WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP …...entrepreneurship development factors and examining the causal relationship between entrepreneurship development and women empowerment

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International Journal of Management (IJM) Volume 11, Issue 10, October 2020, pp. 379-392, Article ID: IJM_11_10_037

Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/issues.asp?JType=IJM&VType=11&IType=10

ISSN Print: 0976-6502 and ISSN Online: 0976-6510

DOI: 10.34218/IJM.11.10.2020.037

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH

ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN

BANGLADESH: A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS

Mohammad Shamsul Hoque

PhD Researcher, Bangladesh University of Professionals and Enterprise Advisor and

Coordinator-GEAR, Better Work Bangladesh, International Labour Organization, Bangladesh

Dr. Haripada Bhattacharjee

Professor, Department of Marketing, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dr. Nazrul Islam

Professor & Dean, School of Business, Canadian University of Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

Needless to say that the women entrepreneurs of Bangladesh lack behind in

economic participation, leadership and empowerment compared to men

entrepreneurs. Research shows that about seven percent of the total business

establishments of Bangladesh are owned and headed by women which are negligible

in terms of the women population proportion of the country. This limited ownership,

leadership and empowerment of women is a clear gap which is to be fulfilled for the

sustainable economic development of the country. In recent years, the rate of new

business formation in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector by women has

significantly increased which is creating socioeconomic and leadership impact at

work, home, and the community. Hence, this study aims at identifying the women

entrepreneurship development factors and examining the causal relationship between

entrepreneurship development and women empowerment. This is a causal research

and the study used primary data collected from the women entrepreneurs engaged in

Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) businesses. The study used both probability and

non-probability sampling techniques to select 397 women business entrepreneurs who

are involved in SME businesses for interview. The data were analyzed by using

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)

techniques. The results show that the factors concerning women entrepreneurship

development such as regulatory framework, entrepreneurship education and training,

role of women business association and husband engagement in women business have

direct and significance effects on WED. The access to finance and access to market

facilities were not significant. Through the development of entrepreneurship in SME

sector, women empowerment factors such as, economic empowerment, social

Women Empowerment through Entrepreneurship Development in Bangladesh: A Multivariate Analysis


empowerment and women entrepreneurial leadership capabilities were developed

among the women entrepreneurs. This study suggests that the policy makers of this

sector should emphasize on regulatory framework, entrepreneurship education and

training, husband engagement in women business and the role of women business

association in formulating the SME policy to increase women empowerment for the

sustainable development of Bangladesh.

Key words: Women Empowerment through Entrepreneurship; Women Leadership

Capabilities; Women Social Empowerment; Women Economic Empowerment

Cite this Article: Mohammad Shamsul Hoque, Dr. Haripada Bhattacharjee and

Dr. Nazrul Islam, Women Empowerment through Entrepreneurship Development in

Bangladesh: A Multivariate Analysis, International Journal of Management, 11(10),

2020, pp. 379-392.

http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/issues.asp?JType=IJM&VType=11&IType=10

1. INTRODUCTION

Women entrepreneurship development and women empowerment both are priority socio-

economic development agenda in developing country like Bangladesh. But women

entrepreneurs of Bangladesh lack behind in economic participation, empowerment and

leadership [1,2] compared to men entrepreneurs. Research shows that female entrepreneurs

are emerging as important players in the national economy [3] and female entrepreneurs

represent the fastest growing category of entrepreneurship worldwide and have received

enormous attention of many academics in recent years. According to the emerging literature,

women can make a significant contribution to entrepreneurial activity [4] and economic

development [5,6] in terms of creating new jobs and increasing the gross domestic product

(GDP) [7] with positive impacts on reducing poverty and social exclusion [8]. The percentage

of women who decide to pursue an entrepreneurial career is, however, lower than that of men

[9]. Research shows that about seven percent of the total business establishments of

Bangladesh are owned and headed by women [10] which are negligible in terms of the

women population proportion of the country. This limited ownership, leadership and

empowerment of women is a clear gap which is to be fulfilled for the sustainable economic

development of the country. Conducting further research on women empowerment and

leadership and recognizing its effectiveness is important [11]. Women‘s participation and

empowerment in business is essential to unlock a country‘s full economic potential.

