Quality & Quantity

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-020-01046-x

Exploring the motives and success factors behind female

entrepreneurs in India

Muhammad Abrar ul Haq1 · Surjit Victor1 · Farheen Akram1

Accepted: 24 September 2020

© Springer Nature B.V. 2020

Abstract
Encouraging women as entrepreneurs in the recent scenario are the government initiative
over the globe. Some women started these small enterprises to support their living and
their families, however, the commitments are minor and significant numbers of projects
are probably not increasing in the long run. Thus, the current study aims to explore the fac-
tors contributing in motive behind female entrepreneurship to participate in the economic
development as an effective entrepreneur by leading a successful business based on their
specifics characteristics. Using factor analysis with the data of 80 female entrepreneurs,
the study concluded that there are nine indicators that contribute significantly to become a
successful entrepreneur. Therefore, the current study suggests that there must be a cease-
less effort to move, stimulate and coordinate with women entrepreneur while developing
the policies to promote women in business meanwhile, women itself need to attempt and
update themselves inside the changing over occasions by methods for adjusting the pristine
time benefits. Women ought to be taught and talented persistently to assemble the capaci-
ties and information in the greater part of the viable districts of business administration.
This will encourage women to exceed expectations in choice-making process and expand a
decent business.

Keywords Women entrepreneurship · Social pressure · Self-survival · Inter-dependency ·

Family responsibility

* Muhammad Abrar ul Haq

abrarchudhary@hotmail.com
Surjit Victor
s.victor@amaiu.edu.bh
Farheen Akram
f.akram@amaiu.edu.bh
1
College of Administrative and Financial Sciences, AMA International University Bahrain,
Salmabad, Bahrain

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1 Introduction

Encouraging women as entrepreneurs in the recent scenario are the government initiative
over the globe. All the governments of different countries are promoting this female gen-
der forcefully. In recent years the development of female entrepreneurship globally has
attracted great attention. Regional balance and employment targets over the next decade
are expected to increase efforts in this direction (Laudano et al. 2019). Discovering the
problems combat by woman entrepreneurs in South Africa is a priority for potential female
entrepreneurs, researchers and the South African government. The challenges involve
a shortage of schooling and training, absence of funds, gender favoritism, pessimistic
approach and insufficient resources were recognized in South Africa as barriers to women
entrepreneurs (Chinomona and Maziriri 2015; Kurtege Sefer 2020). The status and back-
ground of South Asia, women emphasize the need for women entrepreneurs to address the
incidence of poverty. Some women started these small enterprises to support their living
and their families, however, the commitments are minor and significant numbers of pro-
jects are probably not increasing in the long run. Meanwhile, in South Asia, different areas
need to be fortified in light of Women entrepreneurship development programs (Laudano
et al. 2019).
Moreover, the Asian countries present the state of the working environment and work-
life balance of professional and personal. Organizational and social changes that women
need to augment for their leadership positions (Abrar ul Haq et al. 2016). Meanwhile, the
culture unshackles the limits of women to work in an organization and need to know the
society’s perspective towards the female has changed or not (Rashid and Ratten 2020). It
throws light on the entrepreneurial profile of women, seeking inspiration for their entrepre-
neurial career and they face the challenges. The research performed on female entrepre-
neurs includes the business type and ownership, quantity and employees, source of starting
wealth, and their future plans were incorporated. An important feature of this study was to
starting business consist of inter-dependency, additional earnings for family, for financial
independence (Segovia-Pérez et al. 2018). There are various hurdles in empowering the
women in business, it was revealed such as problems of infrastructure, old-fashioned soci-
ety, lack of skills, gender discrimination and training amenities, etc. The research uncovers
that female entrepreneurs obtained the assistance of their family and peers and manage
starting resources (Abrar ul Haq et al. 2019a).
Furthermore, educated young women will never want to confine their lives in four
habitations. Young women have to move a wide range of ways to achieve height with
strength and ability, as the limits of reality are set deeply in Indian society, where
sociological settings have become male classes. These women are considered weak
mannequin and are usually made to trust families and relatives at some stage in their
lives (Saebi et al. 2019). In other words, women entrepreneur can be described as the
women, who organize all the factors of production, undertake risk and provide employ-
ment to others (Rajeh et al. 2019). Women entrepreneurship is where women sort out
all the factors of production, take on risks, and give the job to other people. The defi-
nition of women entrepreneurship has never been separated based on gender and sub-
sequently could be stretched out to women entrepreneurs without limitations. Female
entrepreneurs might get characterized as a woman or cluster of women who start,
arrange, and maintain a business endeavor. As far as the Schumpeterian theory of inno-
vative entrepreneurs, women who create, reproduce or take up an enterprise are called
‘women entrepreneurs’ (Bahmani-Oskooee et al. 2012). Similarly, the educated women

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Exploring the motives and success factors behind female…

entrepreneurs are considered when they get an education to seek the knowledge, skills
and motivation to encourage entrepreneurial success in a variety of settings. In other
words, when a woman gains a specialized knowledge, training or skill, in the field or
area in which the they are running their business.
India is a big country, with a large population and a variety of cultures. Since
sociologists are deeply rooted in male-dominated Indian society, educated Indian
women must go a long way in favor to gain equal privileges and importance (Hashmi
2019). The growth of female entrepreneurs in India is very small compared to devel-
oped countries. Although, there are different social constraints, however still Indian
women are higher than others and appreciate their achievements in each field. The role
of the woman entrepreneur in economic as well as social development is very cru-
cial as long as scholarly conditions are extended in the young women’ lives, they will
be motivated. Moreover, it is also claimed that their competencies and walked neck to
neck with males in every part of life and business (Amrita et al. 2018). Those young
women’ found to be vigorous, commanding and eager to take risks. Telling the story,
they find out the way and stay alive to meet this relentless resistance with art, tireless
hard work and determination. Understand the potential, its negligence, open mould of
inconvenience to appear faster than your abilities, excitement to receive pressure and
probabilities, ability to provoke people, understanding a move to succeed and fail hast-
ily are the characteristics of the business woman (Croce 2020).
Furthermore, their way of life and mood for autonomous basic leadership is the
motivational perspective behind this propensity. Young women need to gain autonomy,
unburden by family unit tasks and household obligations. Under the influence of these
components, women try to choose a career from small new components to ventures.
This situation is described as a force mechanism. The reason women engage in busi-
ness is collapsed by their hovering and sense of responsibility for their relatives’ feel-
ings. Additionally, entrepreneurs as self-employed, face uncertainty and play an active
role in decision making, set up the financially viable commotion, create innovative
ideas, seize new opportunities, invest, take risks and reap the rewards (Kwon and Sohn
2019). A significant role is played by a woman in the home and facilitates the coun-
try’s economic affair. In almost all the countries half the population is females and of
that fifty percent is probable labour. Therefore, it is hoped that by raising them as an
entrepreneur and ultimately poverty level will be declined. Indeed, it is proposed that
there is an important causal relationship between entrepreneurship, economic develop-
ment and poverty eradication (Sowmya and Mishra 2019). Therefore, the current study
aims to explore the factors contributing in motive behind female entrepreneurship to
participate in the economic development as an effective entrepreneur by leading a suc-
cessful business based on their specifics characteristics.

