Struggling with social capital: Pakistani women micro entrepreneurs’ challenges in acquiring resources

Abstract

A crucial aspect of successful venturing is social capital. In contrast to traditional Western-oriented research where social capital is construed positively, we found that in the traditional, patriarchal society of Pakistan, social capital puts high restrictions on women micro entrepreneurs-where social capital prevents or slows venturing efforts. Results also show that although women do get some selective access to resources from family members, they are restricted by limited access to social capital outside of family members. As women entrepreneurs have the potential to play an important role in the development of any society, and especially so in developing countries, based on the insights derived from this qualitative study, we propose suggestions for further research on women micro entrepreneurs in non-Western contexts.

Women's entrepreneurship and social capital: Exploring the link between the domestic sphere and the marketplace in Pakistan

“…Specific problems hinder the formation of women's associations: for instance, illiteracy, barriers to mobility, and finding women leaders who enjoy acceptability (Mehtap, Pellegrini, Caputo, & Welsh, 2017). In Pakistan, these factors specifically impede the development of women's associational networks (Aziz, Shams, & Khan, 2011; Lindvert et al, 2017). Therefore, informal interpersonal ties play a key role in the survival and stability of women's businesses (Roomi, 2013).…”

“…This article contributes to the literature on the social capital (SC) of women entrepreneurs in two major ways: firstly, by highlighting the role of women's networks in the survival and expansion of women's entrepreneurial activities and, secondly, by analyzing how women use their agency to develop networks for gaining access to the marketplace (Lindvert, Patel, & Wincent, 2017; Roomi, 2013; Yetim, 2008). The gender and entrepreneurship literature often overlooks the data‐gathering difficulties associated with research on female entrepreneurship in less‐advanced economies (Henry, Foss, & Ahl, 2016, p. 18).…”

“…The scarcity of female researchers in the marketplace literature in Pakistan (Amirali, 2017) and the infrequent presence of male scholars studying women's entrepreneurship in the country (Roomi, 2013; Ullah, Ahmad, Manzoor, Hussain, & Farooq, 2012) perhaps present one of the best examples of this gender segregation within entrepreneurship research (Khan, 2018). Drawing on Khan (2019), and presenting empirical exploratory findings on women's entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial networks, this study contributes to the literature on women entrepreneurs and SC by exploring women's entrepreneurial networks and their role in facilitating women's access to the marketplace in Pakistan (Lindvert et al, 2017; Roomi, 2013).…”

“…Of 11 studies on marketplaces in Pakistan, only 3 make any attempt to explore women's participation, while the rest either exclude women from their samples due to access barriers or do not mention them at all in their research design (Khan, 2018). On the other hand, the literature on female entrepreneurship is more extensive and focuses on institutional constraints (Gohar & Abrar, 2016), the mobility barriers posed by cultural norms of women's seclusion (Roomi & Harrison, 2010; Roomi & Parrott, 2008), or the limited SC of women who is primarily restricted to their family networks (Lindvert et al, 2017; Roomi, 2013). However, this prior literature views women's entrepreneurial activities and entrepreneurial networks as separate from and inferior to those of their male counterparts (Henry & Marlow, 2014).…”

“…The choice of research questions has been influenced by earlier empirical work on women's entrepreneurship in a developing state context and Pakistan. The earlier research explored institutional factors influencing women's entrepreneurial activities and their ability to use agency (Roomi, 2013, 2018), barriers to women's mobility in shaping their entrepreneurial choices (Kamal & Woodbury, 2016), male domination of the entrepreneurial context of Pakistan (Omeihe, Dakhan, Khan, Gustafsson, & Amoako, 2019), and the limited SC of women entrepreneurs due to a patriarchal culture and gender‐segregated entrepreneurial context (Lindvert et al, 2017). This article closes a particular knowledge gap in the existing literature by analyzing the role of women's SC in facilitating their access to marketplaces, which are men's entrepreneurial sphere in Pakistan.…”