The role of Palestinian women entrepreneurs in business development

Resumen

THE ROLE OF PALESTINIAN WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Abeer Istanbuli Thesis Summary Women entrepreneurs have, for generations, played a very important role in society and have made a crucial contribution to its development. Using a sample of 160 Palestinian women entrepreneurs owned a business venture as representative of entrepreneurs acting in extremely resource-deprived environments, the data was collected through face-to-face interviews, using a structured questionnaire between September 2nd and November 4th 2012. We use a hierarchal regression analysis to test the hypotheses proposed in the study. Generally, the study is designed to identify the factors that influence the performance of businesses owned by women entrepreneurs in light of the challenges they face in the Palestinian context. Specifically, we seek to explain differences in firm performance by focusing on individual capabilities and organizational practices Palestinian women-led firms develop to respond to a resource-deprived environment. Both individual capabilities and practices developed at the organizational level to face resource needs are significant sources of variation in firm performance. We focus on individual characteristics and capabilities of women entrepreneurs, resource mobilization through bricolage, different growth strategies influence firm performance; and how bricolage supports firms to translate these growth strategies into better organizational results. The findings of this study contribute to literature on entrepreneurship in the context of developing countries. Firstly, at firm level, results suggest that bricolage is an important mean of mobilizing the resources needed to grow in resource-deprived environments and for entrepreneurs occupying marginal positions in society, with limited access to power and decision-making centers. Bricolage has a positive and direct influence on firm performance as it helps firm to respond to environmental challenges and can lead to the identification of new entrepreneurial opportunities. Additionally, the results show that the relationship between bricolage and firm performance can be strengthened depending on the type of growth strategy the entrepreneur develops. Secondly, at individual level, the results suggest that personal characteristics and some entrepreneur¿s competencies influence business performance. The results showed that the companies of women who have high self efficacy and possess the ability to attract key resources perform better than those of women that don¿t have such traits and competencies. Finally, this study opens new avenues for future research about entrepreneurship and small business management in specific contexts. In this sense, future studies can explore how different contexts condition the specific behaviors that entrepreneurs develop to make do and the types of resources they use in this process.