2 Literature review

The entrepreneurship is defined as “it refers to the economic undertaking; this is based
on the classical definition of the word, which can be traced to the German unterneh-
mung literally translated as undertaking. The agents of entrepreneurship are entrepre-
neurs, from the French entrepreneurs, literally meaning ‘between takers’. The flagships
of entrepreneurship are small and medium enterprises (SMEs)” (Dana 2004:1).

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 M. Abrar ul Haq et al.

2.1 Obsession and attitude

Women learn about the nature, rights, and conditions of working through the media, but
attitude, awareness, and adaptability in the industry are essential to becoming an icon
they develop them from solution seekers to solution makers for a variety of reasons such
as divorce, separation, and single mother and financial crisis, still the young women are
excited to enhance their passion becoming fashion designers, interior designers, exporters,
textile manufacturers and financial consultants (Bryce et al. 2019; Dalborg et al. 2015).
In today’s era establishing a venture requires a variety of challenges for women entrepre-
neurs and to explore those challenges that female entrepreneurs encounter is an obstacle
to female entrepreneurs such as scarcity of infrastructural facility, gender discrimination,
education, attitude, finance, skills and training (Chinomona and Maziriri 2015). Similarly,
the characteristics of entrepreneurs are based on the performance to achieve the set targets
through their efforts, which can be measured by business growth and survival over the time
(Anggadwita et al. 2017). There is another common misperception that women run their
business same as the men, however, the results show that the women are more risk aversive
as compere to men counterpart (Valla 2001).

2.2 Self‑dependency and breaking barriers

The dependency and self-criticism of women were compared to determine the influence of
depression on those personalities which says that mood influence dependency by depressed
women while in depression and bipolar disorder self-criticism shows a character logical
trait, so, dependency and self-criticism effected women reflect relatively stable personality
with a mood choice (Bovin 2019). Moreover, women entrepreneurs are eager to establish
their career as they realize substantial gains, willingness to work exclusively for themselves
on their own account and significant achievements during their knowledge and education
and due to the current possibility of voluntarily becoming self-sufficient for persistence
dependency of their family (Behaviour 2019). As we see females are still bridging the
gender gap between salary and authority, now they are getting educated and ask for more
remuneration (Quagrainie et al. 2020). This condition is even more worse in developed
countries, where minorities go through discrimination in job because of racism while in
developing countries where discrimination, inequality, and isolation is due to cultural and
religion, such gaps often occur because females have now become the source of earning for
the family (Hockerts 2015).

2.3 Survival and ambitions

Ambitious entrepreneurship lacks various definitions of action and pioneers, however, dis-
cusses conceptualization and operations extensively which clarify the differences among
the associated purpose of development, expectations, aspirations and discussion on how to
apply those concepts to the integrated framework of ambitious entrepreneurship (UNESCO
2018). In this regard, Kurtege Sefer (2020) highlighted the need for a better understand-
ing of female entrepreneurship and for re-formulation of policies which draws attention
to the action required to be taken at the aggregate level to provide the better facilities to
women entrepreneur which improve their survival rate. The concept of mixed embedding
is to search how institutional contexts over occasion and place affect women’s entrepre-
neurship because growth in female entrepreneurs without considering gender and place,

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Exploring the motives and success factors behind female…

focuses on dynamic individuals and general incentives, which reveals women’s business
activities characterized by inconsistencies and vulnerabilities and relatively low achieve-
ments between dynamic entrepreneurial efforts and positive social attitudes towards female
entrepreneurs (Langevang et al. 2015).

2.4 Responsibility and personality

Women entrepreneurs need to understand the importance of changing the overall personal-
ity which helps to encourage the private sector, it has been taken with the aim of expand-
ing small business initiatives towards new market tax and will help in reducing gaps from
racism and gender wealth, income and wealth inequality, and increase social prosperity
(Laudano et al. 2019). Similarly, the family responsibility is also one of the major indica-
tors in the success of women as an entrepreneur because women have to keep the balance
among their work and family responsibilities (Cukier and Hassannezhad Chavoushi 2020).
For successfully capturing the mass reasons affecting the personality of female entrepre-
neurship the multi-tiered integrated infrastructure, prepared and is in favor to expand the
diversity of employment in an economic framework, there have been few studies involv-
ing female entrepreneurs talking about the consequences of institutional and social context
expression in a particular society in shaping contextual offers and constraints that affect the
female entrepreneurs (Ingersoll et al. 2019).

