Motivations of the Female Entrepreneurs to Start Online Businesses in the United Arab Emirates

The global dissemination of internet technology and advances in it are facilitating female entrepreneurs to participate in online entrepreneurial activities by utilizing new business frameworks to achieve economies of scope and scale as they start to compete with the traditional entrepreneurs in the market. This research draws on two fields of scholarly research; “online businesses” and “female entrepreneurship” and, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that endeavors to provide an overview of female entrepreneurship in online businesses in the UAE. This study, which is based on a qualitative survey of 20 online businesses, owned and smanaged by females’ in the UAE, investigates why females start their online businesses. The obvious picture emerging from this study is that with control over the number of hours they put in their online businesses and do not face the type of work to family conflict encountered by the female who own and manage traditional businesses outside of their homes. More precisely, the results of this study give indicative and exciting comprehensions into the challenges and impediments of female entrepreneurs in this fast-growing sector of the UAE economy. Of critical interest to researchers and policy makers, we investigate the challenges and impediments to success and the ways that female entrepreneurs in the UAE are successfully starting and expanding their online businesses.