Factors Influencing the Success of Women Entrepreneurs in Australia

This report examines the factors that influence the success of women entrepreneurs in Australia. It includes a literature review, project objective, project scope, and factors affecting women entrepreneurial success.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH
Business Research
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction........................................................................................................................2
2. Project Objective................................................................................................................2
3. Project Scope......................................................................................................................3
4. Literature Review...............................................................................................................3
4.1. Defining Entrepreneurship..........................................................................................4
4.2. Women as Entrepreneurs in Australia.........................................................................4
4.3. Factors influencing the success of the Women Entrepreneurs in Australia................7
4.3.1. The Pull Factor.....................................................................................................8
4.3.2. The Push Factor....................................................................................................8
5. Conclusion..........................................................................................................................9
6. References........................................................................................................................11
7. Appendix..........................................................................................................................14

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1. Introduction
The world has seen a significant growth in the entrepreneurship among women and
it has widely established the importance of entrepreneurial activities in the economic wealth
and growth. Despite these facts, it can be seen that women’s participation in entrepreneurial
activities is comparatively lower as that of the men’s at almost all the societies. The
phenomena get adequate attraction of the scholars from a diversified disciplines and each of
them is interested in the profile of the female entrepreneurs as well as their success rate in the
business. Huarng, Mas-Tur and Yu (2012) stated that there are various isolated factors that
have both positive as well as negative effects on the entrepreneurial procedure, mainly for the
women entrepreneurs. However, it is important to encourage them, which will not only lead
to the economic prosperity but also improve their living standards.
The report mainly throws light on the factors which highly influence the success of
women entrepreneurships in Australia. For this study, various factors in relation with the
women entrepreneurship are being studied in a detailed way. Various literatures are being
reviewed in order to gain a detailed understanding of the factors affecting women
entrepreneurial success. The most common factors are the internal levels, human capital,
experience and education along with the effects on the opportunities’ identification stage,
accessibility to the resources, opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial performance and its
stages and lastly the resources acquired. In addition to this, there are other factors as well
regarding the use of technology, family support, quality assurance and risk encountering.
2. Project Objective
The main objective of the research paper is to examine the skills that women
entrepreneurs possess. It also discusses about the relation that exists between the skills and

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their motivational factors, performance and barriers. Several journals are being reviewed,
which are related to the overall skills required by the business owners. It also includes the
educational level, occupational experiences, management skills and prior business expertise.
The overall analysis shows that the women entrepreneurs lack certain educational and
managerial skills, which are regarded as the two most important variables on understanding
the difficulties and motivations faced by them. The risk factors are family support, risk
encountering, quality assurance and others.
3. Project Scope
According to Brush and Cooper (2012), a project scope can be defined as the part of
planning a project, which involves documenting and determining the lists of specific goals of
the project, features, deliverables, functionalities, tasks, ultimate costs and finally the
deadlines. In simpler terms, it can be considered as what needs to be achieved in the project
work and what needs to be done in order to deliver the complete assignment. The scope of the
project is gaining an understanding regarding the success rate of women entrepreneurs in
Australia. Several literatures will be reviewed in this project and presented in the most
ethical form, in order to give an overview of the success rate of women entrepreneurs in
Australia.
4. Literature Review
In the year 2011, there were more than 590,000 women entrepreneurs in Australia,
which is second to the United States of America, as per female TEA (Total Entrepreneurial
Activity) rate. According to Akehurst, Simarro and Mas‐Tur (2012), women’s contribution to
the business has changed a lot in the recent times. They seek for more independent as well
flexible approach in order to combine their life and work. The primary motivation for the
women to enter the entrepreneurial world has been evolving since the past decade, from

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necessity to opportunity. Personal fulfillment and independency is becoming more important
than profit and financial gain.
4.1. Defining Entrepreneurship
Most of the researchers investigate this concept of entrepreneurship as someone who
is self employed. However, according to Lisetchi and Brancu (2014), entrepreneurship is a
multifaceted conception. It includes starting up or owning a small business and managing it
alone, or in a group or say, in some other corporation. The entrepreneurs act as business
leaders and are innovative in nature, along with some profitable objectives. They seek for
several opportunities so that they can utilize them in order to encourage stability in the
current market economy. Moreover, an entrepreneur is regarded as a self employed individual
who has already established a business with some primary motives for realizing personal
satisfaction as well as creating motives.
4.2. Women as Entrepreneurs in Australia
Female entrepreneurs are the ones where women are operating their own businesses
and operating it. In the year 2013, Dell published an article on global and gender focused
entrepreneurship in the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI). As per
there reports, high potential women entrepreneurs can be referred as, ‘innovative, export and
market expansion oriented factor’ (Dell.com 2018). According to Rauth Bhardwaj (2014), the
women entrepreneurs from Australia are earning more and also employing more employees
ever than before. The firms and companies owned by females tend to be smaller in size as
compared to male operated businesses.
Van Hulten (2012) also examined that the female owned companies tend to be more
concentrated into the highly competitive sectors like retail or personal services. This is
however, reflected in the disparities between genders in relation to the wealth and wages

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along with the divisions of the domestic duties. Women, even in the modern day society,
have been always perceived as the domestic caretakers. However, in the past years women
were only seen working at their homes, performing their household chores. They would only
work outside their homes out of need and were also asked to take care of their household
duties and children.
As per Jussila’s (2014) opinion, the working conditions of the women have always
been unequal to that of men’s. They have protested for their equal rights, better working
conditions, equal amount of wages and freedom. During the First World War in 1914-1918,
majority of the men fought the battles for life, which opened several opportunities for women
and they started taking their partners’ places at the workforce. By the end of the Second
World War, involvement of women in the work life exponentially increased and they started
receiving their perception of independency. In the early twentieth century the women’s
entrepreneurship and education have increased in a remarkable manner.
There has been a proportionate increase in the overall number of the women
entrepreneurs in Australia, along with the increase in the number of women into workforces.
Women started owning their own businesses as they had to support their families, financially.
They started to work at more respectable positions. However, majority of the women still
faced some difficulties and challenges while sourcing financial help for establishing their
businesses or start ups. Even in modern days, women are actually assumed to perform their
household activities and roles in their families (House 2014). This concept is changing slowly
and the participation of the men in domestic as well as childcare duties is increasing. On the
contrary, the women are busy building their careers in their related fields.
According to the GEM, in the year 2011, around 10.5% of the adults at Australia were
strictly involved into starting up a new business (Lisetchi and Brancu 2014). Some of them

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were already established and operated successfully. The Total Entrepreneurial Activity rate
(TEA) for the Australian women was around 8.4%. This meant that around forty percent of
the Australian entrepreneurs were females (Kelley, Singer and Herrington 2012). According
to the Australian Bureau Statistics, in the year 2011, the female entrepreneurs owned around
33% of the all businesses at Australia. The overall rate had risen from the 2010, by almost
2.7% among the economies which are driven by economies (Abs.gov.au 2018).
Australia is driven by innovation along with high development levels in terms of
economy, where various start ups are most likely to occur by opportunities than necessities.
Around 30% of the Australian new businesses or start ups offer their consumers with
innovative products as well as services, which are totally new to them (Kelley, Singer and
Herrington 2012). The attitude of the Australians towards entrepreneurial activities has
always been positive and they have always seen it in the higher position. According to the
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), above 50% of the Australian people see
entrepreneurship as an innovative and a great choice of the careers. They place this particular
occupation high up in the societal status.
Australia’s almost half of the total population have a positivity towards the
capabilities and opportunities to become entrepreneurs. As per the Global Entrepreneurial
Monitor (GEM), there were more than 350 million new entrepreneurs, in the year 2011. Most
importantly, around 42% of these individuals were women. According to the women’s report
in the year 2012, around 126 million women were running businesses or starting new ones in
more than 60 economies all across the world (Jussila 2014). In addition to this, more than 90
million women entrepreneurs were already operating established businesses (Akehurst,
Simarro and Mas‐Tur 2012). Therefore, it is evident from the fact that along with the
household activities, women are successfully running their businesses and they have great
skills of becoming successful entrepreneurs.

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4.3. Factors influencing the success of the Women Entrepreneurs in Australia
According to McGowan et al. (2012), entrepreneurship has grown quiet significantly
and exponentially in the recent times. The entrepreneurs create new businesses and these new
businesses have the potential of creating new and innovative jobs. In the words of Solesvik,
Westhead and Matlay (2014), higher activities of entrepreneurship are being connected
frequently with the higher growth of economy. The motivating factors for creating
entrepreneurial activities are ambiguous. Thus, there can be various opinions regarding the
reasons, which encourage entrepreneurship of self employment. The reasons are not well
defined; however, it is usually a composition of the opposing factors brought together.
However, Gottschalk and Niefert (2013) mentioned that there has been no proof yet,
that an individual having certain personality traits or skills are more successful or active
entrepreneurs than others. As per Ismail’s (2014) opinion, the individuals who have a positive
attitude towards self employment or independency are most likely to choose this option of
entrepreneurship. He also mentioned that there are several risk factors associated with the
entrepreneurial activities as well, especially for women. It is revealed that how some
successful entrepreneurs are inspired regarding establishment of their own businesses.
Starting up a business is not that easy as it seems. It requires huge amount of research work
as well as financial support.
Several sources have stated the fact that there are mainly two factors of motivation for
the individuals, especially women, which helps them in starting their own ventures.
According to Jayawarna, Rouse and Kitching (2013), most of the factors have resulted from
the two factors that are ‘pull’ as well as ‘push’ influences. These are also acknowledged as
the opportunities of necessity factors. The ‘pull’ factors are completely based upon the
opportunities, whereas the ‘push’ factors are entirely forced by the necessities.

