Examining the influence of social capital on rural women entrepreneurship : An empirical study in Iran
World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development
ISSN: 2042-5961
Article publication date: 8 July 2014
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the empirical assessment of the influence of social capital on women entrepreneurship in rural regions in Iran.
Design/methodology/approach
The study involves a questionnaire-based survey of entrepreneurial women from a number of rural regions in the Iran. A total of 265 usable questionnaires were received from rural women who were engaged in entrepreneurial activities from five rural regions. These were subjected to a series of correlational and regression analyses. The measures of the independent (the components of social capital) and dependent (the psychological traits of entrepreneurs) variables are based on literature.
Findings
The results reveal that social capital has a positive and significant influence on rural women entrepreneurship. With strong statistical significance, three social capital factors – structural, relational, and cognitive – provide an explanation for variations in psychological traits of entrepreneurs including achievement, innovation, personal control, self-esteem, opportunism, autonomy/independence, and risk/uncertainty.
Originality/value
Although the literature has long pointed out the importance of social capital as a determinant of entrepreneurship activity, entrepreneurship researchers have not focussed on the influence of each dimension of social capital on psychological traits of entrepreneurs. Thus, this study makes a contribution toward filling this gap.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Previous version of this paper was presented at the First International and Third National Student Conference on Entrepreneurship in University of Tehran, Iran (2014). The authors wish to express sincere thanks to the anonymous referee and the WJEMSD editors for their helpful and insightful suggestions regarding an earlier version of the paper.
Citation
Nasrolahi Vosta, L. and Reza Jalilvand, M. (2014), "Examining the influence of social capital on rural women entrepreneurship : An empirical study in Iran", World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 209-227. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJEMSD-10-2013-0054
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited