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Research Proposal

Topic:

THE IMPACT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL NETWORKING TO ENHANCE

WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN SMEs

Introduction

In this dynamic business world entrepreneurship has inferred special significance, as it isa key driver to economic development. The objectives of industrial development,regional growth, and employment generation depend upon entrepreneurship.Consequently entrepreneurs are, thus the seeds of industrial development and the fruits ofthis development are greater employment job opportunities to unemployed people.Entrepreneurship leads to higher income, increases in per capita income, higher standardof living, and individual saving, revenue to the government in the form of various taxes.

The recent concept of entrepreneurial networking/social networking has emerged asone of the contributing factors to growth of enterprises (Davidsson and Honig, 2003;

Lam, Leibbrandt, & Mlatsheni, 2007). Information is a major resource for men and

women entrepreneurs and can connect to marketplaces, suppliers; costs, technology, and

networking have appeared as valuable for contributing assistance to entrepreneurs. The

networking is becoming popular and a valuable way to get hold of relevant information to

get competitive advantages. Networking provides entrepreneurs a variety of priceless

sources not previously in ownership and assist to accomplish their goals (Hansen, 1995;

Jenssen, 2001; Ripolles and Blesa, 2005; Welter and Kautonen, 2005).

Networking can be of immense help to an entrepreneur, which can be established

efficiently by an external organization to support entrepreneurs. In the 80s it was the

starting and nature of the networking began to pull significant consideration in the

management and entrepreneurship literature (Aldrich & Whetten, 1981; Aldrich &

Zimmer, 1986; Birley, 1985; Jarillo, 1988; Johanisson & Mattson, 1987; Thorelli 1988,

Szarka, 1990). A recent study terminated that entrepreneurship has hugged networking

premise as a device for investigating new business creation (Drakapoulou et al., 2002).

Past study describes that networking emphasized on relationships amongst participating

partners, irrespective of whether they are persons, work units or organizations (Brass et

al. 2004). Past study provides evidence that small business owners exploit different social

networking and the variety and importance of advice that they receive (Peltier, and

Naidu, 2012). Past studies made a distinction between the phenomenon of

entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial process (Verstraete, 2003; Verstraete & Fayolle,

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2005). which emphasis on humanism, and human relations (Swanson, 2007; Venter,

2012). A Past study provides evidence that small business owners exploit social

networking according to the importance of advice they receive (Peltier, and Naidu, 2012).

Rationale and Significance of the Study:

The rising tide of women entrepreneurs in unmistakable. Little is known about the causesand consequences of this rapid growth in entrepreneurship among women (Weiler andBernasek, 2001). One of the chief barriers to such work is lack of data on womenentrepreneurs (Moore and Buttner, 1997). Exposure to entrepreneurial experiencethrough household or personal experience increases the likelihood of entrepreneurship(Carroll and Mosakowski, 1987; Roberts, 1991; Sorensen, 2005). The likelihood ofentering self-employment increases with educational level (Dolinsky et al., 1993), thoughless at the doctoral level (Roberts, 1991). The recent spin-off literature has emphasized

both the characteristics of the parent firms (Gompers et al., 2005) as well ascharacteristics of the individuals (Shane and Khurana, 2003; Roberts, 1991) as importantdeterminants of the likelihood to spin off new.

Over recent years, women entrepreneurs and networking has attracted a lot of attentionall over the world. This new concept is diffusing in manufacturing as well as serviceenterprises world wide including developing countries. Changing competitive conditionsboth in public and private sector are leading to seek and adopt networking techniques toraise productivity, efficiency and quality to compete in world market. Macroeconomicinstability, low levels of education, poor work ethics, poor networking facility and labourrelations in Pakistan would seen to present barriers to the use of these techniques. A keyissue, therefore, is whether women entrepreneurs face specific problems in setting upbusinesses those are different from those being faced by male entrepreneurs.

The main purpose of the research is to explore and critically examine in a descriptive andanalytical manner the relevance and applicability of networking approaches to bothmanufacturing and services sector in a developing country context. In tthiswe willconcentrate our attention to promote entrepreneurship in general and womenempowerment through entrepreneurship in particular. The objectives of the research inthe above context will be manufacturing and services sector in a developing countrycontext. In this study we will focus to explore whether network plays any important roleto encourage and enhance women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship.

Objectives of the study

The main purpose of the research is to explore and critically examine in adescriptive and analytical manner the relevance and applicability of networkingapproaches to both manufacturing and services sector in a developing countrycontext. The objectives of the research in the above context will be:

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a) To explore, study and analyze critically the characteristics, philosophy,and role of business networking on entrepreneurship.

b) To discuss critically the relevance of networking practices as a successmodel in the socio economic context of Pakistani entrepreneurs generally

and gender entrepreneurs particularly.

c) To examine and explore the role of entrepreneurship on womenempowerment.

d) To study and examine the impact of networking on womenentrepreneurship particularly in the socio economic environment ofPakistan.

Contribution

This study will help to understand the women entrepreneurs problems and issuesto start new businesses.In the light of world entrepreneurship promotion this study will provide a strongbase to start women entrepreneurship and encourage women entrepreneurs.This study will explore and help to create women entrepreneurs and theirparticipation will increase. As a result of that the women will become moreempower. Hence it will help to reduce unemployment amongst women.This study will contribute for the policy makers to take corrective measure for thefuture purposes.

Literature Review:

Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs have altered the pathway of economies, and markets.They have developed new products and services. Entrepreneurship has introducedquantum leaps in technology and more productive exploitation of it. Many innovationshave changed the society and altered our life style. Scholars seem to have reachedconsensus about the 1980s being the turning point when entrepreneurship rates reversedtheir long term downward trend (Blau, 1987; Ace and Audretsch 1993; Carlsson andKarlsson 1999; Carree and Thurik 2000a; Carree, Van Stel, Thurik and Wennekers2001). Large firms have been subjected to waves of downsizing and restructuring andentrepreneurship has been re-discovered (Carree 1997; Gavron, Cowling, Holtham, andWestall 1998; Thurik 1999; Wennekers and Thurik 1999). A careful but systematic shiftin economic activity that was taking place away from large firms to small firms,predominantly in young enterprises.

When it comes to defining and measuring entrepreneurship , scholars have proposed abroad array of definitions (Hebert and Link, 1989; Van Praag, 1999). The origin anddeterminants of entrepreneurship span a wide spectrum of theories and explanations(Brock and Evans, 1989; Carree, 1997; Carree, Van Stel, Thurik, and Wennekers, 2001;Gavron, Cowling, Holtham, and Westall, 1998; OECD, 1998a). Despite the lack of

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consensus the scholars appears to agree that the level of entrepreneurship andentrepreneurial activity varies across countries and over time (Rees and Shah, 1986;Blanchflower, 2000; Blanchflower and Meyer, 1994; Wit and Van Winder, 1989).

Scholars also agree that the 1970s served as a turning point, when entrepreneurship rates

reversed their long-term downward trend (Blau, 1987; Acs and Audretsch 1993; Ace,Carlsson and Karlsson, 1999; Carree and Thurik, 2000a; Carree, Van Stel, Thurik, andWennekers, 2001). Audretsch and Thurik (2001) described that stability, continuity, andhomogeneity were the cornerstones they label as the managed economy. Small businesswas considered to be a vanishing breed. But times have also changed for the westerneconomies. Large firms have been subjected to waves of downsizing and restructuringand entrepreneurship ahs been rediscovered (Carree, 1997; Gavron, Cowling, Holthamand Westall, 1998; Thurik, 1999; Wennekers and Thurik, 1999).

The relative pitch of women entrepreneurs in the last decade has been nothing short ofrevolutionary (Weiler and Bernasek, 2001). It is evident from the data that rapid increase

in entrepreneurship among women, as both the creation of firms as well as sales per firmgrew more rapidly for women than men entrepreneurs (Bureau Census, 1995). Accordingto the (National Association of Women Business Owners, NFWBO, 1995) there were 7.7million women owned businesses in the US employing 15.5 million people andgenerating approximately $ 1.4 sales. Current estimates indicate that women ownedbusinesses account for 30% of the total businesses, which is likely to increase in the timesto come.

Early in the evolution of an industry, the identification and acquisition of new knowledgeis critical and network relations will relatively fluid and decentralized, as in the emergingmultimedia sector (Fuchs and Wolf, 1997). In industries where product development,testing and commercialization take place over an extended period of time and requirelong-term investments, network relations tend to persist, as in the technology sector(Walker et al., 1997). Mechanisms may be behavioral, reflecting learning (Bandura,1997), ecological, reflecting competition (Aldrich, 1999), or institutional, reflectingimitation, coercion or other processes (Staber, 1998a).

Firms and networks of firms may not know in advance what needs to be done, but theyneed to have sufficient variation in their relationships to discover new information andlearn new competencies (Levitt and March, 1988). Powell described it is conditions ofuncertainty, which are environment in which networks are most likely to thrive, place apremium on constant learning and innovation (Powell, 1990). Interfirm cooperation isexpected to be effective especially when knowledge is not fully codifiable butnonetheless important for innovation and risk taking (Storper, 1995). Loose couplingreduces the risk of repeating mistakes (Masuch, 1985), and escalating commitments andraises the likelihood that the networks has competencies necessary to adapt to newconditions (Ross and Staw, 1993).