2.5 Skill and social pressure

The historical factors within India such as the caste system, British occupation, cultural
values and government regulations have limited innovative entrepreneurship in India. Now
a day, the efforts have been made to moderate the cultural values in India in regard to entre-
preneurship and encouraging the youth (male as well as female) to become an entrepre-
neur by developing their own small business (Dana 2000). Moreover, the impact on female
entrepreneurial orientation and their satisfaction were created to evaluate the cause and
effect relationship of various factors such as push and pull factors, communal, psychologi-
cal, financial problems, entrepreneurial orientation and gratification. Similarly, managerial
skills have always played a special role in realizing business goals and objectives (Rama-
dani et al. 2015). Therefore, if women entrepreneurs are prepared and trained with the latest
technologies, then it is possible to implement new innovations only because they are rarely
afraid of failure because psychologically, they dare to face failures and only then they can
survive in business (Amrita et al. 2018). The social pressure that affects women entrepre-
neurship and satisfaction, suggests that women who are oriented to work have higher sat-
isfaction in life. The study of Anggadwita and Dhewanto (2016) showed a week relation-
ship between the women entrepreneurial intention and social perception. Their study also
indicates that entrepreneurial behavior can be improved if the social perceptions will be
strong and will be impaired when if social perceptions will enervate. Startup decisions for
women entrepreneurs experience greater risk than men and take into account the potential
effects of enthusiasm and self-efficacy to investigate that young female entrepreneur are
able to bear more risk than young male entrepreneurs, that risk sensitivity persuades start-
up decisions and threat preference is part of the differently identified impact of passion for
startup decisions (Dalborg et al. 2015; Kanwar, 2020). This is also stated that “self-con-
fidence” is the most important factor that affects the success of their business (Ramadani
et al. 2015). Indian females have recognized social entrepreneurship objectives between

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creativity, emotional intelligence, moral obligations, and approach towards becoming a

social entrepreneur.

2.6 Study area profile

The total area of the Uttar Pradesh is 243,290 km2, the most dens (536 persons per sq.
km) populated area of India having 230.15 million population out of which 22.27% in
urban while rest of 77.73% settled in the rural area (Chandramouli 2014). The main cit-
ies which now come in urban areas are Lucknow, Noida, Kanpur and Allahabad. Adult
literacy (10 years and above) rate in the Uttar Pradesh is 79.24% among males and 59.26%
among female. Recently as per Uttar Pradesh census data, 94.70% of houses are owned
while 4.11% were rented (Chandramouli 2014). In all, 64.03% of couples in Uttar Pradesh
lived in single-family. The overall literacy rate in India is 69.1 per cent, meanwhile, the
average literacy rate in Uttar Pradesh is 67.68% with male 77.28% and female literacy rate
is 57.18% which is lesser than the overall literacy in India (NSSO 2014). Around, 36.4%
women are married in Uttar Pradesh and according to government statistics, nearly, UP
has the highest percentage (67.5 per cent) of self-employed women in urban areas among
the states (Rawat, 2016, May 31). In 2011, 72.02% of Uttar Pradesh population had access
to Banking and Non-Banking Finance Corporation. Only 1.85% of Uttar Pradesh popula-
tion had internet facility which is likely to improve up to 3.80% of family in 2021 (Chan-
dramouli 2014).
Lucknow is the capital of Uttar Pradesh which is famous for education, food industry
and historical places. Education helps the females for breaking the ice and giving the direc-
tion to the female entrepreneurs to start-up their own future in the field of chain of caf-
eterias, bakery, education, boutique dresses as well as jewellery. Moreover, Kanpur is the
adjoining city to Lucknow, also called a city of industries, which also promoted the females
to stand on their feet and shine. They get a chance to get educated and become an entre-
preneur to established them in the field of environment, overseas education, Readymix
concrete concept, food chains, training schools, medicine trade, jewelry and many more.
Noida, next to New Delhi (the capital of India) almost has the same demographics as the
other cities of Uttar Pradesh.

3 Research methodology

The quantitative researchers always select a representative sample within the population for
data collection. When the exact number of population is not known, then the non-random
sampling techniques consider more appropriate (Leo Paul et al. 2005). The exact number
of female entrepreneurs in the studied region was not known, therefore, the convenience
sampling technique was applied to choose the right sample equally form the four cities
namely Lucknow, Noida, Kanpur and Allahabad. Due to budget and time constraint, a total
80 educated female entrepreneur (20 form each city) were interviewed for sample size who
are experiencing and they have changed not only their status to a business woman but also
contributing effectively in their communities where they live. Information mainly about the
motives behind the women entrepreneurship was measured through their self-independ-
ence & confidence, breaking barriers, self-survival, the ambition of life, family responsibil-
ity, the personality of the respondent, skills & hard work, social pressure and attitude &
network relationships.

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Exploring the motives and success factors behind female…

A five-point Likert scale ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’ was
employed to measure all the indicator of the motive behind entrepreneurship as it has been
most recommended by the researchers that it would reduce the frustration level of respond-
ents and increase response rate as well as response quality (Sachdev and Verma 2004).
Similarly, it has also been suggested that a five-point scale is more appropriate for surveys
research (Bouranta et al. 2009). Further, at the next level, the principal component analysis
was used to a lower-dimensional space from a higher dimensional space by maximizing
the variance of each motive. Moreover, the principal component analysis also validate the
items of each indicator behind female entrepreneurship and this methodology was adopted
from Abrar ul Haq et al. (2017). Additionally, descriptive statistics such as frequencies and
percentages were also used to analyze data (Fig. 1).

4 Results and discussion

Demographic information is defined as statistical data of the sample in this study which
includes age, level of education and working experience. The Fig. 2 shows that the 11%
respondent’s ages were between 25 years or less than the 25 years, 29% respondents ages
were between 26 to 40 years, 34% respondents ages were between 41 and 55 years and only
26% respondents ages were 56 or above years.
Moreover, in Fig. 3 indicated the respondent’s level of education and around 6%
respondent’s education was primary, 19% respondent’s education was matriculation,

Fig. 1 Motives Behind Female Entrepreneurship

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 M. Abrar ul Haq et al.

Fig. 2 Age of the Respondent

Fig. 3 Level of Education

majority of the respondents (47% respondent) education was graduation and around 27%
respondents education were master or above.
Meanwhile, the results of the current study also depict that the 24% respondents have
5 years or less than 5 years of experience, 35% respondents have 6 to 10 years of experi-
ence, 23% respondents have 11 to 15 years of work experience and 18% respondents have
16 years or more than 16 years of work experience as shown in Fig. 4.
There are total nine motives behind women entrepreneurship used in the current study
and each motive measured using several questions. At the first step, the PCA was applied
at items of each motive separately and they generated the final value of that motive by add-
ing all the factor loadings. Moreover, in the second stage, once motives were generated
then principal component analysis was applied again on these motives to obtain its factor
loading of each motive which is further used to establish success factors behind female
entrepreneurship.

