Are we fostering opportunity entrepreneurship for women? Exploring policies and programmes in China and India

This paper critically explores a variety of female entrepreneurship policies and programmes in China and India (examples include incubator projects as well as training, education, credit, and other financial programmes), providing a much-needed overview of the current state of support for women entrepreneurs in these countries and which economic sectors and actors (governments, non-governmental organisations, and private firms) are most engaged in providing this support. The paper also evaluates which types and structures of programmes are more likely to promote upward mobility and opportunity entrepreneurship. Finally, the paper presents an exploratory framework for considering five key characteristics of female entrepreneurship programmes (provision of money, goods, or services; skills training; business development services; professional networking services; and/or professional mentoring) and their relationship to necessity and opportunity entrepreneurship. It also gauges the inclusivity of the programmes. Further research can build upon this framework and develop a more sophisticated classification system.