Entrepreneurship development eases the path of career opportunity and economic

advancement for women in any country.

Hence, the questions of current study is what concerns women entrepreneurship

development factors improve women empowerment? What is the causal relationship between

the women entrepreneurship development and women empowerment in SME sector of

Bangladesh? Thus, the specific objectives of the study are outlined below.

To identify the factors concerning women entrepreneurship development in SME

sector of Bangladesh;

To examine whether the women entrepreneurship development improve women

empowerment in SME sector of Bangladesh;

To examine the causal relationship between the women entrepreneurship development

and the women empowerment dimensions such as women economic, social and

leadership capabilities in SME sector of Bangladesh.

Mohammad Shamsul Hoque, Dr. Haripada Bhattacharjee and Dr. Nazrul Islam


2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

2.1. Women Entrepreneurship Development (WED) Factors

The entrepreneurship is the ―functions of seeking investment and production opportunity,

organizing an enterprise to undertake a new production process, raising capital, hiring labor,

arranging the supply of raw materials, finding site, introducing a new technique and

commodities, discovering new sources of raw materials and selecting top managers of day to

day operations of the enterprise [12]. In order to perform these entrepreneurial activities,

women entrepreneurs require external supports from government, private sector, service

delivery institutions, family and society as a whole. The process of these factors collectively

contribute to develop entrepreneurship in SME sector. We conducted a comprehensive

literature review to develop a conceptual framework on women entrepreneurship development

factors. We revealed that research scholars used different factors such as friendly regulatory

framework [1,2,13,14,15,16,17,18], access to finance [1,2,13,14,19,20,21], entrepreneurship

education and training [1, 14,22,23,19,16,17,21,24,18], Access to market/market conditions

[2,13,15,21,18], business association/women‘s network [14,25], family supports [22,26,27].

ILO developed an intervention model for women entrepreneurship development which also

outlined WED factors such as access to finance, business development services (business

training, advice/mentoring, technology transfer, formalization), access to market, enabling

environment and women‘s agency (activities to enhance women‘s decision making capacity).

Aftercritically analysing the development factors, we named six key factors that influence

women entrepreneurship development in SMEs in Bangladesh that is shown in figure 1.

2.2. Women Empowerment (WEM) through Entrepreneurship Development

Women‘s empowerment is a process of personal and social change, taking place over

interlinked and mutually reinforcing psychological, political, social and economic domains,

and through which women individually and collectively gain power, meaningful choices and

control over their lives [28]. Women entrepreneurship enables to achieve both financial and

social empowerment which is important for women‘s sustainable livelihood [19]. A review of

research on this emerging field indicates parallels between entrepreneurship and leadership,

yet there is no agreed-upon definition [29]. But women entrepreneurs are both direct and

indirect leaders in their communities, especially in developing countries [24]. Entrepreneurial

leadership are those leadership capabilities that achieve success in organizations through

innovation and opportunity development [30]. Sustaining women‘s empowerment is a central

conversation for longevity and effectiveness of interventions and inclusion and equality

require continuous policy commitment [31]. The literature shows that women

entrepreneurship development process not only expedite the process of women empowerment

but also women leadership capabilities. Understanding the leadership practices needed for

success in SMEs becomes even more important when examining the role of gender as much

of the entrepreneurial leadership has been described as gender blind, gender neutral, and

gender defensive [30]. Diversity and complexity of women‘s entrepreneurial leadership,

demonstrated both economically and contextually embedded [32]. The contribution of this

research study is that along with women economic and social empowerment, women

entrepreneurs achieve entrepreneurial leadership capabilities. To meet this, this study aims to

go beyond the economic and social factors of entrepreneurship and look into its leadership

capabilities development as well. The researcher and scholars used different empowerment

dimensions and variables to frame and measure women empowerment such as dimensions-

Economic Empowerment [33,34] with related measurable variables such as freedom of own

earnings [34,35], bearing family expenditures [36,37], providing quality education for

children [33,37], access to and control over resources [33,38], Social Empowerment [39,40]



with related measurable variables such as public mobility [39,41,38], social dignity/power

[33,39], social networking [19,24,39,35] and collective actions [39,42] and Entrepreneurial

Leadership capabilities [43] with related measurable variables such as commitment and

passions [32,43], communications and public speaking skills [24,43], empowering others

[44], influencing capabilities [42,45,46] and problem solving skills ([39, 42, 43].