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Exploring the motives and success factors behind female…

Fig. 4 Work Experience

4.1 Step 1: Calculating Motives using PCA at Items Level

4.1.1 Self‑independency & confidence

Whenever women have an important degree of self-impendency, they will be more

encouraged to undertake their own Business. If the woman has fewer family responsi-
bilities and the men share with her these responsibilities, she will have more chances to
be a successful entrepreneur. However, against the male ego, they believe that they must
prove their selves (Rashid and Ratten 2020). Most of the women are strongly agree that
the independence and the confidence on self are the main levers of taking a step to do
their own Business. Nonetheless, the degree of confidence depends in great measure on
the environment in which the women are living. If the environment is governed by the
male ego it will be too difficult for the woman to set up a successful independent Busi-
ness. The self-Independency & confidence was measured through three items as men-
tioned in the below table.
Table 1 shows the reliability and validity of the items of self-independency and con-
fidence. The value of Cronbach alpha is 0.811 which indicate that the instrument is reli-
able and the factor loading of all three indicators are 0.822, 0.870 and 0.898 respec-
tively which show that the all the three-item used to measure the self-independency &
confidence are valid as suggested by Hair et al. (2016).
The self-independency and confidence of women is a significant indication to establish
the entrepreneurship by the female. Respondents were asked whether self-independency
is the main factor to encourage the woman to be entrepreneur and responses show that 60
out of 80 respondents strongly agreed with this statement. Moreover, 11 out of 80 respond-
ents agreed with this statement, however, only a few respondents disagree with this state-
ment. Regarding the statement that male’s Ego spoils the cooperation and losing your con-
fidence to start your own business, the majority of respondent again strongly agreed with
this statement (58 out of 80), and 20 respondents agreed with this statement. Lastly, again
it was asked to the respondent that women’s confidence to start their own business changes
according to the environment where they live and 32 out of 80 respondents strongly agreed
with this statement and around 36 respondents agreed with this statement. However, 9
respondents were neither agreed and nor disagreed with this statement as shown in Fig. 5.

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 M. Abrar ul Haq et al.

Thus, it could be submitted that the women in the study area are evidence that the self-
independency and confidence significantly motivate the female to join the entrepreneurial
business.

4.1.2 Breaking barriers

It seems that the most of women have more challenge to break the barrier created by the
male, so the male handicaps generate for the woman energy to take the challenge and take
the step to undertake her own Business. Nonetheless, the negative circumstance also can
make the woman more revolutionist and more energized to take her own affairs (Abrar ul
Haq et al. 2019b). Some incidents in life can make women stronger and more prone to take
the challenge. Sometimes it is observed that women are totally excluded from all consider-
ations and so they are never taken up seriously, so this bondage has to be broken up by the
entrepreneurship. This will give a separate platform to women to say her words in society.
This will impact the new generation which will see the woman indifferent prospect.
In the current study, a total of four items are used to measure the breading barriers by
the female entrepreneur and Table 2 shows the reliability and validity of the construct. The
value of Cronbach alpha is 0.7991 which indicate that the instrument is reliable and the
factor loading of all four indicators are 0.782, 0.841, 0.817 and 0.0.817 respectively which
show that the all these four-item used to measure the breaking barriers are valid as all the
values are higher than the threshold values (Hair et al. 2016).

Table 1 Self-Independency and Confidence (α = 0.811)

Items Factor loading Score

Self-independency is the main factor to encourage the woman to be an entrepre- 0.822 0.318
neur
Male’s Ego spoils cooperation and losing your confidence to start your own busi- 0.870 0.335
ness
Women’s confidence to start their own business changes according to the environ- 0.898 0.347
ment where they live.
Total 2.59 1.00

Fig. 5 Self Independency & Confidence

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Exploring the motives and success factors behind female…

The breaking barriers of women entrepreneurship is a significant indication to establish

entrepreneurship by the female. Respondents were asked when male creates a barrier, the
female generates energy to break barrier and responses show that 72 out of 80 respond-
ents strongly agreed with this statement and the remaining 8 respondents agreed to this.
Moreover, it is also asked the respondent that the negative circumstance makes a person
a revolutionist and in the response around 62 out of 80 strongly agreed with this and 7
agreed to this statement based on their personal experience which they face during all this
period. The third question to measure the breaking barriers was asked that ‘some incident
in life will make you trespassers’ and 41 respondents strongly agreed to this statement and
11 respondents are agreed to this. However, there are 15 respondents that neither agreed
and nor disagreed to this statement. Lastly, it was asked that ‘you have something unique
inside so to prove it. ‘Yes’ factor’ and 38 out of 80 respondents are strongly agreed with
this statement and 23 respondents agreed with this, however, 18 respondents neither agreed
and nor disagreed to this statement as shown in Fig. 6. Therefore, the results indicate that
the women in the study area are evidence that the breaking barriers significantly affect the
female in their entrepreneurial business.