Key Questions/Hypothesis to be investigated:

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The key questions being posed or hypothesis tested in the thesis. In this study we are

going to frame the following hypotheses:

H1: It is expected that business networking will facilitate and encourage women

entrepreneurship generally and women entrepreneurship particularly

H2: The business networking will help to enhance womens participation

in small medium enterprises (SMEs)

H3: It is expected that business networking will help to mentor womenentrepreneurial

competitiveness in the Kivis/Pakistani socio economic context

H4: The business networking will help to enhance women entrepreneurship and womenentrepreneurs in Pakistan and hence will empower women

Research Design

A survey based primary data will be used to examine relationship between networkingentrepreneurship and women empowerment It will also examine the moderating impactof networking towards women participation in entrepreneurship and SMEs. The studywill be conducted in two phases with independent sample. Phase-1 will consist of try-outor pilot study in which we will screen out the potential respondents of this study, whilephase-2 will constitute the main study and consist of hypotheses testing.The instrument will be designed to collect data on women entrepreneurs, their enterprisesand operating environments. The working definition of SME and women entrepreneurs iscarefully framed in line with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and SmallMedium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) Pakistan. The lower end of the

business spectrum represented by subsistence enterprise will be screened out in order tofocus the survey on those enterprises which have potential for growth and upgrading.Three types of questions regarding ownership, number of employees and businesspremises will be included at the beginning to eliminate subsistence and householdenterprises.

Instrument

The questionnaire will be used and administered to the respondents directly. Theavailable instruments concerning related variables will be explored for proper reliabilityand validity or will be developed indigenously. This will guide us to promote horizontal

and vertical enterprise-to-enterprise and individual to enterprise links in the womenentrepreneurs and improve access to business development services.

Data Analysis

After data collection and coding, the appropriate data analytic techniques includingdescriptive and multivariate analyses will be carried out keeping in view the objective ofthe study by using latest available version of SPSS.

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References:

Acs, Z.J. and D.B. Audretsch.1993 Conclusion, in: Z.J. Acs and D.B. Audretsch (eds),Small Firms and Entrepreneurship: An East-WestPerspective, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Acs, Z.J., B. Carlsson, and 1999 Entrepreneurship, Small and Medium Sized

G. Karlsson. Enterprises and the Macro economy, CambridgeUniversity Press, Cambridge.

Audretsch, D.B. and 2001 What is new about the new economy: Sources ofA.R. Thurik Growth in the Managed and Entrepreneurial

Economies, Industrial and Corporate Change, 2001

Blanchflower, D.G and 1994 A Longitudinal analysis of the young self-employedB.D. Meyer in Australia and the United States, Small Business

Economics, No. 6, Vol. 1

Blanchflower, D.G 2000 Self-employment in OECD countries,Labour Economics, No. 7

Blau, D 1987 A Time Series Analysis of Self-employed in the US,Journal of Political Economy, No. 95, Vol. 3

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Carree, M.A 1997 Market dynamics, Evolution and Smallness, ThesisPublishers and Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam.

Carree, M.A, A. Van Stel, 2001 Economic Development and Business Ownership:A.R. Thurik, and A.R.M an analysis using data of 23 OECD countries,Wennekers. Discussion Paper T 100-001/3, Tinbergen Institute,

Erasmus University Rotterdam.

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Carree, M.A. & A.R. Thurik. 2000a Market Structure Dynamics and Economic Growth, inG. Galli and JPelkmans (eds), Regulatory Reform andCompetitiveness in Europe No. 1: Horizontal Issues,Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK.

Carree, M.A., A Van Stel, 2001 Economic Development and Business Ownership:A.R. Thurik, and A.R.M. An Analysis using data of 23 modern economies inWennekers the period 1976-1996, Small Business Economics,

Fuchs, G. and H. Wolf 1997 Regional Economies, Interactive Television and Inter-organizational Networks: A of an Innovative Networksin Baden-Wurttemberg. European Planning Studies, Vol. 5

Gavron, R., M. Cowling, 1998 The Entrepreneurial Society, Institute for PublicG. Holtham and A. Westall Policy Research, London

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Levitt, B. and J. March. 1988 Organizational Learning. Annual Review of Sociology, 14

Masuch, M. 1985 Vicious Circles in organizations. Administrative ScienceQuarterly Vol. 30

Moore, D.P and E.H. Buttner 1997 Women Entrepreneurs Moving Beyond the Glass Ceiling.Thousands Oaks, C.A. Sage

NFWBO 1995 Women-Owned Businesses Breaking Down the Boundaries,The Progress and Achievement of Women-OwnedBusinesses. Silver Spring, MD, NFWBO

OECD 1998a Fostering Entrepreneurship, The OECD JobStrategy, OECD, Paris

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Thurik, A.R. 1999 Entrepreneurship, Industrial Transformation andGrowth, in G.D. Libecap (ed.), The Source ofEntrepreneurial Activity: Vol. 11, Advances in theStudy of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and

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Wit, G. de and F.A.A.M 1989 An Empirical Analysis of Self-employed in theVan Winder. Netherlands, Small Business Economics No. 1, Vol. 4

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