Purpose
While there are many studies on the impacts of formal institutions such as government financial supporting and tax preferential policies on women entrepreneurial entry, few attempted to explore how informal institutions causes cross-country differences in women entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether countries (Pakistan and Malaysia) with similar religious belief, political system and government policies exhibits similar level of women entrepreneurial activity from an informal institutional perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used Global entrepreneurship monitor (GEM) data for the years 2010–2012 and employed probit regression analysis to examine the impacts of cultural-cognitive and social-normative institutions on women entrepreneurial activity.
Findings
The findings reveal profound differences of women’s entrepreneurial activities between Pakistan and Malaysia. While cultural-cognitive dimension shows substantial impact for both nations, social-normative dimension explains the main differences in women’s entrepreneurial activity.
Practical implications
This study proposes that policymakers may craft policies to enhance women skills, knowledge and networking as well as positive societal attitudes to foster women entrepreneurial activities.
Originality/value
This study shows that countries with the same religion and similar formal institutions can also exhibit different level of women entrepreneurial activity. In Pakistan, the negative societal attitudes in the form of deep rooted traditional beliefs as well as misinterpreted religious concepts for women role create formidable challenges and inhibit business opportunities for them. By contrast, favorable social perception and societal attitudes in Malaysia encourage women to pursue their entrepreneurial activities.
The perishable nature of most agricultural produce and the concomitant need for effective marketing outlets carries along huge economic consequences, especially in developing countries like Ghana. This study examines the determinants of profit in tomato marketing in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Cross-sectional data collected from a random sample of 200 tomato marketers consisting of 100 wholesalers and 100 retailers were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the multiple linear regression technique of the ordinary least squares. The results show that wholesalers have a higher margin of 99.7 percent, while the retailers have a margin of 75.4 percent. Labour cost, purchase price, transportation cost and selling price run through all the estimated regressions as determinants of marketing profit. The effects of these variables on marketing profit could raise public concern since they have implications on prices received by tomato producers and those paid by final consumers and therefore there is the need for the government to devise policies aimed at stabilizing the local currency.The results also call for policy efforts to completely eliminate illiteracy among tomato traders in Ghana especially in the Ashanti Region. Policies that could enable the retailers to increase their scale of operations are also advocated. Future researchers may also estimate the exact point in the age variable at which retail profit declines and possible antecedents.
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