Table 2 Breaking Barriers (α = 0.799)

Items Factor loading Score

When male creates a barrier, the female generates energy to break the 0.782 0.320
barrier
Negative circumstance makes a person a revolutionist 0.841 0.345
Some incident in life will make you trespassers 0.817 0.335
You have something unique inside so to prove it. ‘Yes’ factor 2.440 1.00

Fig. 6 Breaking Barriers

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Table 3 Self-survival (α = 0.81)

Items Factor loading Score

Do you think that self-survival of women can lead to become a successful entrepreneur? 0.822 0.308
Do you think that the stress level among women increases the level of fighting with your own identity survival? 0.910 0.340
Do you think that an environment of distrust gives you line of self-survival to become a successful entrepreneur? 0.887 0.332
Total 2.679 1.00

M. Abrar ul Haq et al.

Exploring the motives and success factors behind female…

4.1.3 Self‑survival

Starting a business self-survival drives the persistence of entrepreneurs through the tumul-
tuous process. Facing obstacles requires a positive belief in people’s ability to achieve
expected results (Cardon and Kirk 2015). In today’s world, if a woman has to establish
her as a business entity, she must be self-efficient and strong to resist in the hard world of
business. The person has high hopes of being able to do the job their actions will lead to
desirable results. The link between the survival of a business and the survival of woman is
very critical to understand.
Characteristics such as the need for achievement or Tolerance of ambiguity may not dif-
ferentiate woman who seeks opportunities. Differences are in the perception of resources
about opportunities that can affect entrepreneurial intentions (Dalborg et al. 2015).
Table 3 shows the reliability and validity of the three items which used to measure the
breading barriers by the female enterpenures. The value of Cronbach alpha is 0.81 which
indicate that the instrument is reliable and the factor loading of all three indicators are
0.822, 0.910 and 0.887 respectively which show that the all these three items used to meas-
ure the breaking barriers are valid.
The self-survival of women is also considered a significant factor to become an entre-
preneur by the female. In this relation the respondents were asked “do you think that self-
survival of women can lead to become a successful entrepreneur?” and the mixed response
was measured for the question as 23 out of 80 female strongly agree with this statement
and only 5 female agreed to this statement. However, 20 out of 80 females neither agree
nor disagree with this statement and 30 out of 80 women disagree with this statement. In
the response to second questions (do you think that stress level among women increases
the level of fighting with your own identity survival?), around 46 out of 80 women strongly
agreed and 11 were agreed. However, 15 women neither agree nor disagree with this
statement and 15 disagree with this statement. The last question to measure this indicator
was asked “do you think that an environment of distrust gives you line of self-survival to
become a successful entrepreneur?” and again the mix response observed for this ques-
tion as 21 out of 80 women strongly agree and 12 agreed with this statement. However,

Fig. 7 Self-survival

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 M. Abrar ul Haq et al.

Table 4 Ambition of life Items Factor loading Score

(α = 0.866)
Do you have a dream to do something 0.825 0.495
big in the field of business as an
entrepreneur?
Do you believe that woman is patient, 0.841 0.505
optimistic and do not give up till
reach her ambitious?
Total 1.666 1.00

11 women neither agree nor disagree with this statement and around 22 women disagreed
with this statement as shown in Fig. 7.

4.1.4 Ambition of life

Most of the women are by nature very patient and they cannot give up their ambitions
easily, they persevere, and they have a longue breath towards her objectives. She is also
more optimistic than the male even in desperate situations that is why the Indian woman
believes too much in the perseverance to attain their independence and undertake their own
Business. Due to the undervaluation of many men, most of the women are considering
themselves to be able and have to do great achievement (Ekesionye and Okolo 2012). An
ambitious entrepreneur is a person who participates in the entrepreneurial process to create
as much value as possible. Identify and capitalize on entrepreneurial success, the opportu-
nity to create new products, services, processes and organizations with high aspirations to
maximize value creation (Mathur and Agarwal 2017).
The ambition of life was measured by two items and construct is reliable with 0.866
value of Cronbach’s alpha. Furthermore, the value of factor loadings is 0.825 and 0.841
respectively which show that both items taken to measure the ambition of life are valid
(Table 4).
The ambition of life to become an entrepreneur is also a significant factor. To measure
the response about this indicator a total of two questions were asked to the respondents.
The first question was “Do you have dreams to do something big in the field of business
as an entrepreneur?” and around 55 out of 80 women strongly agreed and 18 were agreed
to this statement. However, only 3 females neither agreed nor disagreed to this statement.
Moreover, in the response of the second question “do you believe that woman is patient,
optimistic and do not give up till reach her ambitious?”, a total of 71 females strongly
agreed to this statement and remaining 8 were choose the option of agree. However, only 1
female neither agrees nor disagrees to the given statement as shown in Fig. 8.

4.1.5 Family responsibility

Due to none performing many of men woman finds herself taking the step to be the first
responsible for the whole family. Most of the women take their own Business to cover the
expenses of her family since her husband is not sharing with her this responsibility. The
second factor that makes the Indian women as an entrepreneur, is the shortage of family
income that is why she is taking the responsibility and undertakes business to generate

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Exploring the motives and success factors behind female…

Table 5 Family Responsibility (α = 0.812)

Items Factor loading Score

Do you think due to less family income a woman takes up moves to 0.888 0.340
become an entrepreneur?
Do you think due to non-performing husband you might take up moves to 0.846 0.327
become an entrepreneur?
Do you believe that woman playing attentive towards her duties? 0.879 0.336
Total 2.613 1.00

her own incomes. Also, the woman is more attentive and more responsible regarding her
duties. As a productive force in a business development environment, female entrepreneurs
are direct and Indirect leaders of the community, especially in developing countries. Entre-
preneurship allows women to use their income to support their home and family goals,
advancing healthy families and children both physically and financially (Bullough et al.
2015).
The family responsibility was measured by using three questions and all these questions
are reliable with 0.812 Cronbach alpha value as shown in Table 5. Additionally, the factor
loadings of these items are also showing that all three indicators are valid as all the indica-
tors have higher factor loadings as compere to the threshold value of 0.7 (Hair et al. 2016).
Family responsibility is a significant coz to become an entrepreneur was measured
through questions. It was asked to the respondent that do you think due to less family
income a woman takes up moves to become an entrepreneur? and 38 out of 80 females
strongly agreed with this statement and 19 were agreed. However, 20 females neither
agree nor disagree with this statement and only 2 females agree to this statement. Again, it
was asked to the respondent that do you think due to non-performing husband you might
take up moves to become an entrepreneur? and the majority of the females (52 out of 80)
strongly agreed to this statement and 10 were agreed. Meanwhile, 8 females neither agree
nor disagree with this statement. Lastly, it was asked to the respondent that do you believe
that woman playing attentive towards her duties. And 43 female respondents with strongly
agree and 22 were agreed to this statement. Moreover, 10 females neither agree nor disa-
gree with this statement. Thus, the results prove that family responsibility is one of the
major motives to become a female entrepreneur as shown in Fig. 9.

4.1.6 Personality of the respondent

It seems at first glance that the personality is the main factor of entrepreneur women.
Strong and brave Woman is more prone to take a step to fight all the circumstances in order
to achieve her goals and ambitions. Also, society has also a great effect on the personal-
ity output of women to undertake their own Business. Nonetheless, the family culture of
responsibility, challenge and courage can also inspire the members of that family these
values and build their personalities to take a risk and undertake their own affairs.
Extroverts are warm, positive and sociable but introverts don’t have these qualities, you
are actually not socially active (Bullough et al. 2015). Thus, it is also important for an
entrepreneur to be social and having a confident personality to achieve her goals. As a
woman personality is required not only to establish the business but also to establish her
empire.

13
 M. Abrar ul Haq et al.

Table 6 Personality of the Respondent (α = 0.789)

Items Factor loading Score

Do you think confident women have more chances to become a successful entre- 0.941 0.184
preneur?
Do you think educated women have more chances to become a successful entre- 0.875 0.171
preneur?
Are you taking decisions independently about your career? 0.839 0.165
Do you think the openness to experience give a chance to become a successful 0.744 0.147
entrepreneur?
Do you think flexible behaviour leads to become a successful entrepreneur? 0.879 0.172
Do you think risk-taking nature have a significant impact to become a successful 0.818 0.161
entrepreneur?
Total 5.096 1.00

The personality of the respondent for a successful entrepreneur was measured by using
five questions and the value of Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.789) shows that the construct is
reliable (see Table 6). Furthermore, the values of factor loading are also indicating that all
the chosen item to measure the personality of the respondent are valid as all the indicators
have higher factor loading from the threshold value (0.7) suggested by Hair et al. (2016).
The role of personality of the respondent to become a successful entrepreneur is meas-
ured by using six questions and majority of the females respondent with strongly agreed
and agreed to all the given statements as shown in Fig. 10. These results indicate that
the personality of the respondent has a significant role to become a successful female
entrepreneur.

4.1.7 Skills and hard work

Leading to effective work performance requires good qualities and excellent skills. Out of
the many professional skills soft skill is also important and impactful in entrepreneurship
(Zhu et al. 2019). The objectives of entrepreneurial skills and hard work with attitudes it to
provide mainly competency which not only helps them to build them as an entrepreneur but
motivate them to generate employment for others (Oggero et al. 2019). The professional

Fig. 8 Ambition of Life

13
Exploring the motives and success factors behind female…

Table 7 Skills and Hard Work (α = 0.809)

Items Factor loading Score

Do you think that skills and hard work will lead to become a successful entrepre- 0.794 0.319
neur?
Do you think that higher education will lead you to become a successful entrepre- 0.863 0.347
neur?
Do you think that meeting people, making network and walking with role model 0.829 0.334
makes you become a successful entrepreneur?
Total 2.486 1.00

skill and hard work lead the women to build image, efficiency and strong woman in the
society. This leads to the boost the energy in the next generation within the family. The
woman becomes the ideal for not only for the family but also for the entire region.
There are three questions which are used to measure the skills and hard work to become
an entrepreneur in the current study. The instrument is valid with 0.809 Cronbach alpha
value and valid with 0.794, 0.863 and 0.829 factor loading respectively which is higher
than the suggest value by Hair et al. (2016) as shown in Table 7.
In the current study, skills and hard work are measured through three questions. It was
asked to the respondent that do you think that skills and hard work will lead to become a
successful entrepreneur? and the majority of the females respondent strongly agreed (69
out of 80) and agreed (9 out of 80) to this statement. Meanwhile, only 1 female strongly
disagree and 1 disagreed with this statement. The second question was asked that do you
think higher education will lead you to become a successful entrepreneur? and a total of
44 females respondent strongly agreed and 11 were agreed to this statement. However,
again 11 females neither agreed nor disagreed this statement. Lastly, it was asked that do
you think that meeting people, making network and walking with role model makes you
become a successful entrepreneur? and the respondent gives the mix response as 30 out of
80 females strongly agree, 18 agreed and 23 females neither agreed nor disagreed to this
statement. Meanwhile, only 4 females disagree with this statement as shown in Fig. 11.
Thus, based on these empirical results, it shows that the skills and hard work are a major
indicator to become a successful entrepreneur.

Fig. 9 Family Responsibility

13
 M. Abrar ul Haq et al.

4.1.8 Social pressure

It seems that the woman finds a great challenge with the man handicaps and gives her
energy to break males barrier and to prove herself as able as him to lead successful Busi-
ness. Owing to her nature to be as patient and optimistic she cannot give up easily her
ambitions and she is ready to fight to attain her goals. Also having a good level of study
and training skills are a very important factor and a key tool of leading successful Busi-
ness. From the above distribution, and according to the most views of the women of our
sample, we can notice that the main handicap to be an independent entrepreneur is the men
exploitation not only of the women energy at work but also of their innovative ideas and
because it is easier for the man to fight in man culture society so he will be faster to create
his own business and maximize his own wealth and the participation of the woman will be
downgraded for his benefit (Ingersoll et al. 2019).
The second major obstacle is that the woman is afflicted by heavy responsibilities
regarding her kids, husband or her family, and even if she tries to challenge these respon-
sibilities, she may do mistakes due to the stress in which she lives. In a male governed cul-
ture, females do not behaved indistinguishable to men who go in the form of hindrance to
woman’s entry into a big trade. So, for the man is easier to do a big Business and do many
transactions which the woman cannot do easily. Furthermore, the past social attitudes are
a reason for their disappointment to prevent young women from entering into enterprise
Business.
In the current study, the social pressure to become an entrepreneur was measure by
using four questions. Table 8 shows the reliability and validity of the construct. The value
of Cronbach alpha is 0.737 which indicate that the instrument is reliable and the factor
loading of all four indicators are 0.780, 0.801, 0869 and 0.811 respectively which show
that all four questions used to measure the social pressure are valid (Hair et al. 2016).
Social pressure on women is considered an important factor to starts an independent
business in the studied area. This variable was measure by using four questions and most
of the respondent strongly agreed (around above 50 out of 80 for each question) and agreed

Fig. 10 Personality of the Respondent

13
Exploring the motives and success factors behind female…

(10 out of 80) to all the four statements as shown in Fig. 12. Therefore, it indicates that the
social pressure is really a significant factor for females to become a successful entrepreneur
in the studied area.

