Sindani, Tabitha ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8638-3767 (2019) Formal and informal institutional factors influencing rural female entrepreneurs in Western Kenya: a critical exploration. In: The 13th MBAcademy International Business and Management Conference: Digitalization and cross-cultural management: The Internationalization of Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, 28th - 29th June 2019, Athens, Greece.

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Abstract

Research affirms that entrepreneurship is institutionally embedded. These institutions are formal and informal, and they define the "rule of the game" that sets boundaries for entrepreneurship. Precisely, the formal institutions are political and economic-related rules, laws and regulations which controls the access to opportunity fields for entrepreneurship. While informal institutions contain uncodified societal norms and attitudes that determine the collective and individual perception of entrepreneurship.Despite this, previous studies on women's entrepreneurship have adopted an individualist approach. These have largely focused on the influence of women's psychological and individual-related factors on their own entrepreneurial activity but underestimate the influence of the underlying external institutional factors at play within their environment. Few studies have investigated the impact of formal and informal institutions on women's entrepreneurship, but the majority of those that do are conducted in western contexts. Yet, these studies do not present the institutional context-specific peculiarities operative in non-western contexts.This research investigates how formal and informal institutional factors influence rural female entrepreneurs in Western Kenya. To achieve the research objective, the study adopts qualitative methodology in which 26 semi-structured individual interviews and one focus group discussion with the rural female entrepreneurs. This is meant to bring to light the ‘lived experiences’ of the female entrepreneurs and how they are influenced by formal and informal institutions within developing countries’ rural context. Thus, this study’s objective and context can be justified as timely and findings. will contribute to scholarship on women’s entrepreneurship that challenges the dominant heroic individualist narrative of entrepreneurship.

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	rural women's entrepreneurship, female under-perfomance, formal institutional, informal institutional factors, rural Kenya
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HF Commerce J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Greenwich Business School Greenwich Business School > Executive Business Centre
Related URLs:	Organisation
Last Modified:	13 Mar 2025 16:20
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/50006

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