Guest editorial: Reimaging and contextualising women’s entrepreneurship in Asia

Citation

Mustafa, M.J., Elliott, C.J., Ramos, H.M. and Lee, G.H.Y. (2024), "Guest editorial: Reimaging and contextualising women’s entrepreneurship in Asia", Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEEE-02-2024-488

Introduction

The rapid rate of growth globally of women’s entrepreneurship (Cardella et al., 2020) has led some scholars to conclude that women are now more active than men in entrepreneurial activity (Santos et al., 2018). The significance of women’s entrepreneurial activity with regards to socio-economic development, poverty reduction and increasing social mobility (Aparicio et al., 2022) has continuously been underlined in the existing literature. For instance, Rosca et al. (2020) showed women entrepreneurs to be highly motivated by social issues around them to employ technological innovations to improve the living conditions of the community they are embedded in, and to promote greater gender equality by generating work and income for other women.

While women’s entrepreneurship is no doubt of global importance (Brush and Cooper, 2012), its growth and relevance is to the world’s emerging economies is of particular significance (Anderson and Ojediran, 2022; Corrêa et al., 2022). Representing an undeveloped potential for future economic growth and development in emerging economies (Kimbu and Ngoasong, 2016), women’s entrepreneurship in emerging economies remain largely under-researched and under-theorised by the existing literature (Ahl, 2006; Rosca et al., 2020). In part this has can be attributed to under contextualisation of women’s entrepreneurship throughout the emerging economies (Yadav and Unni, 2016). Such under contextualisation of the phenomenon has led scholars such Mustafa and Treanor (2022) and Welter (2020) to call for a greater gendering of context when it comes to women’s entrepreneurship.

Compared to developed economies, emerging economies are characterised by rapidly growing, but nevertheless turbulent and uncertain environments (Chan and Mustafa, 2021). Such contexts present women entrepreneurs with vastly different challenges including dealing with existing institutional challenges and inefficiencies, extreme poverty, scarcity of skills and entrepreneurial education and the low status of women in the socio-cultural set up (Goyal and Yadav, 2014). At the same time, emerging economies also present women entrepreneurs with several unique opportunities.

Despite the growth in scholarly interest in women’s entrepreneurship in emerging economies (Abou-Moghli and Al-Abdallah, 2019) several issues still remain. One significant issue is the incongruity between theoretical views and understanding of women’s entrepreneurship and the actual practice of entrepreneurship by women in emerging economies. For example, the dominant picture emerging of women’s entrepreneurship in emerging economies in the literature is that of a marginalised group who engage in entrepreneurial activities out of necessity rather than opportunity (Brush and Cooper, 2012), and one which faces considerably more challenges compared to men in creating and running their enterprises (Afshan et al., 2021; Ammeer et al., 2021). However, recent scholarship and evidence drawing on the gender and diversity fields have shown that women entrepreneurs can and do successfully navigate such gendered assumptions in society (Stead, 2017) by using entrepreneurship as an empowering force to overcome environmental constraints and breaking free from the authority and dominance of others to pursue individual and collective development (Semkunde et al., 2022). Nevertheless, in emerging economies the potential emancipatory and empowering influence of women’s agency remains more muted. The notion of “restricted agency” (Al-Dajani, 2022; Anderson and Ojediran, 2022) has been proposed to describe the constraints faced by women entrepreneurs in specific contexts.

Restricted agency recognises that contexts should be treated as configuring, rather than determining elements of women’s entrepreneurial activity. Restricted agency offers nuance to the relationship between women’s entrepreneurship and agency to illustrate how entrepreneurship has emancipatory potential, but it is always mobilised within specific socio-cultural contexts. Socio-cultural factors that shape women’s entrepreneurship include its representation in the media (Elliott and Stead, 2018; Braches and Elliott, 2016) that reflect the extent to which women are recognised and identified as entrepreneurs. There is a “reciprocal relationship” between the media and organisational life in that media constructions of individuals’ roles in organisations influence how individuals make sense of their position in work settings (Mavin et al., 2010, p. 556). Acknowledging that the media represents and shapes individuals’ behaviour, not least in workplaces (Czarniawska and Rhodes, 2006) deepens our appreciation of how individuals, and in turn organisations, business networks and communities make sense of and give sense to (Hellgren et al., 2002) women’s role as business leaders or entrepreneurs. Examining how women’s entrepreneurship in emerging economies is represented in the media, including the motives and types of entrepreneurial enterprises they create are communicated in media articles, provides nuanced insights into the specificities of women’s entrepreneurship in developing economies. At the very least, we suggest that women’s entrepreneurship in emerging economies requires a reimaging of how and why such activities occur.