2.3. Conceptual Framework and Hypothesis Development on Women

Empowerment through Entrepreneurship Development

Based on extensive first-hand experience and comprehensive literature review on women

empowerment and women entrepreneurship development, we have presented a conceptual

framework for this study (Figure 1). The framework explains that the different

entrepreneurship development factors (inputs/activities) influence to the process of women

entrepreneurship development and entrepreneurship development process influence to the

outcome of women empowerment.

2.3.1. Development of Hypotheses

Women entrepreneurship development improves women empowerment particularly women

economic empowerment, social empowerment and leadership capabilities.

2.3.2. Relationship between the Women Entrepreneurship Development Factors (WEDF)

and Women Entrepreneurship Development (WED)

Women entrepreneurs generate business ideas by identifying potential opportunities about the

products/services, exploring new entry opportunity and business prospects. They develop

business concepts to transfer opportunities to marketable goods and services. They identify

what type of resources they require to start businesses, assemble necessary resources and

allocation of the resources. They perform enterprise management activities include planning

of operations, management of production, marketing and procurement, organization of man,

machine and materials, controlling of the operations through leading, directing and



supervision, managing customer expectation and maintaining quality assurance of the

products/services. They also perform evaluation of enterprise performance for future

improvement and growth. These functions in different stages women entrepreneurs require

external stimulatory, supportive and sustaining environment that enhance women

entrepreneurs knowledge and skills structure, competencies, creativity and innovation for

doing business. In this process, the regulatory framework supports entrepreneurship

development through friendly services of licensing, VAT and tax, establishing one stop

service center, public private coordination mechanism of policy implementation.

Entrepreneurship education and training such as business start-up training, adequate supply of

women trainers, skills development training and occupational health and safety training are

prerequisite for resourcing and enterprise management. Women entrepreneurs also require

access to finance and financial services include equal access to loan for women and men,

availability of loan in rural and urban areas and financial advisory services. Entrepreneurship

growth also depends on the affordable and accessible markets facilities include access to

industrial park, available market linkages with urban and local entrepreneurs and affordable

market premises.

For the development and maturity of the entrepreneurship, women business association

can play an important role in organizing public-private dialogue to simplify business

processes, organizing training on productivity and quality, organizing zone wise trade fair and

lobbying with policy makers for contributing formulation of women entrepreneurship policy

framework. Literature shows that family support positively contribute to the development and

growth of the women entrepreneurship. Husband engagement in women business as family

support also play positive role for women. They can encourage women to take part in social

work, support in providing freedom of mobility and participating in the trade fair and

cooperating in taking care of children in the family. All these factors expedite the process of

WED. Thus, we examine the hypothesis as follows;

H1a: Regulatory framework positively and significantly expedite the WED in SME sector in

Bangladesh.

H1b: Access to finance and financial services positively and significantly expedite the WED

in SME sector in Bangladesh.

H1c: Entrepreneurship education and training positively and significantly expedites the WED


H1d: Access to market facilities positively and significantly expedites the WED in SME

sector in Bangladesh.

H1e: Role of women business associations positively and significantly expedite the WED in

SME sector in Bangladesh.

H1f: Husband engagement in women business positively and significantly expedite the WED


2.3.3. Overall Effect of Women Entrepreneurship Development (WED) and Women

Empowerment Dimensions

The overall WED process lead women entrepreneurs to enhance their knowledge and skills

structure and supportive business environment to generate business ideas and business

concepts, resourcing and management and performance evaluation for sustainable business.

These activities improve women entrepreneurs psychological, cognitive and behavior abilities

over the time. These help women entrepreneurs to exercise creativity and innovation,

management and leadership capabilities and taking risks and harvesting growth. Through

entrepreneurship, they advance both economically and socially. This process helps to change



their life and livelihood and gain power on control over lives. They gain power within and

outside of the enterprise and family and society as a whole. The economic empowerment

helps to exercise more freedom of own earnings, bear family expenditures, arranging more

quality education and foods for children and family and they achieve access to and control

over their household and enterprise resources. The entrepreneurship development process

extend their power and abilities even in the social domain. Women entrepreneurs gradually

come forward to engage and deal with social networking, their mobility and visibility

increased due to diversified communications with government, service providing institutions,

dealing customers and suppliers. Through this process, they feel more social power and

dignity. In many cases they take part in the collective actions through social networks.

