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Article
Publication date: 5 October 2018

Thilde Langevang, Michael W. Hansen and Lettice Kinunda Rutashobya

The purpose of this paper is to examine how female entrepreneurs navigate complex and challenging institutional environments. It draws on institutional theory and the concept of…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how female entrepreneurs navigate complex and challenging institutional environments. It draws on institutional theory and the concept of response strategies to institutional pressures to explore the institutional barriers that female entrepreneurs encounter and highlights the strategies women employ to overcome them.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper builds on a case study of female entrepreneurs engaged in food processing in Tanzania. It draws on semi-structured interviews with nine female entrepreneurs, one focus group discussion with six female entrepreneurs and two semi-structured interviews with representatives from women’s business associations (WBAs).

Findings

This paper reveals a repertoire of active strategies enacted by women entrepreneurs, including advocacy through WBAs, bootstrapping, semi-informal operations, co-location of home and business, spouse involvement in the business, downplay of gender identity, reliance on persistence and passion and networking through WBAs. While these strategies involve various degrees of agency, the findings indicate that collective efforts through WBAs offer women the most promise in terms of influencing institutional structures.

Originality/value

While there is a growing body of literature examining how institutions influence female entrepreneurs, there is a dearth of knowledge on how women experience institutional complexities and actively react to institutional barriers, complexities and contradictions. This paper shows the value of analytical attention to female entrepreneurs’ agency by highlighting women’s active responses and documenting a repertoire of strategies.

Details

International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, vol. 10 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-6266

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 2004

Lettice Rutashobya and Jan‐Erik Jaensson

The paper attempts to explore the role of networks in small firms' internationalization in Tanzania. It notes that while firm internationalization has been studied extensively…

4647

Abstract

The paper attempts to explore the role of networks in small firms' internationalization in Tanzania. It notes that while firm internationalization has been studied extensively, inquiry into how small firms enter foreign markets and the strategies they use has not received much attention. The study is further motivated by the fact that export performance of developing countries is alarmingly low, and hence there is need for African governments to create an environment that will stimulate small firms’ competitiveness in the current globalized export markets if the millennium development goals are to be attained. This requires capacity building of the actors in order to take advantage of the benefits of the market access strategies under the global partnership for development. One such approach is to promote partnering and networks. The Tanzanian exploratory study has revealed that networks eliminate small firms ownership disadvantages and their perceived psychic distance, thereby facilitating their entry into foreign markets.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 31 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 2003

Lettice Kinunda‐Rutashobya

This paper explores the potentiality of export processing zones (EPZs) as a development strategy for Sub‐Saharan African countries using the Mauritian EPZ model as a case study…

3481

Abstract

This paper explores the potentiality of export processing zones (EPZs) as a development strategy for Sub‐Saharan African countries using the Mauritian EPZ model as a case study. In the literature positive relationships between export expansion and economic growth and between EPZs and export growth have been found in developing countries. Export‐oriented strategy is particularly important for developing countries given their dependency on foreign countries for most of their key inputs and technologies required in their production. Our findings suggest that EPZs can play a crucial role in the economic and social development of a country. Also that EPZs’ success may be greater if they are implemented as part of an overall trade‐oriented reform programme aimed at opening up the whole country rather than treating them as enclaves. Comprehensive incentives are required. The Mauritian EPZ experience thus provides good lessons to other Sub‐Saharan African countries pursuing economic reforms.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 41 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

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Article
Publication date: 7 March 2024

Kassa Woldesenbet Beta, Natasha Katuta Mwila and Olapeju Ogunmokun

This paper seeks to systematically review and synthesise existing research knowledge on African women entrepreneurship to identify gaps for future studies.

753

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to systematically review and synthesise existing research knowledge on African women entrepreneurship to identify gaps for future studies.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper conducted a systematic literature review of published studies from 1990 to 2020 on women entrepreneurship in Africa using a 5M gender aware framework of Brush et al. (2009).

Findings

The systematic literature review of published studies found the fragmentation, descriptive and prescriptive orientation of studies on Africa women entrepreneurship and devoid of theoretical focus. Further, women entrepreneurship studies tended to be underpinned from various disciplines, less from the entrepreneurship lens, mostly quantitative, and at its infancy stage of development. With a primary focus on development, enterprise performance and livelihood, studies rarely attended to issues of motherhood and the nuanced understanding of women entrepreneurship’s embeddedness in family and institutional contexts of Africa.

Research limitations/implications

The paper questions the view that women entrepreneurship is a “panacea” and unravels how family context, customary practices, poverty and, rural-urban and formal/informal divide, significantly shape and interact with African women entrepreneurs’ enterprising experience and firm performance.

Practical implications

The findings and analyses indicate that any initiatives to support women empowerment via entrepreneurship should consider the socially constructed nature of women entrepreneurship and the subtle interplay of the African institutional contexts’ intricacies, spatial and locational differences which significantly influence women entrepreneurs’ choices, motivations and goals for enterprising.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to a holistic understanding of women entrepreneurship in Africa by using a 5M framework to review the research knowledge. In addition, the paper not only identifies unexplored/or less examined issues but also questions the taken-for-granted assumptions of existing knowledge and suggest adoption of context- and gender-sensitive theories and methods.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 16 August 2021

Malin Tillmar, Helene Ahl, Karin Berglund and Katarina Pettersson

Contrasting Sweden and Tanzania, this paper aims to explore the experiences of women entrepreneurs affected by entrepreneurialism. This study discusses the impact on their…

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Abstract

Purpose

Contrasting Sweden and Tanzania, this paper aims to explore the experiences of women entrepreneurs affected by entrepreneurialism. This study discusses the impact on their position in society and on their ability to take feminist action.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper analysed interviews conducted in the two countries over 15 years, using a holistic perspective on context, including its gendered dimensions.

Findings

The results amount to a critique of entrepreneurialism. Women in Sweden did not experience much gain from entrepreneurship, while in Tanzania results were mixed. Entrepreneurialism seems unable to improve the situation for women in the relatively well-functioning economies in the global north, where it was designed.

Research limitations/implications

In mainstream entrepreneurship studies, there is a focus on the institutional context. From the analysis, it is apparent that equal attention must be given to the social and spatial contexts, as they may have severe material and economic consequences for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. The paper raises questions for further studies on the gendering of markets in different contexts, as well as questions on the urban-rural dimension.

Practical implications

In Sweden, marketisation of welfare services led to more women-owned businesses, but the position of women did not improve. The results strongly convey the need for a careful analysis of the pre-existing context, before initiating reforms.

Originality/value

The paper adds to the understanding of context in entrepreneurship studies: Africa is largely an underexplored continent and contrasting North and South is an underexplored methodological approach. This paper further extends and develops the model of gendered contexts developed by Welter et al. (2014).

Details

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, vol. 16 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6204

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