The second issue faced in the literature is lack of gendered contextualisation of women’s entrepreneurship in emerging economies (Mustafa and Treanor, 2022). While existing research has recognised differences between developed and emerging economies (Chan and Mustafa, 2021; Hoskisson et al., 2000), significant differences can also be observed among emerging economies with respect to not only rates of women’s entrepreneurship (Corrêa et al., 2022), but also the range of socio-economic and cultural factors which shape such entrepreneurial activity. One region which consists of a diverse range of economic, social, political, cultural and religious differences is Asia. Often described as the engine of growth in today’s global economy (Tonby et al., 2019), Asian women entrepreneurs in particular are at the forefront of reshaping the business landscape as they rise to the top of industry by forging their own entrepreneurial paths, despite overwhelming obstacles (Franzke et al., 2022). Considering the diverse socio-economic cultural elements present in the region (Shahriar, 2018) further research on women’s entrepreneurship in the Asia region is sorely needed to our extend knowledge in this area.

Rationale for the special issue

Welter (2011, p. 166) suggested that context is important to understanding when, how and why entrepreneurship happens and who becomes involved. As a concept, context often encompass several levels and layers such the economic, political and cultural aspects (Shane, 2003). Chan and Mustafa (2021) highlighted that while variations may exist between developed and emerging economy contexts, significant heterogeneity can also be observed with respect to differences amongst emerging economies themselves. Such within context differences have been identified as having significant implications for women’s entrepreneurship (Cho et al., 2020). For example, in their review of women’s entrepreneurship in emerging economies, Anderson and Ojediran (2022) showed that sub-Saharan Africa had the highest rate of female entrepreneurship at 27%, while the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region the figure was only 4%. Such observed differences allude broadly to a range of factors that can influence women’s entrepreneurial activities.

One region with a significant number of emerging economies as well as differences in religion, culture, politics and histories and entrepreneurial activity is Asia (Loh and Dahesihsari, 2013). Compared to other regions globally, Asia exhibits some of the fast growth rates in terms of productivity, investment, technology and innovation (Khanna, 2019). However, the Asia region is also beset with stark contrasts among its nations when it comes to women’s entrepreneurship and gender related issues. For instance, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2019/2020 reports, on average, that Asian women are less likely than their male counterparts to start a business. This has confirmed by research showing that only 9.3% of women in China engage in entrepreneurship, while the rate of female entrepreneurship is 8.7% in India and 12.2% in Korea. However, stark contrasts can also be observed. For instance some research has shown that in some Asian economies, such as Thailand and Malaysia, rates of women’s entrepreneurship is much higher (19.3% and 20.1%, respectively), indicating a much higher level of interest by women and possibly access to resources and support necessary for entrepreneurship. In Vietnam and Indonesia, the rate of women’s entrepreneurial activity even exceeds that of men.

Additionally, significant differences in Asia also exists with respect to cultural, political and religious attitudes towards women in society. For instance, besides the Philippines (8th), nearly all of the countries comprising the Asian region continue to occupy low rankings in the Gender Gap Index, despite the region’s economic growth. Moreover, while existing scholarship often attributes the continued rise of women’s entrepreneurship in the region to predominately economic factors (Hernandez et al., 2012), social change in the region is also taking place rapidly and influencing women’s entrepreneurship. For example, several Asian countries have focused on transforming women’s status in society from caregiver to equal member of society and business, while others continue to lag in progress in these areas (Zhao and Yang, 2021). Additionally, evidence by Xheneti et al. (2019) showed that many women entrepreneurs in the region view their enterprises as a means to give them opportunities to socialise, learn new skills and expand their knowledge.

Given the above considerations, this special issue was motivated by two factors. The first arose out of the Women Entrepreneurs in Asia (WEA 2022): Empowering vulnerable communities conference in Kuala Lumpur. The conference brought together regional and global international experts, academics, policymakers, authorities and other stakeholders keen to empower women through entrepreneurship in vulnerable communities. In particular, the conference highlighted the significance of women entrepreneurs to their communities in Asia, and the societal and individual transformative power of entrepreneurship. In doing so, the conference further drew attention to the need to re-imagine how and why women become entrepreneurs in the Asia region.