Entrepreneurship functions create avenue to exercise entrepreneurial leadership

capabilities within and beyond the enterprise. Women entrepreneurs achieve stronger

commitment and passions, communications and public speaking skills, influencing abilities,

problem solving skills, empowering and inspiring others. Thus, in the study we wanted to

examine causal relationship among WED and Women Empowerment Dimensions.

Hypothesis (H2): The WED positively and significantly helps to improve women

empowerment among SME women of Bangladesh.

Hypothesis (H3): The WED positively and significantly helps to improve women economic

empowerment, social empowerment and leadership capabilities among SME women of

Bangladesh.

3. RESEARCH METHODS

In order to establish a hypothesized causal relationship between the WED and WEM

dimensions, we conducted causal research using quantitative method. The primary data were

collected from the women entrepreneurs of seven administrative divisional head-quarters of

Bangladesh using listed entrepreneurs of BWCCI. We used both probability (cluster) and

non-probability (conveneince) sampling techniques. We interviewed 397 women

entrepreneurs that were adequate for performing multivariate analysis (Hair et., al., 2010).

The main survey was conducted in 2018. We developed structured questionnaire using Likert

scale. We used 57 variables under different factors to measure the effect of WED on WEM.

We used multivariate analysis techniques-exploratory factor analysis, structural equation

modelling, and paths analysis. Common Factor Analysis with an orthogonal rotation

(Promax) method was conducted using SPSS (v-22.0) to extract and separate number of

meaningful factors that develop entrepreneurship and women empowerment and we analyzed

SEM using AMOS software to examine overall effects. By EFA, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test

of sampling adequacy found 0.849 indicated the strength of the relationship between the

variables is meritorious. By communality test, a total of 35 variables extracted and the

average communalities value was 0.676>0.60 that satisfied Kaiser Criterion reliability. The

Eigen value greater than 1 was found 9 factors and these factors explain 67.609% of the total

variance of the data set.

To ensure the instruments are error free and reflection of the reality, we conducted

reliability test using Cronbach‘s Alpha (CA), convergent validity test with factor loadings,

average variance extracted (AVE), composite reliability (CR) and discriminant validity to see

the factors and constructs are independent and distinctly different from each other. Table 1

shows that all CA are higher than 0.80 (CA>0.70), all factor loadings are greater than 0.70

(factor loadings>0.50, (Hair et. al., 2010). The AVE and the CR of all the 9 latent constructs

values are greater than 0.60 (AVE>0.50, (Hair et. al., 2010) and 0.80 (CR>0.70, (Hair et., al.,

2010) respectively. All constructs demonstrated discriminant validity (Fornell & Larcker,

1981). So, all the criteria exceeded the minimum acceptable values.



