hypotheses. Our study contributes to the literature by highlighting angel political ideology as a critical antecedent of the gender disparity in entrepreneurial financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to identify and evaluate the relationship between factors and the business performance of women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam focusing on the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation factors such as innovation, risktaking and proactiveness. Design/Methodology/Approach: Data were obtained from 350 female entrepreneurs of SMEs in Vietnam using a structured questionnaire. The partial least squares structural equation modeling method (PLS-SEM) was applied to find the cause-and-effect relationship between exogenous and endogenous variables. Findings: The results show that the business capacity of business owners, the quality of human resources, access to finance, social capital, entrepreneurial orientation and government policies positively impact the enterprise's business performance. The relationship between the three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation and business performance is examined. In detail, proactiveness and innovation have a positive relationship while risk-taking negatively affects the business performance of women-owned SMEs. Conclusion: The study has shown the factors affecting the business performance of women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam and at the same time proved that EO is a multidimensional concept when the dimensions of EO tend to have different effects on business performance. Research Limitations and Implications: The research may lack a comparison in the field of SMEs to deeply understand the cause-and-effect relationship between exogenous and endogenous variables. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further. Practical Implications: Research results provide insight for businesses, state management agencies, credit institutions and associations on policy-making and appropriate solutions to support and develop the enterprise. Contribution to Literature: The important impact of proactiveness and innovation on SMEs' business performance opens a new door to more research in business orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) throughout the world are facing a very complicated crisis due to COVID-19 pandemic and other structural challenges. This study is aimed at demonstrating the challenges faced by SMEs, particularly the struggles that women entrepreneurs of SMEs in Indonesia experienced to survive against these structural issues: COVID-19, digital presence and the male-dominated business sector in the country. Focusing on female-owned businesses in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, this paper carefully considers how social media platforms helped these businesses to continue. Using a descriptive quantitative approach, we collected data from 130 respondents and found that the COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected women entrepreneurs—especially those operating small and medium enterprises. They have experienced reduced income due to decreased sales, disrupted supply chains, difficulty paying credit instalments, and lack of access to government assistances. This study further sheds light on social media's important role in sustaining women-owned businesses. Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram have become the new tools through which women promote their products and reach new audiences. To overcome this issue, we advise a stronger government intervention to women-owned SMEs in the post-pandemic. Aside from managing social media for selling, we recommend women-owned small companies to internally intensify digital engagement, promotions, coupled by innovative products and attractive offers such as discounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South African women own a modest share of businesses while being the majority of the population. Increasing the number of female entrepreneurs in South Africa is expected to reduce poverty and unemployment, empower women, ensure equity, and strengthen the economy. This article examined the development of women entrepreneurs in Cape Town through guided and funded business start-ups. Data were collected using a qualitative technique based on purposive sampling through semi-structured interviews with 17 participants. An interpretive paradigm and an explorative design were employed. The data was analysed using ATLAS.ti software. According to the participants, many women-owned business start-ups are neither funded nor guided. The findings revealed that many women entrepreneurs do not support one another in business start-ups in Cape Town. Moreover, minimal effort is put into interventions by both the government and the private sector to abate gender discrimination and eliminate the exclusion of women entrepreneurs. There are instances of gender bias that impede the development of women entrepreneurs. The findings confirm that the development of women entrepreneur-focused funding for start-ups has received scant attention in Cape Town. Many women entrepreneurs still do not receive developmental support. Among the proposed interventions to improve women's entrepreneurship, start-up funding, and guidance are platforms that encourage informal businesses to become formal and penetrate formal financial networks. This paper argues for lending models best suited for women entrepreneurs in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies indicate the existence of financial constraints for women-owned businesses. These difficulties can be either the result of supply side discrimination, or the lower credit demand of female firms than male counterparts. This paper aims at analyzing gender differences in bank loan access through a large dataset of Italian firms. To address this issue, we estimate both an univariate test and a multivariate logistic regression model to understand if and how firm owners' gender is correlated with the probability of getting loans. Our findings revealed, after controlling for specific firm characteristics and performance, that female-owned firms have ceteris paribus a lower probability of access to credit than male-owned firms. In other words, the research highlights how there is still presence of a glass ceiling in credit markets. In this sense, a lot of work to do is needed either by governments and policy makers in order to achieve equality in the credit markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technologies have become increasingly prevalent in the tourism sector. However, limited attention has been given to their adoption by women-owned tourism micro-enterprises. This study explores the enabling and limiting conditions of adopting digital technologies by women-owned tourism micro-enterprises in a South African context. Grounded within an integrated framework combining the Technology Acceptance Model and the Technology-Organisation-Environment