The second, a pressing need to better understand how the Asian context can influence women’s motivations and ability to engage in entrepreneurship, their organisation of capital and resources around entrepreneurship and the impact of women’s entrepreneurial activity and its influence on economic, individual and societal outcomes. Specifically, we contend that past scholarship on women’s entrepreneurship still fails to move away from treating emerging economies as a homogenous group, and in doing so past examinations have led to an insufficiently nuanced contextualisation of women’s entrepreneurial activity.

Given the growing scholarly interest in women’s entrepreneurship among early career scholars in the region, we feel the time is right to take a deeper dive into the topic in order to reimaging and contextualise women’s entrepreneurship in the Asia region. Specifically, we believe a reimagining and contextualisation of women’s entrepreneurship in Asia will not only help advance scholarly debates in the topic, but will also be useful for policy makers in re-directing support for women’s entrepreneurial activities.

Papers in the special issue

A total of 25 submissions from scholars both within and outside of the Asian region were received for this special issue call. In the end, a total of ten papers were selected to form part of the special issue. The nine papers finally selected study a broad cross-section of women’s entrepreneurship from the region and focused on a range of issues facing women entrepreneurs.

Studies in the special issue focus mostly on the motivations behind women’s entrepreneurship. Interestingly, a number of studies highlight how women’s motivations and attitudes have helped overcome gendered norms and attitudes towards women and their work and women’s access to financial resources on their entrepreneurial activities. Below is a brief summary of the papers in the special issues (see Table 1).

Several studies highlight how the informal and formal elements as part of Asian society and institutions influence women’s entrepreneurship. For example, Sobhan and Hassan shows how a lack of social networks, finance and non-economic support in Bangladesh limited the potential of rural women business owners. Similarly, examining a range of socio-economic indicators across the ASEAN region, Chikh-Amnache and Mekhzoumi’s paper further highlights how gender biased institutional and cultural arrangements in the region work to curtail women’s entrepreneurial aspirations. In their examination of women’s succession intentions in Sri Lankan family businesses, Ramos et al. also highlight how pre-existing cultural attitudes towards women’s role in society formed an important decision in the succession intentions of next-generation women. In contrast, Hassan, Wai and Hussain’s study illustrates how institutional environments can be supportive towards women’s entrepreneurship. In particular, they show the importance of social networks in positively supporting and shaping women’s choice of pursuing an entrepreneurial career. Collectively, these special issue papers give further credence to Anderson and Ojediran’s (2022) notion of restricted agency. That is, despite contextual restrictions women nevertheless continued to engage in entrepreneurial activities, but their entrepreneurial activities were often shaped by the restrictions observed in their specific contexts.

The remaining papers in the special issue highlight the resilient capability of women entrepreneurs in the face of economic and socio-political instability, and the transformative and empowering possibilities of entrepreneurship. Although many economies in Asia are experiencing rapid economic growth and transformation, many states continue to be plagued by intra-and-inter regional conflicts. One region that has faced continuous upheaval over the past two decades is the middle-east. Accordingly, Maltz et al.’s exploration of Iraqi-Kurd women entrepreneurs in a conflict-zones illustrates how women entrepreneurs’ strong communal orientation and behaviours help them to continue to operate their enterprises in challenging environments. In contrast, Sörensson and Ghannad’s paper examines upheaval from an economic perspective by examining the differences between how women entrepreneurs in South Asia and Northern Europe responded to the COVID-19 crisis. Specifically, their findings demonstrate that women entrepreneurs in South Asia were impacted quite differently from their European counterparts by COVID-19, and that they chose to pursue different strategies to cope with its effects. In sum both studies reiterate the importance of the need to consider deeply the uniqueness of the Asian context and individual responses to such uniqueness to ensure business survival and continuation.

A smaller number of papers explored women’s attitudes and beliefs towards entrepreneurship can help them thrive and perform in the Asian context. For instance, while Sobhan and Hassan identified a number of socio-economic and cultural factors that negatively impact women’s entrepreneurship, her study also demonstrates women can mitigate such effects through their own entrepreneurial attitudes. Further support of the importance of women’s attitudes and cognitions towards entrepreneurship in helping their enterprises survive was presented by Yusuf, Jamjoom and Saci Looking at data from the 2016 GEM for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, they found the women entrepreneurs in the Kingdom had a higher entrepreneurial orientation (EO) then male entrepreneurs, and their higher EO was in part attributed to their greater self-efficacy and stronger social orientation. The authors also highlight the importance of the Saudi Arabian context and in particular how the highly communal context forms women entrepreneur’s thinking and attitudes towards their enterprises. Finally, Noor, Yaacob and Omar’s study of 259 Malaysian e-commerce female entrepreneurs highlight the importance of their entrepreneurial knowledge in strengthening their need for achievement and locus of control. This they argue will ultimately motivate them to start an e-commerce venture.

