Resource-based theory posits the deployment of resources by entrepreneurs to achieve performance without questioning the possibility of deploying these resources. The question, however, remains how resources are deployed in developing countries that constrain the choice in the deployment of resources. To answer this, we analyse the factors determining the business performance of women entrepreneurs in a developing country context. Data were collected through a survey sent to 211 Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs engaged in handicraft businesses. Results from hierarchical multiple regression analyses show that (1) the social environment in terms of socio-cultural norms and customs hinders the performance; (2) the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions, namely, combined Innovative–proactive EO and Risk-taking EO, and the business trainings positively affect the performance; and (3) the social ties negatively influence the performance, which may be due to the excessive presence of strong ties in a personal social network. Based on results, we suggest that environment (context) is a contingent factor for the way personal traits such as EO, human, and social capital can be used by women entrepreneurs to achieve performance in a developing world context.

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~ 33 ~ 2015). In order to provide theoretical backgrounds on the research and the methodology, a two days' long training has been given to the local interviewers: Three local enumerators indeed were involved in order to support the main researcher in processing the questionnaires also in the most remote areas of the districts. Each interview lasted one and half hours. Data were collected from February, 2015 to June, 2015. Variables of the modelDependent variable: business performance Business performance can be measured via perceived and objective (or archival) financial or non-financial performance measures (Rauch et al. 2009). This study adopts perceived measures. Perceived measures use a rating scale to compare performance with competitors, whereas objective measures use actual financial data (Dess and Robinson 1984;Dawes 1999;Zulkiffli 2014). The validity and reliability of perceived measures is proved by several authors in different contexts (Dess and Robinson 1984;Sarkar et al. 2001;Wall et al. 2004), also in analysing the relationship between EO and business performance, as demonstrated by Rauch et al. (2009). This is particularly useful in the context of women entrepreneurs who are not able to correctly indicate the objective data about their business performance, as in our case. Business performance of women entrepreneurs is therefore measured on five perceptual items referred to three specific dimensions, financial, economic and operational performance (Venkatraman and Ramanujam 1986). The financial dimension refers to the growth in profit (My shop had a higher profit compared to other handicrafts shops); the economic dimension is expressed by one item referring to the growth in production volumes (The total volume of my firm's production has increased); the operational performance is indicated by three items referring respectively to: price satisfaction (I was satisfied with the price that I got from my customers), customer satisfaction (Customers were satisfied with my products and services), quality of products (My shop had better products on offer compared to other handicrafts shops). These items are measured on a seven-point scale (1= completely disagree, 7= completely agree). The summated score (Hughes and Morgan 2007) of five items of the scale represents business performance of Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs. Independent variables Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions.To measure the EO dimensions of women entrepreneurs, we use an adapted version of the EO scale proposed by Verhees et al. (2012). EO includes twenty-two items of innovativeness, risk-taking and pro-activeness, measured on a seven-point scale (1= completely disagree, 7= completely agree) 9 . EO dimensions of Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs are the result of an exploratory factor analysis reported later on in the text (see Table 2.1). Barriers in social environment. Barriers in social environment are measured with an item representing hindrances due to family, norms, customs, traditions and religion. This item is measured on ...