Investigation the Iranian Women Entrepreneurs' Viewpoints on Institutional Pressures to Institutional Pressures

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Management and Accounting, Hormozgan University, Bandar Abbas, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Management and Accounting, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran

3 M.S of Management, Department of Management and Accounting, Hormozgan University, Bandar Abbas, Iran.

Abstract

In today's competitive and market-based economy, driven by rapid and accelerating international change, entrepreneurship is referred to as the engine of economic development. Due to the positive effects of entrepreneurship, many developing countries including Iran have chosen entrepreneurship as a key solution to weak economic growth, rising unemployment rates and the inability of the public and private sector to provide suitable jobs for college graduates. The main purpose of this study is to identify the institutional pressures imposed on Iranian women entrepreneurs and their viewpoints on these pressures as well as the context of these responses. The research is fundamental in terms of outcome and exploratory in terms of purpose. The study population consisted of female entrepreneurs honored at provincial and national women's festivals in three provinces of Golestan, Mazandaran and Hormozgan and participants were selected through snowball method. After collecting data through in-depth semi-structured interviews, data analysis was conducted using a three-step coding approach. According to the results, specific pressures on women entrepreneurs in the regulatory dimension include pressure from the authorities, in the normative dimension include pressure from the men of society and pressure from the family and in the diagnostic dimension include the duties of women, self-esteem and self-neglect. They also use the strategy of reconciliation, avoidance, struggle and manipulation in response to the regulatory pressures of reconciliation, avoidance and countering strategies and in response to the diagnostic pressures.