4.1.9 Attitude and network relationships

It is clear that the woman is against that to be considered as weak to manage her own Busi-
ness and refuse the idea that she cannot take the risks and she accuses that there are special
connections and external persons can spoil her business and put many obstacles in front
her to give up (Bryce et al. 2019). This effect can happen especially when the woman has
not the right skills and training to overcome these obstacles. Furthermore, the absence of
information about fiscal help as motivators, credits, plans can be other constraints to be a
successful entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship attitude is exploring businesses from community involvement to
discovering new business opportunities and growth. Small businesses are more likely to
choose beyond the capabilities of a single company to keep their overall results small and
flexible in their network configuration. This small network of entrepreneurs can earn high
profits for all by gaining profits by competing with large companies on a large scale and
without mergers or acquisitions (Arregle et al. 2015).
The attitude and network relationships to become an entrepreneur was measure by using
five questions. In this regard, Table 9 shows the reliability and validity of the construct.
The value of Cronbach alpha is 0.872 which confirms that the instrument is reliable and the
factor loading of all five indicators are 0.845, 0.847, 0.819, 0.856 and 0.808 respectively
which indicate that all five indicators used to measure the attitude and network are valid.
Attitude and network relationships are also used as an important factor for a woman
to starts an independent business. This variable was measure by using five questions
and respondents gives a mix response. For the first question, a total 33 out of 80 females
strongly agreed, 27 agreed and 7 females disagreed to that statement. Meanwhile, 7 females
neither agree nor disagree with the first statement. In the response of the second question,
only 23 females strongly agreed and 12 were agreed to the second statement. Meanwhile,
only 4 females neither agreed nor disagreed and 40 females disagreed to this statement.
While in the response to the third question, 29 females strongly agreed, 21 agreed and 17
females neither agree nor disagree with the statement. However, only 10 females disagree

Fig. 11 Skills and Hard Work

13
13

Table 8 Social Pressure (α = 0.737)

Items Factor loading Score

Do you think that women are not able to start their own entrepreneurship because of family restriction? 0.780 0.239
In a male governed culture, females are not behaved indistinguishable to men who go in the form of hindrance to woman’s 0.801 0.245
entry into a big trade.
Do you think that women can become a successful entrepreneur with family responsibilities? 0.869 0.267
Do you think that the vintage and past social attitudes are a reason for their disappointment to prevent young women to 0.811 0.249
become an entrepreneur?
Total 3.261 1.00

M. Abrar ul Haq et al.

Exploring the motives and success factors behind female…

with this statement. The last question also has the same response as the third question as
to the majority of the females strongly agreed and agreed to the statement as shown in
Fig. 13. Thus, the results have proven that the attitude and network play a significant role to
become women a successful entrepreneur.

4.2 Step 2: the construct of motives behind women entrepreneur

As discussed above in detail the motive and success factors behind Women Entrepreneur
were measured through the nine indicators namely; self-independency & confidence,
breaking barriers, self-survival, skills & hard work, attitude & network relationships, the
ambition of life, family responsibility, personality as well as social pressure. Moreover, all
these indicators were reliable and valid as their calculated value of Cronbach alpha and
factor loadings were higher than the recommended values (0.7). Lastly, the contribution of
each indicator to become a successful women entrepreneur were calculated again through
their factor analysis which calculated using PCA and their score of contribution were cal-
culated from their factor loadings. As below Table 10 shows that the factor loadings of all
the indicators are higher than the recommended value of 0.7 (Hair et al. 2016).
The score shows the level of contribution of each indicator to become a successful
entrepreneur. The self-independency & confidence is significantly contributing by 11.7%
to become an entrepreneur and breaking barriers are contributing 10.4% in this regard.
Moreover, self-survival has highest 12.1% contribution to become a successful entrepre-
neur, meanwhile, the ambition of life is contributing 11.7%. Similarly, family responsibility
and personality also significantly contributing to become a successful women entrepreneur
by 10.5% and 11.4% simultaneously. In this regard, skills & hard work has 10.6% contribu-
tion, social pressure 10.5% and attitude & network relationships contribute 11.1% in suc-
cess of women entrepreneur as shown in below Fig. 14. The results of the current study are

Fig. 12 Social Pressure

13
13

Table 9 Attitude and Network relationships (α = 0.872)

Items Factor loading Score

Low intellectual level reduces the opportunity of the woman to be an entrepreneur. 0.845 0.202
Woman is not able to withstand the risks and seems to be weak to manage her own Business. 0.847 0.203
Legal instructions connections can constrain the young woman to be a successful entrepreneur. 0.819 0.196
Special connections and external world, person’s weight to leave more opportunities in the organization. 0.856 0.205
Absence of information about the fiscal help as motivators, credits, plans as main constraints to be a successful entrepreneur 0.808 0.194
Total 4.175 1.00

M. Abrar ul Haq et al.

Exploring the motives and success factors behind female…

supporting the findings of Ramadani et al. (2017). There has been a strong debate in the
existing literature about the self-Independency & confidence and self-survival for entre-
preneurial businesses as it strongly motivates the young women to start their own small
business (Altan 2018; Ramadani et al. 2017). Similarly, the current study also advocates
that the cultural norms and family responsibility are also one of the major indicators in
the success of women as an entrepreneur because this is one of the major concern of the
business women that how to keep balance among their work and family responsibilities
(Ramadani et al. 2013). This result supports the existing literature of women entrepreneur
businesses in terms of being able to multitask. As the role of women in the workplace has
changed as she may now a manager or leader and at the same time, she will be a mother or
family member (Ramadani et al. 2017). Lastly, the current study also advocates the finding
of Riaz and Pervaiz, (2018) and Ribes-Giner et al. (2019) that the level of education and
skill plays a significant role to become a successful entrepreneur.