Table 1 An Overview of the Constructs

Factors/

Dimensions

Variables Commu

nality

Factor

loadings

CR AVE CA

Regulatory

framework

Friendly services (licensing, VAT, tax) 0.791 .889

0.880 0.711 .879 One stop service center 0.704 .833

Public private coordination 0.662 .809

Education

and

training

Business start-up training 0.679 .862

0.881 0.651 .881 Supply of women trainers 0.755 .794

Skills development training 0.611 .784

Occupational health and safety training 0.611 .782

Access to

finance

Equal access to loan 0.738 .861

0.876 0.702 .875 Available loan in rural and urban areas. 0.742 .855

Financial advisory services 0.649 .800

Access to

markets

Access to industrial park 0.651 .848

0.854 0.662 .854 Available market linkages 0.645 .807

Affordable market premises 0.729 .796

Role of WA Organize public-private dialogue 0.656 .842

0.889 0.616 .888

Organize training on productivity 0.627 .794

Lobby with policy makers 0.631 .776

Contribute in formulating policy 0.601 .767

Organize trade fair 0.620 .722

Husband

engagement

Encourage to take part in social work 0.701 .847

0.901 0.694 .901 Support in public mobility 0.685 .838

Support in participating in the trade fair 0.710 .828

Cooperate in taking care of children 0.736 .822

Economic

Empowerm

ent

More freedom on own earnings 0.609 .986

0.884 0.657 .878 Bearing expenditures of family 0.910 .794

Providing more quality education 0.544 .724

Access to and control over resources 0.602 .708

Social

Empowerm

ent

Public mobility increased 0.726 .878

0.899 0.689 .899 Social dignity/power increased 0.636 .849

Social networking abilities increased 0.763 .816

Take part in collective actions 0.668 .772

Leadership

capabilities

Stronger commitment and passions 0.625 .820

0.895 0.631 .894

Enhanced communications and public

speaking skills 0.694

.814

Ability to empower others 0.632 .806

Increased influencing capabilities 0.682 .805

Lead in solving problems 0.637 .734

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1. The WEDF Expedite the WED

Through the SEM, we converted the theoretical research framework (figure-1) into AMOS

graphic path diagram (figure-2).The WEDF such as regulatory framework, entrepreneurship

education and training, access to finance, access to market facilities, role of women business

association and husband engagement in women business factors expedite the WED that helps

to improve women empowerment. The causal relationship among these constructs is shown

through the research model (Figure 2).

4.2. Hypothesis-1 (H1): The WEDF Positively and Significantly related with the

WE in SME Sector in Bangladesh

Table 2, the standardized beta estimate (β1=0.772) indicated that there is a direct effect of the

WED on WEM. Therefore, if entrepreneurship practice increases by 1 standard deviation, the

WEM increases by 0.772 standard deviations. Since the P-value<0.001, the relationship



between WED and WEM is highly significant. The value of the coefficient of determination is

0.596 (Figure-2) indicates that 60% of the variance of WEM is accounted for by the WED

practices. The reason for highly significance of the relationship includes WED collectively

contributes to the development of the WEDF and women entrepreneurs directly and indirectly

achieved women empowerment in SME sector in Bangladesh.

4.3. Hypothesis-2 (H2): The WED Positively and Significantly help to improve

WEM in SME Sector in Bangladesh

The test results (Table 2) shows that the direct effect of regulatory framework (RF) on WED

is 22% (p<0.001). The reasons for significance of the factor include women entrepreneurs

thought that the friendly regulatory service delivery such as licensing, tax and VAT,

establishing one stop services and public and private coordination mechanism help them to

expedite business. The direct effect of entrepreneurship education and training (EET) on

WED is 80% (p<0.001) and contribution of EET in estimating the WED is 68%. The reasons

of the effectiveness of the EET that women entrepreneurs believe that business start-up,

adequate supply of women trainers, skills development and occupational health and safety

training are prerequisite for resourcing and enterprise management.

Table 2 Results of Hypothesis Testing

Hyp Cnt Construct Std. estimate S.E. C.R. P comments

H1 WEM <--- WED .772 .070 7.634 *** Significant

H1a RF <--- WED .217 .072 3.450 *** Significant

H1b EET <--- WED .799 .078 12.110 *** Significant

H1c AEF <--- WED .102 .080 1.618 .106 Not significant

H1d AEM <--- WED .032 .088 .494 .621 Not significant

H1e WBA <--- WED .521 .063 8.177 *** Significant

H1f HEB <--- WED .561 .074 8.978 *** Significant



The direct effect of role of women business association (WBA) on WED is 52%

(p<0.001). The contribution of WBA in estimating WED is 27%. The reasons of effectiveness

of WBA is that for the development of entrepreneurship, women business association can

play an important role in organizing public-private dialogue to simplify business processes,

organizing training on productivity and quality, organizing zone wise trade fair and lobbying

with policy makers for contributing formulation of women entrepreneurship policy

framework.

The direct effect of husband engagement in women business (HEB) on WED is 56%

(p<0.001). The study revealed that husband engagement in women business as family support

can develop entrepreneurship. Husband can encourage women to take part in social work,

support in freedom of mobility and participating in the trade fair and cooperating in taking

care of children in the family.

The relationship between access to finance (AEF) and WED is positive but it was not

significant (p=0.106>.05). The reasons might be the existing access to finance and financial

services include equal access to loan for women and men, availability of loan in rural and

urban areas and financial advisory services were not in favor of the women entrepreneurs at

local level.

