Three essays on female entrepreneurship in resource-constrained environments

Abstract

Female entrepreneurship is increasingly playing important roles in the economic growth of many countries. Several businesses providing employment to many people and producing a lot revenue are created and managed by women. Many national governments and supra-governmental institutions are fervently promoting entrepreneurship all over the world especially in developing economies as a means to create employment and alleviate poverty. However, being classified under "everyday entrepreneurship", female entrepreneurship especially in developing economies has not been the object of much theorizing in the past. This has led to calls from researchers for more research on female entrepreneurship especially in developing economies. This thesis therefore explores female entrepreneurship research over a 32-year period and its influence on the female entrepreneurship policies of both developed and developing countries; It also looks at female entrepreneurship in practice especially in resource-constrained environments in terms of its emancipatory role in the lives of female entrepreneurs and their families, and the sources and combination of funding resources in the creation and running of their businesses. The study revealed that female entrepreneurship research results have influenced developed countries' policies on female entrepreneurship but not those of developing countries in the same dimension. The study also discovered that women entrepreneurs ventured into entrepreneurship to liberate themselves and others from perceived constraints in their lives. They do that by combining various resources from different sources to start and run businesses. These sources are made possible through their social capital which was found to be a valuable resource in less developed economies.