Finally, two studies explored whether women entrepreneurs’ individual skills and attributes actually make a difference with respect to their enterprises. Regarding the necessary skills to be an entrepreneur, Lingappa, Rodrigues and Shetty highlight not only the importance of a strong learning motivation among Indian women micro-business owners in driving their choice of entrepreneurship (necessity vs opportunity based) but also the importance of human resource and business-related competencies in driving the performance of their ventures. Given the regional, cultural and social constraints faced by Indian women business owners, Lingappa, Rodrigues and Shetty’s study further reiterates why women in rural contexts need not only entrepreneurial skills but also practical business skills in order for their enterprises to continue to develop. Similarly, looking at micro-entrepreneurs in Malaysia’s rapidly growing cosmetics industry, Arshad et al. found that attending training and being part of a mentor programme positively influenced their sales performance. Collectively such studies further demonstrate the importance of training and government support in developing the capabilities of women entrepreneurs (Chatterjee et al., 2022).

Studies in this special issue, while impressive, have only managed to uncover the tip of iceberg when it comes to women’s entrepreneurship in the Asian region. Clearly much more theoretical and empirical work is needed to understand more deeply the issue of women’s entrepreneurship in Asia. What is clear though, is that women entrepreneurs continue to thrive and survive in the unique Asian context. Based on the studies in the special issue we propose the following conceptual model (see Figure 1).

Suggestions for future research

This special issue explored women’s ongoing participation in entrepreneurship in the Asia region (De Vita et al., 2014). While papers in this special issue highlight some interesting findings, they also point the way for several promising areas for future research with respect to women’s entrepreneurship in Asia.

First, we see an urgent need to better conceptualise and account for the depth and breadth of women’s entrepreneurship in Asia. Literature on gender and entrepreneurship in general has seen a shift from recognising the masculine norm prevalent in the practice of entrepreneurship, to bringing light to feminine practices (Jennings and Brush, 2013), to recognising the fluidity of gender and its intersectional nature (Deaux and Stewart, 2001). Such a shift opens the door for future research to explore how, through their entrepreneurial activities and practice, Asian women entrepreneurs can reconfigure social and gendered norms. Hence, future research can and should examine more deeply how women entrepreneurs in Asia navigate the institutional and normative structures in their countries. Equally worthwhile is future research examining how Asian women develop, negotiate and project their identities as entrepreneurs in societies where gendered norms and expectations towards entrepreneurial activity are very strong.

Second, the incorporation of new perspectives and theoretical lenses is sorely needed to help understand women’s entrepreneurial experiences in Asia (Marlow et al., 2009). For instance, Stead (2017) adopted a feminist theoretical perspective to examine belonging in the entrepreneurial context. Stead’s (2017) study conceptualises women entrepreneurs belonging as a relational, dynamic and in perpetual accomplishment, “a constant and complex loop between individual (inter)action and social change, both affecting the other. We suggest that drawing on such concepts and unique perspectives from other fields, future scholars could provide an in-depth understanding of the relationship between gender, women entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial efforts in the Asian context.

Third, papers in the special issue pointed to the future need to have theoretically informed or even better descriptions of women’s entrepreneurial practice (Anderson and Ullah, 2014). Such studies may do better justice to the remarkable ingenuity and capabilities displayed in overcoming problems. In this regard, we suggest that future scholars take into account more novel methodological approaches to examining women’s entrepreneurial practice in Asia. For example, Owalla and Al Ghafri (2020) highlighted the need for more discourse analysis on women’s entrepreneurship in the media, including magazines and radio. For instance, longitudinal approaches, whether qualitative or quantitative, could be used to provide more nuanced views of how factors such as the work-family interface and national-level economic policies towards female entrepreneurship influence women entrepreneurs business performance.

Fourth, prior research has suggested that traditional cultural and religious beliefs in Asia provide a number of leadership challenges for women entrepreneurs (Kemper et al., 2019). In particular, it is often assumed that women in Asia have limited participation in business and thus largely lack the necessary skills and capabilities to lead entrepreneurial enterprises (Chen et al., 2018). Therefore a particular important area of future research is examine women entrepreneurs’ leadership styles and practices in leading their entrepreneurial ventures. Another promising avenue of future research could be explorations of how women entrepreneurs in Asia seek out and activate support networks to overcome potential barriers in running their enterprises.

