A two-decade history of women’s entrepreneurship research trajectories in developing economies context: perspectives from India
ISSN: 1751-1348
Article publication date: 28 March 2023
Issue publication date: 11 January 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to add a historical perspective to the contemporary debate concerning women’s entrepreneurship in India. This study aims to explore the quantitative and qualitative research map of the research field of women’s entrepreneurship. Through this exploration, the authors aim to portray the historical and contemporary factors related to women’s entrepreneurship development in India, the problems and the opportunities. Future research opportunities are also identified based on the keyword analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a systematic literature review to analyze the historical and theoretical perspectives of women’s entrepreneurship in India. The bibliometric analysis portrays the publication landscape, including the most popular journals, authors and countries, citation analysis and keyword analysis. The content analysis reveals the thematic clusters of the research field.
Findings
The content analysis of the management literature on women’s entrepreneurship reveals four primary clusters from the research: contextual embeddedness in women’s entrepreneurship, reasons for starting a business, microfinance interventions and empowerment of women entrepreneurs and marginalization dynamics for women entrepreneurs in India’s informal sector. The study also presents implications for policymakers and a women entrepreneurs’ development framework.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to comprehensively analyze the management literature on women’s entrepreneurship in India from a historical perspective. The study combines bibliometric mapping and content analysis for a holistic presentation of the research field of women’s entrepreneurship in India and future research opportunities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a grant by the Indian Council of Social Science and Research (ICSSR) and (No. IMPRESS/P1083/489/18–19/ICSSR).
Declaration: The authors have no relevant financial or nonfinancial interests to disclose.
Citation
Dana, L.-P., Chhabra, M. and Agarwal, M. (2024), "A two-decade history of women’s entrepreneurship research trajectories in developing economies context: perspectives from India", Journal of Management History, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 6-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-11-2022-0064
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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