Keywords


-Adib, Y, Mardan, F (2014). Phenomenology of Entrepreneurs' Experiences and Perceptions of the Entrepreneurial Phenomenon: A Qualitative Study, Journal of Entrepreneurship Development, 7 (3), 447-465.
-Aidis, R., Welter, F., Smallbone, D., & Isakova, N. (2007). Female entrepreneurship in transition economies: the case of Lithuania and Ukraine. Feminist Economics, 13(2), 157-183.
-Almobaireek, W. N., & Manolova, T. S. (2013). Entrepreneurial motivations among female university youth in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 14(sup1), S56-S75.
-Arasti, Z., & Bahmani, N. (2017). Women’s Entrepreneurship in Iran Iranian Entrepreneurship (pp. 109-137): Springer.
-Arasti, Z and Maleki Karamabad, M.M (2014). Formal and Informal Institutional Factors Influencing Women's Entrepreneurial Social Performance, Social Psychological Studies of Women, 12 (1), 97-118.
-Arasti, Z (2004). Entrepreneurship Development for University Girls and Girls, Quarterly Journal of Employment and Entrepreneurship, 3, 8-9. (in Persian).
-Balali, I, Sayyah, M, Mohebbi, S.F (2015). Including Women in Men's Jobs: The Reasons and Consequences of Qualitative Analysis of Expert Opinions, Women in Development and Politics (Women's Research), 13 (3), 399-424. (in Persian).
-Baughn, C. C., Chua, B. L., & Neupert, K. E. (2006). The normative context for women's participation in entrepreneruship: A multicountry study. Entrepreneurship Theory and practice, 30(5), 687-70.
-Brush, C., De Bruin, A., & Welter, F. (2009). A gender-aware framework for women's entrepreneurship. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 1(1), 8-24.
-Cashore, B., & Vertinsky, I. (2000). Policy networks and firm behaviours: Governance systems and firm reponses to external demands for sustainable forest management. Policy sciences, 33(1), 1-30.
-Chamlou, N., Klapper, L., & Muzi, S. (2008). The environment for women's entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa: World Bank Publications.
-Clarke, J.-A. M. (2015). The integrative entrepreneur: A lifeworld study of women sustainability entrepreneurs. Fielding Graduate University.
-DiMaggio, P., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Collective rationality and institutional isomorphism in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147-160.
-Elam, A., & Terjesen, S. (2010). Gendered institutions and cross-national patterns of business creation for men and women. The European Journal of Development Research, 22(3), 331-348.
-Endicott, T. (2001). Law is necessarily vague. Legal theory, 7(4), 379-385.
-Estrin, S., & Mickiewicz, T. (2011). Institutions and female entrepreneurship. Small business economics, 37(4), 397.
-Falcone, T., & Osborne, S. (2005). Entrepreneurship: a diverse concept in a diverse world.
-Ghani, E., Goswami, A. G., & Kerr, W. R. (2012). Is India's manufacturing sector moving away from cities?: The World Bank.
-Gioia, D. A., Corley, K. G., & Hamilton, A. L. (2013). Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: Notes on the Gioia methodology. Organizational Research Methods, 16(1), 15-31.
-Goyal, P., & Yadav, V. (2014). To be or not to be a woman entrepreneur in a developing country. Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management, 2(2), 68-78.
-Goodstein, J. D. (1994). Institutional pressures and strategic responsiveness: Employer involvement in work-family issues. Academy of management journal, 37(2), 350-382.
-Hosseinzadeh, M and Kazemi, A (2018). Identifying Barriers and Strategies for Improving Women's Entrepreneurship System Using Research Approaches to Hard and Soft Operations, Journal of Industrial Management, 9 (4), 609-632. (in Persian).
-Jamali, D. (2009). Constraints and opportunities facing women entrepreneurs in developing countries: A relational perspective. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 24(4), 232-251.
-Jepperson, R. (1991). Institutions, institutional effects, and institutionalism. The new institutionalism in organizational analysis, 143-163.
-Jin, M. (2014). Do Gendered Social Institutions and Resources Promote Women's Entrepreneurial Intentions? A Multi-Country Study. Université d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa.
-Julian, S. D., Ofori‐Dankwa, J. C., & Justis, R. T. (2008). Understanding strategic responses to interest group pressures. Strategic management journal, 29(9), 963-984.
-Karimi, S., Chizari, M., Biemans, H. J., & Mulder, M. (2010). Entrepreneurship education in Iranian higher education: The current state and challenges. European Journal of Scientific Research, 48(1), 35-50.
-Klyver, K., Nielsen, S. L., & Evald, M. R. (2013). Women's self-employment: An act of institutional (dis) integration? A multilevel, cross-country study. Journal of Business Venturing, 28(4), 474-488.
-Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry (Vol. 75), SAGE Publications, Inc.
-Langowitz, N., & Minniti, M. (2007). The entrepreneurial propensity of women. Entrepreneurship Theory and practice, 31(3), 341-364.
-Madichie, N. O., & Gallant, M. (2012). Broken silence: a commentary on women's entrepreneurship in the United Arab Emirates. The international journal of entrepreneurship and innovation, 13(2), 81-92.
-Minniti, M. (2010). Female entrepreneurship and economic activity. The European Journal of Development Research, 22(3),294-312.
-North, D. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance: Cambridge university press.
-Oliver, C. (1991). Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of management review, 16(1), 145-179.
-Raghunandan, V. (2018). Changing Equations: Empowerment, Entrepreneurship and the Welfare of Women. Journal of International Women's Studies, 19(3), 187-198.
-Ramani, S. V., Thutupalli, A., Medovarszki, T., Chattopadhyay, S., & Ravichandran, V. (2013). Women entrepreneurs in the informal economy: Is formalization the only solution for business sustainability?
-Roshania, D, Khademi Shahrivar, R, Ghovati, S (2015). Social Entrepreneurship Challenges and Barriers in Women, Social, Economic, Scientific and Cultural Workbook, 188, 64-74. (in Persian).
-Saber, F (2006). Ways to Develop Women's Entrepreneurship in Iran; Strategies for Empowering Women for Economic, Social, and Political Equality in Iran, Iran, Tehran: Enlightenment and Women's Studies. (in Persian).
-Scott, W. R. (2001). Instituitions and organizations. Thousande Oakes: Sage..
-Seo, M.-G., & Creed, W. D. (2002). Institutional contradictions, praxis, and institutional change: A dialectical perspective. Academy of management review, 27(2), 222-247.
-Sutter, C. J., Webb, J. W., Kistruck, G. M., & Bailey, A. V. (2013). Entrepreneurs' responses to semi-formal illegitimate institutional arrangements. Journal of Business Venturing, 28(6), 743-758.
-Taqi, N. (2016). The challenges facing women entrepreneurs: a study on gulf cooperation council (GCC) countries. Brunel University London.
-Thornton, P. H. (2002). The rise of the corporation in a craft industry: Conflict and conformity in institutional logics. Academy of management journal, 45(1), 81-1.
-Tlaiss, H. A. (2015). How Islamic business ethics impact women entrepreneurs: Insights from four Arab Middle Eastern countries. Journal of Business Ethics, 129(4), 859-877.
-Veciana, J. M., & Urbano, D. (2008). The institutional approach to entrepreneurship research. Introduction: Springer.
-Verduijn, K., & Essers, C. (2013). Questioning dominant entrepreneurship assumptions: the case of female ethnic minority entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 25(7-8), 612-630.
-Verheul, I., Stel, A. V., & Thurik, R. (2006). Explaining female and male entrepreneurship at the country level. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 18(2), 151-183.
-Welter, F., Smallbone, D., Isakova, N., Aculai, E., & Schakirova, N. (2004). Women's entrepreneurship in Ukraine, Republic of Moldova and Uzbekistan: Results of a comparative study.
-Woetzel, J. (2015). The power of parity: How advancing women's equality can add $12 trillion to global growth. Retrieved from.
-Yaghoubi Farani, A and Soleimani, A (2015). The Impact of Personality Traits on the Success of Rural Entrepreneurs in Hamadan Province, Women in Development and Politics, 13 (1), 113-130. (in Persian).
-Yaghoubi Farani, A, Soleimani, A, Movahedi, R, Eskandari, F (2013). The Impact of Educational and Institutional Factors on Entrepreneurship in Rural Women (Case Study: Hamadan Province), Entrepreneurship Development, 6 (2), 115-134. (in Persian).
- Zamberi Ahmad, S. (2011). Businesswomen in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Characteristic, growth patterns and progression in a regional context. Equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 30(7), 610-614.
-Zeidan, S., & Bahrami, S. (2011). Women entrepreneurship in GCC: A framework to address challenges and promote participation in a regional context. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(14), 100-107.
-Zucker, L. G. (1987). Institutional theories of organization. Annual review of sociology, 13(1), 443-464.
-Goyal, P., & Yadav, V. (2014). To be or not to be a woman entrepreneur in a developing country. Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management, 2(2), 68-78.
-Karimi, S., Chizari, M., Biemans, H. J., & Mulder, M. (2010). Entrepreneurship education in Iranian higher education: The current state and challenges. European Journal of Scientific Research, 48(1), 35-50.
-North, D. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance: Cambridge university press.
-Oliver, C. (1991). Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of management review, 16(1), 145-179.
-Roshania, D, Khademi Shahrivar, R, Ghovati, S (2015). Social Entrepreneurship Challenges and Barriers in Women, Social, Economic, Scientific and Cultural Workbook, 188, 64-74. (in Persian).
-Scott, W. R. (2001). Instituitions and organizations. Thousande Oakes: Sage.
-Yaghoubi Farani, A, Soleimani, A, Movahedi, R, Eskandari, F (2013). The Impact of Educational and Institutional Factors on Entrepreneurship in Rural Women (Case Study: Hamadan Province), Entrepreneurship Development, 6 (2), 115-134. (in Persian).