Finally, while we recognise the relevance of context Asian women’s entrepreneurship (Zahra et al., 2014), we also acknowledge the lack of theorising through context in the current literature. Context-sensitive research is not only concerned with what circumstances surround the phenomena under investigation (contextualising research), but also with how the circumstances constrain and shape these phenomena (context theorising) (Bamberger, 2008). Context describes “the situational opportunities and constraints that affect the occurrence and meaning of organisational behaviour as well as functional relationships between variables” (Johns, 2006, p. 386). In this sense, context is interpreted beyond the simple formal and informal boundaries where Asian women entrepreneurs operate; it is instead viewed as having an active role as a critical driver of cognition, attitudes and behaviour (Bamberger, 2008). Consequently, a contextualised focus opens the door to deepening our understanding of Asian women entrepreneurs and the heterogeneity observed among their entrepreneurial activities.

Figures

Figure 1.

Conceptual model

Table 1.

Summary of papers

	Research question	Sample	Core findings
Sobhan and Hassan	How Bangladeshi women business owners activities are shaped by legal and socio-cultural factors?	324 women business owners operating in Dhaka, Khulna and Rangpur regions of Bangladesh	A lack of social networks, access to finance and non economic support discourages women business owners from scaling their business. However, women business owners can mitigate such effects through their own entrepreneurial attitudes and supportive cultural context family and education (ED)
Maltz et al.	Do women in conflict zones transitioning to entrepreneurship behave more or less communally and agentically relative to their male counterparts?	20 interviews with Iraqi-Kurd entrepreneurs (10 men and 10 women)	Successful women entrepreneurs in conflict zones tend to exhibit less agentic behavior than males. However, while, in general, women appear to be more comfortable exhibiting communal behavior, males seem to behave more communally
Lingappa, Rodrigues and Shetty	Is there a difference in women business owners motivation to learn and entrepreneurial competencies with respect to opportunity or necessity based entrepreneurship and their business performance?	344 Micro, Small or Medium (MSME) enterprises founded by women in the state of Karnataka, India	Women MSME owners motivation to learn is a significant factor in helping them acquire the necessary entrepreneurial competencies to succeed in opportunity-driven entrepreneurship. Business and HR competencies are particularly significant in driving performance in MSMEs
Sörensson and Ghannad	How have women entrepreneurs changed their entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 pandemic?	30 case studies of women entrepreneurs from Sweden and South Asian countries (India, Nepal, Pakistan and United Arab Emirates)	Asian women entrepreneurs responded differently to economic instability brough on from the Covid-19 crisis from their European counterparts in the form of economic sustainability, demand from customers and digitization
Chikh-Amnache and Mekhzoumi	Which socio-economic forces either enable or constrain women entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia?	Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MM-QR) approach to assess 10 Southeast Asian countries (Brunei, Indonesia, Cambodia Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) covering data from 1980 to 2021	Being a parent, unemployed, having low levels of schooling and less equal ownership rights to immovable property and being married work to curtail women’s entrepreneurial aspirations
Hassan, Wai and Hussain	How does women’s social capital endowment influence their decision to become an entrepreneur?	325 female business students from 10 tertiary educational institutions in the Maldives	Female students social capital endowment has a significant impact on their decision to become entrepreneurs through positively shaping their attitudes towards entrepreneurship and their perceptions of social norms towards entrepreneurship
Arshad et al.	Does coaching and training enhance the relationship between women entrepreneurs capabilities and sales performance over time?	249 micro-entrepreneurs from Malaysia	Women micro-entrepreneurs self-efficacy and sales experience have a significant positive effect on their adaptive sales performance both before and after they receive coaching and training
Yusuf, Jamjoom and Saci	What are the differences in socio-economic and cognitive factors among genders with respect to their entrepreneurial orientation?	Adult Population Survey (APS) of 2016 conducted by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) among a sample of 4,053 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia	The entrepreneurial orientation is positively related to gender, with more women intending to start a venture than men in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Self-efficacy, motivation and social welfare motivational factors for entrepreneurial orientation were more positively associated with women than men
Ramos et al.	What motivates females to become successors in family business?	Interviews with seven female potential successors of family business from Sri Lanka	A combination of personal motivators and cultural practices have a strong impact on the desire of women to be successors in family business
Noor, Yaacob and Omar	How does women entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial knowledge influence their intentions to start an e-commerce venture?	Cross-sectional survey of 259 female entrepreneurs from Malaysia	Need for achievement and locus of control plays an intermediate role in the relationship between entrepreneurial knowledge and women entrepreneurs’ e-commerce ventures