model, the study adopted a qualitative grounded theory approach and used in-depth interviews to collect data from 20 female owner-managers of tourism micro-enterprises. The key findings of the study show that the enabling and limiting conditions of adopting digital technologies by these enterprises are influenced by a set of factors, including compatibility, firm size, financial resources, government support, information communication and technology infrastructure, security concerns, COVID-19, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness of digital technologies. As such, these enterprises require support tailored to their digitalisation maturity level and access to key resources such as finance and human capital. Overall, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex and dynamic process of adopting digital technologies by women-owned tourism micro-enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Oeconomia is the property of Wydawnictwo SGGW and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The importance of female entrepreneurs is growing in India, following the trends of monetary liberalisation and globalisation. The institutional and governmental framework for encouraging entrepreneurial skills, offering vocation education, and educating children has opened new doors for women's economic empowerment. This gives women greater chances to achieve financial independence. However, only around one third of the employment in financial institutions is made up of women. The entrepreneurial aspirations of women are inextricably linked to the improvement of society and economic prosperity. Women make up a relatively small percentage of those involved in entrepreneurship-related activities. The proportion of female business owners has increased significantly in almost all economies. Although the Haryana government has implemented a number of legislation to encourage the establishment of women-owned businesses in both rural and urban regions, there have been significant difficulties in putting these policies into practise. Women's latent entrepreneurial potential has come to light as a result of growing awareness of both the social and economic roles that they play in society. Women are starting businesses for a number of reasons, but their increasing business knowledge, skills, and compliance with regulations are among the most crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women entrepreneurship is an important area being globally recognized as one of the most important measures of economic growth and, implicitly, of decreasing the level of poverty. Incentivizing women to start their own business is essential for the development of women entrepreneurship and it's also a strategic objective at European level, assumed by Romania as an EU member state. In order to have access to the same opportunities as men, women have to go beyond a series of obstacles, one of which is family responsibility, which often returns to their care. Therefore, this paper approaches a wide variety of themes that correspond to the present, such as motivation, obstacles encountered and also the advantages and disadvantages that come with the entrepreneurial profession, using as a research method the interviews with women entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is often described as the main driving force of business, which can lead to the company's sustainable growth. Not all innovation dimensions are equally responsible for the sustainability of businesses. Therefore, this study examines the sustainability of women-owned businesses by exploring the influence of selected variables on specific dimensions of companies' innovation capacities. Based on the commonly applied methodologies for assessing the innovation capacity of companies such as IMP rove and Innovate, the following variables were chosen for the analysis of the impact on innovation in the context of the sustainability of SMEs: 1) annual income and its impact on the decision to invest in innovation 2) the sector of operation and its influence on expectations regarding growth 3) the expectations regarding growth and its impact to a range of innovation dimensions. Different techniques were used, starting with descriptive statistics, then Cross-tabulation, Pearson's chi-square test and ANOVA as the most appropriate techniques to conduct statistical analysis. The research has indicated that annual income does not have a decisive influence on the decision to invest in innovation, as does the sector. However, the sector of operations has a significant influence on expectations regarding growth. Also, there is a statistically significant difference between growth expectations and dimensions such as client base and product development plan, market awareness and perception, innovation strategy, decision-making process, employee training, business networking, and external advice. While exploring the innovation activity of launching new products/services, we came to a finding that is potentially risky for the sustainability of women's businesses, namely that 50% of the companies in the sample offer only one product to one customer. That is why it is important that companies that have a high awareness of the need to innovate diversify their product and client portfolio and thus ensure greater independence on the market and, therefore, sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern business conditions, entrepreneurship, as a significant driver of economic growth and development, is also an important facilitator of women's empowerment in developed and developing countries. Taking into account the significant contribution of female entrepreneurship to economic development and, on the other hand, its contribution to the empowerment of women, the paper examines the factors that influence the success of female entrepreneurs in the Republic of Serbia. The effects of many factors on the success of women entrepreneurs have been the subject of numerous studies, but this study focused on internal and external factors, which are still largely unexplored, particularly in the Republic of Serbia. In this sense, the aim of this work is to determine whether internal and external factors have direct, positive, and significant effects on women entrepreneurs' success. The specific research aims are: 1) determining whether internal factors have a positive effect on women entrepreneurs' success and 2) determining whether external factors have a positive effect on women entrepreneurs' success. The causal relationships between observed variables were assessed using the Structural Equation Modeling method. The obtained results showed that both internal and external factors are significant determinants of women entrepreneurs' success. The results emphasize the need to motivate women to start their own businesses by organizing various educational courses and workshops and women's support programs by the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]