IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ssi/jouesi/v7y2019i2p1000-1014.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploration of barriers faced by female graduate entrepreneurs in Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Md Asadul Islam

    (University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia)

  • Amer Hamzah Jantan

    (University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia)

  • Abigail Hunt

    (University of Lincoln, United Kingdom)

  • Md. Ferdausur Rahman

    (Military Institute of Science and Technology, Bangladesh)

  • Mirza Manirajah Abdullah

    (Hanfiq Resources Ltd, Malaysia)

Abstract

This study explores and examines barriers faced by female graduate entrepreneurs founding and growing SMEs in Bangladesh. It particularly seeks to address the current gap in the literature on the barriers faced specifically by female graduate entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, and is among the first of its kind. We conducted 12 semi-structured interviews including 6 graduate female entrepreneurs of SMEs and 6 scholars in entrepreneurship in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and found that educated, graduate, females faced more barriers than uneducated or non-graduate females because of their educational background. It appears from our research that those women who had graduated from university were more likely to join in a company rather than starting and continuing to develop their own business. In addition to these key findings, we also found that Bangladeshi female graduate entrepreneurs had a lack of negotiation and pitching skills, little confidence, little access to institutional training and courses on SMEs and entrepreneurship. They also faced barriers such as lengthy, biased, and expensive loan facilities, corruption, operating in a conservative culture, a lack of support from their families and partners, barriers in mobility caused by traffic congestions in Dhaka, and risks to personal security. All of our findings from the interviews are well supported by additional research in the form of scientific observations of 79 entrepreneurs and 20 private and 5 public universities. The practical implications of these barriers are discussed in the paper and recommendations offered to key stakeholders to facilitate female graduate entrepreneurs in opening and operating SMEs in Bangladesh.

Suggested Citation

  • Md Asadul Islam & Amer Hamzah Jantan & Abigail Hunt & Md. Ferdausur Rahman & Mirza Manirajah Abdullah, 2019. "Exploration of barriers faced by female graduate entrepreneurs in Bangladesh," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 7(2), pages 1000-1014, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:ssi:jouesi:v:7:y:2019:i:2:p:1000-1014
    DOI: 10.9770/jesi.2019.7.2(15)
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://jssidoi.org/jesi/uploads/articles/26/Islam_Exploration_of_barriers_faced_by_female_graduate_entrepreneurs_in_Bangladesh.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/418
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.9770/jesi.2019.7.2(15)?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Astrid Kunze & Amalia R. Miller, 2017. "Women Helping Women? Evidence from Private Sector Data on Workplace Hierarchies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(5), pages 769-775, December.
    2. Mohammed S. Chowdhury, 2007. "Overcoming entrepreneurship development constraints: the case of Bangladesh," Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 1(3), pages 240-251, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xing, Lu & Gonzalez, Angelica & Sila, Vathunyoo, 2021. "Does cooperation among women enhance or impede firm performance?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4).
    2. Tshehla, Steven S. & Chodokufa, Kudakwashe & Costa, King, 2021. "Entrepreneurship Education’s Influence on Learner’s Entrepreneurship Intention in South African Schools," AfricArxiv gpn98, Center for Open Science.
    3. Erika Deserranno & Philipp Kastrau & Gianmarco León-Ciliotta, 2021. "Promotions and Productivity: The Role of Meritocracy and Pay Progression in the Public Sector," Working Papers 1239, Barcelona School of Economics.
    4. Julian Kolev & Yuly Fuentes-Medel & Fiona Murray, 2019. "Is Blinded Review Enough? How Gendered Outcomes Arise Even Under Anonymous Evaluation," NBER Working Papers 25759, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Nikolaos Theodoropoulos & John Forth & Alex Bryson, 2019. "Are Women Doing It For Themselves? Gender Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap," DoQSS Working Papers 19-07, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    6. Boris Hirsch & Philipp Lentge, 2021. "Non-Base Compensation and the Gender Pay Gap," Working Paper Series in Economics 404, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    7. Folorunsho M. Ajide & James T. Dada, 2023. "Poverty, entrepreneurship, and economic growth in Africa," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(2), pages 199-226, June.
    8. Boring, Anne & Philippe, Arnaud, 2021. "Reducing discrimination in the field: Evidence from an awareness raising intervention targeting gender biases in student evaluations of teaching," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    9. Paul Heidhues & Botond KH{o}szegi & Philipp Strack, 2019. "Overconfidence and Prejudice," Papers 1909.08497, arXiv.org.
    10. Goodall, Amanda H. & Osterloh, Margit, 2015. "Women Have to Enter the Leadership Race to Win: Using Random Selection to Increase the Supply of Women into Senior Positions," IZA Discussion Papers 9331, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Mario Bossler & Alexander Mosthaf & Thorsten Schank, 2016. "More Female Manager Hires through More Female Managers? Evidence from Germany," Working Papers 1618, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    12. Juho Jokinen & Jaakko Pehkonen, 2017. "Promotions and Earnings – Gender or Merit? Evidence from Longitudinal Personnel Data," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 306-334, September.
    13. Hamdino Hamdan & Pazim @ Fadzim Othman & Wan Sabri Wan Hussin, 2012. "The Importance Of Monitoring And Entrepreneurship Concept As Future Direction Of Microfinance In Malaysia: Case Study In The State Of Selangor," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship, Global Research Agency, vol. 3(1), pages 1-25, July.
    14. Mario Bossler & Philipp Grunau, 2020. "Asymmetric information in external versus internal promotions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(6), pages 2977-2998, December.
    15. Baron, Justin & Ganglmair, Bernhard & Persico, Nicola & Simcoe, Timothy S. & Tarantino, Emanuele, 2023. "Representation is not sufficient for selecting gender diversity," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-056, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    16. Felipe Benguria, 2020. "Firms, Jobs, and Gender Disparities in Top Incomes: Evidence from Brazil," Upjohn Working Papers 20-338, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    17. Arceo-Gomez, Eva O. & Campos-Vazquez, Raymundo M., 2022. "Gender Bias in Evaluation Processes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    18. Zoë Cullen & Ricardo Perez-Truglia, 2023. "The Old Boys' Club: Schmoozing and the Gender Gap," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(7), pages 1703-1740, July.
    19. Hoang, Tuyen Thanh & Nguyen, Cuong Viet & Phung, Tung Duc, 2019. "Do Male CEOs Really Run Firms Better than Female Counterparts? New Evidence from Vietnam," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 60(2), pages 121-140, December.
    20. Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Carpenter, Christopher S. & Frank, Jeff & Huffman, Matt L., 2019. "Gay glass ceilings: Sexual orientation and workplace authority in the UK," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 167-180.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    female graduate entrepreneurs; barriers; Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs); stakeholders; Bangladesh;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A23 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Graduate
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ssi:jouesi:v:7:y:2019:i:2:p:1000-1014. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Manuela Tvaronaviciene (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.