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Source: Journal Citation ReportsTM from ClarivateTM 2022

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues Open access
Journal Impact FactorTM (2022) 1.7
Journal Citation IndicatorTM (2022) 0.42
Received: 2019-05-12  |  Accepted: 2019-09-10  |  Published: 2019-12-15

Title

Exploration of barriers faced by female graduate entrepreneurs in Bangladesh


Abstract

This study explores and examines barriers faced by female graduate entrepreneurs founding and growing SMEs in Bangladesh. It particularly seeks to address the current gap in the literature on the barriers faced specifically by female graduate entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, and is among the first of its kind. We conducted 12 semi-structured interviews including 6 graduate female entrepreneurs of SMEs and 6 scholars in entrepreneurship in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and found that educated, graduate, females faced more barriers than uneducated or non-graduate females because of their educational background. It appears from our research that those women who had graduated from university were more likely to join in a company rather than starting and continuing to develop their own business. In addition to these key findings, we also found that Bangladeshi female graduate entrepreneurs had a lack of negotiation and pitching skills, little confidence, little access to institutional training and courses on SMEs and entrepreneurship. They also faced barriers such as lengthy, biased, and expensive loan facilities, corruption, operating in a conservative culture, a lack of support from their families and partners, barriers in mobility caused by traffic congestions in Dhaka, and risks to personal security. All of our findings from the interviews are well supported by additional research in the form of scientific observations of 79 entrepreneurs and 20 private and 5 public universities. The practical implications of these barriers are discussed in the paper and recommendations offered to key stakeholders to facilitate female graduate entrepreneurs in opening and operating SMEs in Bangladesh.


Keywords

female graduate entrepreneurs, barriers, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), stakeholders, Bangladesh


JEL classifications

A23 , L21 , L25 , L26 , L31


URI

http://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/418


DOI


Pages

1000-1014


This is an open access issue and all published articles are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Authors

Islam, Md Asadul
University Putra Malaysia, Seri Kembangan, Malaysia https://upm.edu.my
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Jantan, Amer Hamzah
University Putra Malaysia, Seri Kembangan, Malaysia https://upm.edu.my
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Hunt, Abigail
University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom https://www.lincoln.ac.uk
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Rahman, Md. Ferdausur
Military Institute of Science and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh https://mist.ac.bd
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Abdullah, Mirza Manirajah
Hanfiq Resources Ltd, Penang, Malaysia
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Journal title

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues

Volume

7


Number

2


Issue date

December 2019


Issue DOI


ISSN

ISSN 2345-0282 (online)


Publisher

VšĮ Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, Vilnius, Lithuania

Cited

Google Scholar

Article views & downloads

HTML views: 7367  |  PDF downloads: 1842

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