Young and Female: The Challenges for Digital-Social Entrepreneurship in Kosovo

This paper explores the key challenges that young women digital-social entrepreneurs face in their entrepreneurship journey in Kosovo. Women and youth face significant barriers to entrepreneurship due to age and gender-based discrimination and stigma, such as accessing networks and resources and gaining trust and recognition of skills and experience. This highlights a double-edged sword for young women entrepreneurs, who are twice as likely to be on the receiving end of these barriers. Additionally, digital-social entrepreneurship is an emergent phenomenon in itself, where there is often very limited support, guidance, or frameworks for entering into this space—which poses further challenges. There is limited research exploring the specific challenges of young women entrepreneurs within the context of the transition economy; therefore, this study uses Kosovo as a case site due to its growing ICT sector and young and entrepreneurial population. Utilizing an institutionalist approach, this paper analyses how the institutional frameworks of the country both help and hinder young women in their digital-social entrepreneurial ventures, drawing upon a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with policymakers, supporting actors, and young women digital-social entrepreneurs. Findings highlight the institutional inefficiencies, both formal and informal, that young women have to navigate in Kosovo—including a lack of formal framework for digital-social enterprises, distrust, and discrimination from older and male peers within their chosen sectors, and difficulties in accessing start-up financing and acceleration support. This study contributes to a greater understanding of the specific challenges that young women face when pursuing entrepreneurship and the key challenges for emerging digital-social enterprises in Kosovo.