The relationship between access to market facilities (AEM) and WED is positive but it

was not significant (p=0.621>.05). The reasons might be the existing access to market

facilities of women such as access to industrial park, available market linkages with urban and

local entrepreneurs and affordable market premises were not in favour of the women

entrepreneurs at the local level.

4.4. (Hypothesis (H3): The WED positively and significantly improves Women

Economic Empowerment, Women Social Empowerment and Leadership

Capabilities among in SME Women of Bangladesh

The overall WED process lead women entrepreneurs to enhance their knowledge and skill

structure and supportive business environment to generate business ideas and business

concepts, resourcing and management and performance evaluation. These activities improve

women entrepreneurs psychological, cognitive and behavior abilities over the time. These

help women entrepreneurs to exercise creativity and innovation, management and leadership

capabilities for business development and growth. Through entrepreneurship, they advance

both economically and socially. This process helps to change their life and livelihood and

control over lives. They gain power within and outside of the enterprise and family and

society as a whole. The economic empowerment helps to exercise more freedom of own

earnings, bear family expenditures, arranging more quality education and foods for children

and family and they achieve access to and control over their household and enterprise

resources. The entrepreneurship development process extend their power and abilities even in

the social domain. Women entrepreneurs gradually come forward to engage and deal with

social networks, their mobility and visibility increased due to diversified communications

with government, service providing institutions, banks, dealing customers and suppliers.

Through this process they feel more social power and dignity. In many cases they take part in

the collective actions through social and business networks.

Entrepreneurship functions create avenue to exercise entrepreneurial leadership

capabilities within and beyond the enterprise. Women entrepreneurs achieve stronger

commitment and passions, communications and public speaking skills, influencing abilities,

problem solving skills, empowering and inspiring others.



Table 3 Results of Hypothesis Testing

Hp const Construct Std. estimate S.E. C.R. P Comments

H2a EEM <--- WED .588 .070 7.634 *** Significant

H2b SEM <--- WED .475 .076 6.221 *** Significant

H2c LCD <--- WED .499 .063 6.411 *** Significant

Table 3 shows that the direct effect of the WED on women economic empowerment is

approximately 59% (P<0.001). The R-square value indicates that 35% of the variance of EEM

is accounted for by the WED. The direct effect of WED on social empowerment is 0.475

(P<0.001). The direct effect of the WED on women leadership capabilities development is

0.499 (p<0.001). Through entrepreneurship activities, the women entrepreneurs can achieve

women empowerment especially in three inter-related and interlinked dimensions such as

women economic empowerment, social empowerment and women entrepreneurial leadership

capabilities.

4.5. Assessing Validity of the Structural Model

We assessed the validity of SEM through model fit index. We found key model fit index

values include CMIN=821.204; DF=550; CMIN/DF=1.493<3; CFI=0.966>0.95;

SRMR=0.053<0.08; RMSEA=0.035<0.06; PClose=1.000>0.05. Comparing the model fit

index values with cut-off values (Hu and Bentler (1999) indicated that the SEM model is a

good fit model.

5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Needless to say that the women entrepreneurs of Bangladesh lack behind in economic

participation and leadership compared to men entrepreneurs. Research shows that about seven

percent of the total business establishments of Bangladesh are owned and headed by women

which are negligible in terms of the women population proportion of the country. This limited

ownership, leadership and empowerment of women is a clear gap which is to be fulfilled for

the sustainable economic development of the country. That is why this causal research aims to

examine the relationships between women entrepreneurship development (WED) and women

empowerment (WEM) in SME business sector of Bangladesh. Using proportionate cluster

and convenience sampling techniques, this study conducted interviewed 397 women SME

entrepreneurs from seven administrative divisional head-quarters of Bangladesh. The data

were analyzed by using factor analysis by using SPSS and SEM techniques. The key finding

of this study is that women entrepreneurship development directly and significantly improves

women empowerment in Bangladesh. The important findings of this study are as follows:

First findings, the WED improves women empowerment (beta 77%, P<.001) among women

entrepreneurs by exercising the WED activities within and beyond the enterprises.

