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.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate various problems experienced by cottage-based women entrepreneurs to launch and develop their ventures in Oman and to focus on women going beyond their traditional family roles for various reasons to establish themselves in Omani society. Design/methodology/approach The study applies a mixed research approach using a quantitative survey of 142 cottage-based Omani women entrepreneurs and qualitative face-to-face interviews with ten women entrepreneurs, presented as six short case studies. The intensity of the business-related problems is determined through the exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis is used to confirm the model by determining the goodness of fit between hypothesized model and sample data. Findings Access to government for current business needs, access to specialized suppliers for staying ahead of the competition and high cost of raw materials were the problems mentioned as being important, while marketing-oriented problems were of least concern. Research limitations/implications This study was undertaken in one region of Oman only and thus poses problems when extrapolating the findings to other areas. Practical implications The study suggests how policymakers can support women entrepreneurs to diversify and start new ventures while simultaneously contributing to the socio-economic development of Oman. Originality/value Research on cottage entrepreneurship in the context of an Arab country is scarce and the study provides an overview of the obstacles and support required for the development of women entrepreneurship in Oman.

PurposeThis paper examines the challenges associated with rural women entrepreneurs in Oman. The study is based on women living in rural and highland areas who aim to move beyond their traditional roles in the family seeking avenues for growth and development. It identifies several problems encountered by rural women entrepreneurs and the impact on their future business opportunities.Design/methodology/approachA mixed research approach involving quantitative and qualitative elements was adopted for the study. The research is based on 183 survey responses and personal interviews with 8 rural women entrepreneurs. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was adopted to analyse the quantitative responses and depict a model featuring the intensity of the problems affecting business opportunities. Seven short cases based upon the interviews with rural women entrepreneurs are also detailed.FindingsSeveral problems experienced by rural women entrepreneurs were identified hampering their business ventures, linked to personality, family, educational, socio-cultural, facilities, legal, financial and economic, organizational and geographical, out of which household, organizational and geographical linked problems were most significant. Entrepreneurial opportunities for rural women entrepreneurs are discussed.Practical implicationsThe research suggests that the policymakers should holistically consider how the rural women engaged in informal business for various means can be better supported and sustained by overcoming associated problems, can achieve business opportunities and contribute to regional socio-economic development.Originality/valueThere is a limited literature available on rural women entrepreneurship in an Arab context. The study provides an overview of the challenges and problems experienced by these women and the support areas required to overcome them for their sustainability in this region.

Purpose Young children, often called as teenagers (13-14 years) and tweenaged (8-12 years), are the new potential game changers for the big corporate. This paper aims to analyze Arab children’s influence for various products and services and across different buying process stages. The primary survey was conducted to capture a child’s role in family decision-making by analyzing their consumer socialization, influencing strategies and their influence across various products and buying stages. Design/methodology/approach Based on the review and the research gap, a bilingual questionnaire in English and Arabic language was developed. The research study was organized in three stages. It commenced with a pilot study conducted with ten school students in the age group of 8-10 years. The second stage involved contact with the schools by telephone to brief them on the purpose of the study and to request the participation of their students. The last stage was based on the survey conducted in the time period of September-November 2016-17. Findings Almost 25 per cent of the children surveyed prefer to buy stationary and books after discussing with their parents. On the other hand, food/beverage is one particular item where children go ahead and buy theses item themselves even without discussing with their parents (42.50 per cent of the total respondents). As per children’s perception, they are most influential in the final decision stage (mean = 1.84 and SD = 0.499), followed by search and evaluation stage (mean = 1.80 and SD = 0.441) and start stage (mean = 1.79 and SD = 0.488). Research limitations/implications Further research is needed in Arab countries, especially with parents of different social status, as their shopping behaviour is expected to differ. Also, as this analysis is based on child’s perception, parents’ views must also be analyzed for better results. Practical implications The is the first-of-its-kind research in the Gulf region. This empirical research highlights the need for global marketers to understand the distinct features and identity of a young Arab consumer. Despite Oman being a very traditional culture which emphasizes on conformity to group norms and social acceptance and hence confirms to collectivistic culture, where kids are supposed to be obedient, there is this new wave of super energetic, more informed young kids who take their own consumer decisions. Originality/value After going through the extensive literature review of different countries/cultures, there has been very clear understanding that despite being an important family member, almost no research has been focussed on kids in gulf nations.

Purpose This paper aims to identify the perception levels of the child and parents towards the child’s influence on different product categories and stages of the family buying process in an Arab country Oman. Design/methodology/approach On the basis of the research gap identified from the literature, two separate bilingual questionnaires (parent and child) in English and local language (Arabic) were developed. The research commenced with a pilot study on 10 school students followed by contact with school authorities requesting to conduct a survey on school students 8–12 years of age and data collection through the survey on the students and their parents (either father/mother) during September-November, 2017–2018. Data analysis was made through an independent sample t-test and confirmatory factor analysis was made using AMOS 24. Findings A model was proposed incorporating three product categories as noisy, quiet and loud goods and perceptions of Arab parents and children were examined for the three stages of the family buying process. The findings of the study reveal that significant differences exist in child-parental perceptions on the child’s influence in the search, evaluation and final buying stages. The mean score among the three product categories was highest for noisy goods (Mean = 3.21, SD = 0.817) while in the case of buying stages, the mean of the final buying stage was highest (Mean = 2.11, SD = 0.514). Research limitations/implications More research studies are required in the Arab context, especially bringing in the social status of parents to justify their different shopping behaviours. This analysis is based on the perceptions of the tweenager segment, adding perceptions of the teenage segment could generate better research implications. Practical implications The research will serve as a base to consumer marketers in understanding distinct features of Arab tweenagers towards different products and will aid them in designing appropriate marketing strategies targeting parents and children in the Arab region. Originality/value After an extensive review of the consumer literature, it is assumed that almost no research study has been made examining parent-child perceptions towards the different product categories and buying stages targeting traditionally oriented families in the Arab region.