5 Conclusions and recommendations

The status and background of South Asia, women emphasize the need for women entre-
preneurs to address the incidence of poverty. Some women started these small enterprises
to support their living and their families, however, the commitments are minor and sig-
nificant numbers of projects are probably not increasing in the long run. Meanwhile, in
South Asia, different areas need to be fortifying considering women entrepreneurship
development programs. Thus, the current study aims to explore the factors contributing in

45 Low intellectual level reduces

the opportunity of the woman
40 to be an entrepreneur.

35
Woman is not able to
30 withstand the risks and seems
to be weak to manage her own
25 Business.

20 Legal instrucons connecons

can constrain the young
15 woman to be a successful
entrepreneur.
10
Special connecons and
5
external world, person’s weight
to leave more opportunies in
0
the organizaon.
Strongly Agree (4) Neither Disagree (2) Strongly
Agree (5) Agree Nor Disagree (1) Absence of informaon about
Disagree (3) the fiscal help as movators,
credits, plans as main
constraints to be successful
entrepreneur

Fig. 13 Attitude and Network Relationships

13
 M. Abrar ul Haq et al.

motive behind female entrepreneurship to participate in the economic development as an

effective entrepreneur by leading a successful business based on their specifics character-
istics. For analysis purpose, the current study based on firsthand data which was collected
through convenience sampling and a total of 80 educated female entrepreneur within the
age group of 31 to 55 years were interviewed for sample size. Moreover, a 5-point Likert
scale (5 = Strongly Agree and 1 = Strongly Disagree) was used to measure all the indica-
tor of the motives behind Entrepreneurship. Further, the principal component analysis was
applied to validate the factors for the motive behind female entrepreneurship. Addition-
ally, descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were also used to analyze
data. The empirical findings of the study indicate that all nine indicators used to measure
are valid and reliable as their values of factor loading and Cronbach alpha is higher than
the threshold values. Furthermore, the motive behind the successful women entrepreneur
is calculated through their score which shows the level of contribution of each indicator
in women success as an entrepreneur. The study concludes that the self-independency &
confidence is significantly contributing by 11.7% to become an entrepreneur and breaking
barriers are contributing 10.4%. Moreover, self-survival has highest 12.1%, the ambition of
life has 11.7%, family responsibility has 10.5%, personality has 11.4%, skills & hard work
has 10.6%, social pressure has 10.5% and attitude & network relationships has 11.1% in
success to become a successful women entrepreneur.
Famous Indian Women Business Leaders act as role models for others, which can accel-
erate and attract high potential women employees. Although all those handicaps they could
overcome and became an icon in their field, and they recommend that the women need
to get self-conviction, freedom, and versatility to fly out in their mysteries. The accom-
panying measures are encouraged to enable women to catch various potential outcomes
and face challenges in business. The aim of this research is to explore the success factors
which motivate the female to become an entrepreneur. Furthermore, this study will also
boost the motivation level of the female to prove themselves as a successful entrepreneur
in their societies who further generate further employment as well as to help in socio-eco-
nomic empowerment at the grass-root level. The study also inspires and empower women
to start-up new businesses of different fields in their region which further develop the local
industry.
Therefore, the current study suggests that there must be a ceaseless effort to move,
stimulate and coordinate with women entrepreneur while developing the policies to pro-
mote women in business. Moreover, a cognizance software engineering should conduct on

Table 10 Motive behind Women Items Factor loading Score

Entrepreneur (α = 0.839)
Self-Independency & Confidence 0.815 0.117
Breaking Barriers 0.828 0.104
Self-survival 0.898 0.121
Ambition of life 0.912 0.117
Family Responsibility 0.918 0.105
Personality 0.887 0.114
Skills & Hard Work 0.822 0.106
Social Pressure 0.819 0.105
Attitude & Network Relationships 0.856 0.111
Total 7.79 1.00

13
Exploring the motives and success factors behind female…

Fig. 14 Motives Behind Women Entrepreneurship

a mass scale with the goal to enhance the level of skill and independence of young women
entrepreneur. Similarly, the skill advancement to be refined in women’s polytechnics and
business tutoring foundations. Capacities are set to work in training cum-creation work-
shops. In this connection, the instructional organizations must join with differing experts
and non-experts gatherings to help in business enterprise change uncommonly to devise
endeavor activities. Moreover, it is also suggested that worldwide, nationwide as well as
neighbourhood trade celebrations, business presentations, workshops and meetings should
be set up to help women to encourage communication with other young women’s business
visionaries.
Meanwhile, women itself need to attempt and update themselves inside the changing
over occasions by methods for adjusting the pristine time benefits. Women ought to be
taught and talented persistently to assemble the capacities and information in the greater
part of the viable districts of business administration. This will encourage women to
exceed expectations in the choice-making process and expand a decent business. Women
support in loads of sorts of money related games to supplement to their own particular
family wage, their cooperation, not the slightest bit lessens their own family obligations.
The task of young women has come to be more prominent repetitive and finish of request-
ing circumstances. Enable us to all try endeavors to help women rediscover her.
Moreover, in the private sector, the local entrepreneurship is the key indicator to cre-
ate further jobs by developing new firms which ultimately cause of wealth creation. In

13
 M. Abrar ul Haq et al.

economically less developing countries, such as India, people prefer to secure their jobs
in the public sector which reap most of the scarce resources of the government in form of
salaries and ultimately, the government has less fund to spend on development projects,
such as infrastructure and education which leads to the less economic growth of the coun-
try. However, if the government, establish the policies to encourage entrepreneurial activi-
ties which boost the private sector development and offer productive alternatives to public
sector employment.
The current study explored the success factors of a female entrepreneur which will pro-
vide a ground to academics and researchers who can conduct future research to the same
issue and more specifically to identify the effect of female entrepreneurship on other eco-
nomic indicators. In addition, this study also limited in sample size, thus, further research
can also be conduct in other states or countries with more sample size

Funding This research was not funded by any source (individual, group or organization).

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest There is no conflict of interest between authors or any other group.

Ethical approval This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by
any of the authors. Thus, for this type of study formal consent is not required.

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