Why research is needed in women entrepreneurship in India: a viewpoint

Abstract

Purpose The spirit of entrepreneurship among nationals of a country leads and contributes significantly to the growth process of a country. In this drive, there cannot be gender biases among men and women. The government in India has taken several initiatives to increase the participation of women entrepreneurs and, thus, making a partner to the growth and development process of the country. The initiatives in this direction were taken up through five-year development policy plans commencing from the fifth five-year plan (1974-1978). The focus of five-year plans since then has been reoriented toward women welfare stressing more specifically on women empowerment through women entrepreneurship programs. The purpose of this paper is to appraise the series of development plans and programs initiated for the empowerment of women entrepreneurship in India. Design/methodology/approach The paper is developed based on the concepts, policies and practices being implemented across the regions to promote women entrepreneurs. The methodology adopted to assess and analyze the relevant components very much matches the existing practices. The paper relates the concepts, programs and practices. This study has revealed certain issues based on the available data and information on women entrepreneurship to establish a view and rational as of why research is needed in the area of women entrepreneurship. To support this concept, the study has considered the experiences of two important states of India, namely, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Findings The study reveals that Government of India has launched several policies and development programs to infuse the spirit of entrepreneurship among the women groups and thereby not only making them financially self-sustained but also to contribute to the growth process of the economy. However, there remain many gaps in achieving the goals due to the variety of factors. This becomes more significant as the level of women entrepreneurship in India is very low as compared to other economies and also between the men and women entrepreneurs within the country. The study brings out the need and importance for the future research in the area of women entrepreneurship and thereby exploring the areas of concern and bringing out needed improvements to strengthen the women entrepreneurship programs and policies. Originality/value This research provides a future direction to the academicians, researchers and policymakers to provide a framework to reorient the programs and policies for the cause of women entrepreneurship growth in India. The paper very much emphasis that the research findings will have influence on government policies and serve as an effective tool for implementation of state programs meant for woman entrepreneurs more effectively and efficiently. The ultimate impact of research findings will be an economic change in the quality of life of woman enterprise in the society.

Investment behaviour of women entrepreneurs

“…Women entrepreneurs would have absorbed some amount of risk in starting their enterprise (Bowen and Hisrich, 1986;Agarwal and Lenka, 2018) but they do not exhibit similar risk taking in their investment behaviour. The data collected was analysed for common themes, which were decided upon when more than 75% of respondents spoke about a particular topic.…”

“…Entrepreneurship is a crucial contributor to a country's economic growth (Shukla et al, 2017) and nations are implementing various policies to promote entrepreneurship. Since 2014, the Government of India has introduced various programmes such as Startup India, Invest India and Make in India, to support and develop a conducive ecosystem for the growth of entrepreneurship (Agarwal and Lenka, 2018).…”

“…They are not just building enterprises but also effectively managing multiple roles in their personal lives. The government is also focussing on giving impetus to women entrepreneurs (Agarwal and Lenka, 2018) as women are becoming a growing population of the global entrepreneurial ecosystem (Brush et al, 2009), thus becoming an attractive section to offer products and services.…”

“…The report also says that 2.8 million (34.88%) women entrepreneurs are based in urban India. The Government of India has made special initiatives such as Mahila E-Haat, Startup India, National Mission for Empowerment of Women, Leadership Development of Minority Women, Swa-Shakti Project, Rural Women's Development and Empowerment and Rashtriya Mahila Kosh, to help women entrepreneurs grow and flourish (Agarwal and Lenka, 2018).…”

“…The rising participation of women in the entrepreneurial ecosystem is adding to the nation's resources (Agarwal and Lenka, 2018) and leading to the personal wealth creation by women. These women need to be equipped with knowledge and skills to effectively invest the surplus wealth for a financially secured future.…”