Characteristics, Motivations, and Challenges of Women Entrepreneurs in Oman’s Al-Dhahira Region

Abstract

To organize and manage an enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk, women entrepreneurs need to undertake various challenges. This paper identifies and discusses the characteristics, motivations, and obstacles of women entrepreneurs in starting their own businesses, focusing on the Al-Dhahira region of Oman. Data were collected through a structured survey questionnaire. The study identified the major characteristics of women entrepreneurs that inspired them to start their businesses. An urge to balance the work and family life, a search for stable work, and an intention to take advantage of a discovered market niche were identified as main motivators. The major difficulties faced by these entrepreneurs were insufficient financial resources and access to external financing. The findings help explain regional imbalances in entrepreneurial activities locally and globally.

Work-Family Balance and Marketing Capabilities as Determinants of Chinese Women Entrepreneurs' Firm Performance

“…Given the importance of context (Hughes et al, 2012;Welter, 2011;Zahra, 2007), we draw upon the family embeddedness perspective (Aldrich & Cliff, 2003), which posits that families and businesses are intertwined bodies and that family dynamics impinge on entrepreneurial processes. Women's entrepreneurial activities are strongly immersed in family systems (Belwal, Belwal, & Al Saidi, 2014;Brush, DeBruin, & Welter, 2009;Cetindamar et al, 2012;Forson, 2013;Jennings & Brush, 2013;Saridakis, Marlow, & Storey, 2014). Small businesses across various countries tend to exhibit family involvement through providing support.…”

The influence of perceived management skills and perceived gender discrimination in launch decisions by women entrepreneurs

“…In this study, the family embeddedness framework (Aldrich and Cliff 2003) is applicable due to women's entrepreneurial activity being strongly rooted in family systems (Belwal et al 2014;Cetindamar et al 2012;Forson 2013;Jennings and Brush 2013;Saridakis et al 2014). Then, we position the family embeddedness perspective within the institutional economics framework (North 1990(North , 2005.…”

“…One of the most often studied issues have been factors that determine propensity of women to become entrepreneurs (Aramand 2013;Batsakis 2014;Belwal et al 2014;Carter et al 2015;Cetindamar et al 2012;Forson 2013;Griffiths et al 2013;Iakovleva et al 2013;Jayawarna et al 2014;Jennings and Brush 2013;Noguera et al 2013;Pathak et al 2013;Saridakis et al 2014;Sullivan and Meek 2012;Urbano et al 2014;Verheul et al 2006;Yetim 2008;Zhang et al 2009). However, there is very little research explaining how women proceed after they decided to start an entrepreneurial career (McClelland et al 2005).…”

“…What may give them the courage "to take the plunge" (Pathak et al 2013) and venture outside their family is a high level of confidence in their management skills. In the male-dominated society, as exemplified by Morocco, female entrepreneurs are often not taken seriously by males (Al- Sadi et al 2011;Belwal et al 2014;Itani et al 2011), which might be another reason for women to look for co-partners outside their families or proceed alone. However, if they feel that their management skills are not adequate, they may have no choice under perceived circumstances of gender discrimination but to seek the direct involvement of their family (and be forced to view them as "allies" rather than "enemies") (Powell and Eddleston 2013) if they still want to start and run a business.…”

Differentiation Based on Gender in Iranian Food Culture

“…For example, Pilcher and Whelehan (2004) explained fifty concepts that is source of gender studies. Besides, about position and status of women in business life (Alonso-Almeida et al, 2015;Sotiropoulou, 2014;Belwal et al, 2014;Khosrokhavar and Ghaneirad, 2010), about houseworks and domestic roles of women (Shirazi, 2005;Jackson, 1992;Fürst, 1997), about women in other social areas apart from home (Elliott, 2014;Shahrokni, 2014) and about women and the representation of women in the media (Oxman-Martinez et al, 2009;Graham and Rich 2014) studies are intensive but the aim of our study isn't to collect literature about gender and women.…”