Second findings, this study have identified four entrepreneurship development factors that

directly and significantly expedite the WED which are friendly regulatory framework,

entrepreneurship education and training, role of women business association and husband

engagement in women business. The most significant factor is entrepreneurship education and

training (std. beta 80%, p<0.001). The reasons of the significance are that women

entrepreneurs believed that business start-up training, adequate supply of women trainers at

local level, skills development such as human and financial management and occupational

health and safety training are prerequisite for effective and efficient enterprise resourcing and

management. In businesses, women entrepreneurs have to identify and manage what type of

resources they require to start businesses, assemble necessary resources, allocate resources

(money, workforce, machine, and materials) and undertake capacity development of the

workforce for improving productivity and quality of the product and services.



The second most significant factor is husband engagement in women business (std. beta

56%(p<0.001). The study revealed that HEB can help to develop entrepreneurship by

encouraging women to take part in social work, supporting in freedom of mobility and

participating in the trade fair and cooperating in taking care of children in the family. The

third significant factor is the role of women business association (std beta 52%, p<0.001). The

reasons of effectiveness of WBA is that women business association can play an important

role in organizing public-private dialogue to simplify business processes, organizing training

on productivity and quality, organizing zone wise trade fair and lobbying with policy makers

for contributing formulation of women entrepreneurship policy framework. The fourth

significant WED factor is regulatory framework of the country (beta 22%, p<0.001). The

reasons for significance of the factor include women entrepreneurs thought that the friendly

regulatory service delivery such as licensing, tax and VAT, establishing one stop services and

public and private coordination mechanism will help them to expedite business.

The relationship between access to finance (AEF) and access to market facilities with

WED are positive but were not significant. The reasons might be the existing access to

finance and financial services include equal access to loan for women and men, availability of

loan in rural and urban areas and financial advisory services and access to market facilities

such as access to industrial park, available market linkages with urban and local entrepreneurs

and affordable market premises were not in favour of the women entrepreneurs at the local

level.

Third findings, the WED improves women empowerment in three interlinked and inter-

related dimensions such as women economic empowerment (std. beta 59%, P<0.001), social

empowerment (Std. beta 48%, P<0.001) and women leadership capabilities (std. beta 50%,

p<0.001) by exercising entrepreneurship functions.

The reasons of the direct and significance relationship is that the WED process lead

women entrepreneurs to enhance their knowledge and skill structure and supportive business

environment to generate business ideas and business concepts, resourcing and management.

These activities improve women entrepreneurs psychological, cognitive and behavior abilities

over the time. These help women entrepreneurs to exercise creativity and innovation,

management and leadership capabilities. Through entrepreneurship, they advance both

economically and socially. This process helps to change their life and livelihood and control

over lives. They gain power within and outside of the enterprise and family and society as a

whole. The economic empowerment helps to exercise more freedom of their own earnings,

bear family expenditures, arranging more quality education and foods for children and family

and they achieve access to and control over their household and enterprise resources. The

entrepreneurship development process extend their power and abilities even in the social

domain. Women entrepreneurs gradually come forward to engage and deal with social and

business networks, increase their mobility and visibility due to communications with

government, service providing institutions, banks, dealing customers and suppliers. Through

this process they feel more social power and dignity. In many cases they take part in the

collective actions through social and business networks. Entrepreneurship functions also

create avenue to exercise entrepreneurial leadership capabilities within and beyond the

enterprise. Women entrepreneurs achieve stronger commitment and passions to enterprises,

communications and public speaking skills, influencing abilities, problem solving skills,

empowering and inspiring others.

This study suggests that the policy makers of this SME sector of business should

emphasize on regulatory framework, entrepreneurial education and training, role of women

business association and husband engagement in women business in order to expedite



entrepreneurship development and improve women empowerment particularly economic,

social and entrepreneurial leadership.

This study identified the relationships between the women entrepreneurship development

and women empowerment of women through the women economic empowerment, social

empowerment and leadership capabilities. However, there is an ample scope to conduct

further study by taking more samples and additional dimensions into account that may

identify different results in the women empowerment of the SME entrepreneurs in

Bangladesh.

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WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP …...entrepreneurship development factors and examining the causal relationship between entrepreneurship development and women empowerment