Bhavisha P. Sheth, PhD (Author) – Research Fellow, Department of Policy Advocacy, Knowledge and Research, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, India
Amit Kumar Dwivedi, PhD (Author) – Associate Professor and In-Charge, Department of Policy Advocacy, Knowledge and Research, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, India

Series: Business Issues, Competition and Entrepreneurship

BISAC: BUS025000

The condition of women is vulnerable globally especially in developing and under-developed countries. As per the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020, which measures the participation of men and women across health, education, economic and political activity, India overall ranked 112th of the 153 countries covered, slipping 4 steps down from its 108th position of the 2018 report. The economic gap is deeper still, as India ranks 149th amongst the 153 participant countries. The Indian economy is characterized by informality and labor market frictions, and the participation of women in entrepreneurship has gained much policy impetus in recent times as an alternative route not only to superior equality but also to economic growth. The promotion of women in the entrepreneurial landscape has been central to all policy discussions. However, despite a conducive regulatory environment, there is much room for improvement of the prevailing situation where India lags far behind at the 70th and 52nd position in the GEDI’s Female Entrepreneurship Index 2015 and Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs 2019, respectively. This necessitates investigation of the cognitive and socio-cultural factors curbing the entrepreneurial potential of Indian women to understand and improve the prevailing situation for the benefit of the nation at large.

This book aims to provide suggestive evidence towards identifying the cognitive and socio-cultural factors affecting the entrepreneurial intentions of Indian women. The major source of evidence was GEM India consortium data for 5 years, from 2014 to 2019. The major objectives of this study included: (i) a detailed survey of literature to understand the situation of women entrepreneurship in India, (ii) to understand and report the cognitive, behavioural and socio-cultural factors affecting the entrepreneurial intentions of Indian women and, (iii) based on this study, identify and suggest policy measures to improve the situation of female participation in entrepreneurship in the country.

This book covers an overview of the major global efforts to measure women entrepreneurship as well as a thorough review of literature on the global perspectives pertaining to strategies, general environment and policies related to promoting women entrepreneurship in 14 countries: Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Australia, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, Botswana, South Africa, Algeria, Argentina, Brazil and the United States of America. The understanding about the global strategies, policies as well as challenges faced by women entrepreneurs was an important exercise in understanding how entrepreneurship can be promoted across the length and breadth of geographical locations, having diversity in socio-economic and institutional structures as well as different levels of entrepreneurial activity. A detailed overview of the prevailing situation of women entrepreneurship was also presented for India, with respect to the facts and figures of entrepreneurial activity, policies, existing schemes to boost participation of women in entrepreneurship, institutional supports available and the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. Several suggestions of policy measures intended to improve the overall situation are included.