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4.3.1. The Pull Factor
The pull factors are generally seen as the primary motivator which impacts
individuals to start a new venture. Ismail, Shamsudin and Chowdhury (2012) examined that
majority of the women entrepreneurs are being influenced by the ‘pull’ factor. The
individuals who enter the entrepreneurial sector by preference, have seen more chances for
working in better conditions, anticipated positions and self expressions. The opportunities for
creation of a new business and the overall chance to set up a new market opportunity or idea
are considered to be some of the ‘pull’ factors. These factors attract the women entrepreneurs
to start up their own businesses. The opportunity entrepreneurship has seen a significant
effect on the overall economic development by assisting in creation of new jobs.
According to Dawson and Henley (2012), women with more positive attitudes and
behaviors towards leading an independent lifestyle, has higher value in the career choices,
rather than risks. The major reasons for the individuals to start their own ventures vary to a
large extent. They need to prove themselves and have the entrepreneurial passion in them.
Women entrepreneurs need to discover as well as understand the need for their new product
or services and convey this need into a business idea. The overall desire to share these
positive experiences is entirely related to one’s personal hobby or interest. The opportunities
for a new venture often take place through changes in the new products or services.
4.3.2. The Push Factor
The push factors are seen as the required factors and they can be regarded as the
negative enthusiasm for the business start ups. Some individuals may be forced into the
entrepreneurial activities due to job redundancy or dissatisfaction. The entrepreneurship can
be seen as a solitary career opportunity, which occurs after a redundancy and when there are
no options left. At the time, when the economic rate is slow, individuals tend to start their
new businesses or ventures. According to Lahti (2013), a slow economy can create the

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necessity of starting up a new business or venture. Therefore, it can be said that the
businesses which are being start from the necessity have no major impact on the overall
economic growth.
Del Mar Alonso Almeida (2013) opined that traditionally, the women were most
likely to get ‘pushed’ into the small business ownership rather than being ‘pulled’. Many of
them had to perform their household chores and manage their kids. Now a day, the concept
has changed to some extent, mainly in developed countries. Women are no longer lacking
behind than their male counterparts. Many of them even pursue business studies and
entrepreneurial based educations. They prefer joining courses on entrepreneurship and
succeed as a strong businesswoman. Some of them have a business mind and some may get
pushed into the entrepreneurial world due to redundancy.
5. Conclusion
To conclude, the study has explored various aspects of motivational facts for the
women, which influences them in becoming successful entrepreneurs in Australian. The
women entrepreneurship can be considered as a global phenomenon, and the women who are
participating in entrepreneurial activities are rapidly growing. The study throws light on the
essential factors which motivates women to start their own businesses and succeed. The pull
factor is regarded as the opportunity and the push factor is being regarded as the necessity.
The push factor can be considered as a danger as the individuals are being forced to open a
new business due to redundancy in their work lives. Those businesses may not succeed on the
long run as the entrepreneur lack certain qualities and skills, required to manage a business.
The study also highlights the challenges or difficulties that women encounter while
trying to enhance their business opportunities. Some scholars mentioned that due to lack of
marketing and mentoring knowledge, women often fail to establish their business on the long

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run. Therefore, it can be said that there is a requirement for developing and improving
education regarding business start ups for women. The key factor of motivation for which the
Australian women enter the world of entrepreneurship is the independency. This, in turn,
provides them with flexibility for combining the family life along with a successful, yet
satisfying career. Lastly, the report has presented the factors which influence the success
of the women entrepreneurs in Australia, in a detailed manner.

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6. References
Abs.gov.au (2018). [online] Available at:
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4125.0~Feb
%202016~Media%20Release~Gender%20equality%20--%20are%20we%20there%20yet
%3F%20(Media%20Release)~1 [Accessed 19 Apr. 2018].
Akehurst, G., Simarro, E. and Mas‐Tur, A., 2012. Women entrepreneurship in small service
firms: motivations, barriers and performance. The Service Industries Journal, 32(15),
pp.2489-2505.
Brush, C.G. and Cooper, S.Y., 2012. Female entrepreneurship and economic development:
An international perspective. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 24(1-2), pp.1-6.
Dawson, C. and Henley, A., 2012. “Push” versus “pull” entrepreneurship: an ambiguous
distinction?. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 18(6), pp.697-
719.
Del Mar Alonso Almeida, M., 2013. Influence of gender and financing on tourist company
growth. Journal of Business Research, 66(5), pp.621-631.
Dell.com (2018). [online] Available at: http://www.dell.com/learn/ie/en/iecorp1/women-
powering-business [Accessed 19 Apr. 2018].
Gottschalk, S. and Niefert, M., 2013. Gender differences in business success of German start-
up firms. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 18(1), pp.15-46.
House, F., 2014. Freedom in the world 2014: The annual survey of political rights and civil
liberties. Rowman & Littlefield.

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Huarng, K.H., Mas-Tur, A. and Yu, T.H.K., 2012. Factors affecting the success of women
entrepreneurs. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 8(4), pp.487-497.
Ismail, H.C., Shamsudin, F.M. and Chowdhury, M.S., 2012. An exploratory study of
motivational factors on women entrepreneurship venturing in Australia. Business and
Economic Research, 2(1).
Ismail, V.Y., 2014. The comparison of entrepreneurial competency in woman micro-, Small-,
and Medium-scale Entrepreneurs. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 115, pp.175-
187.
Jayawarna, D., Rouse, J. and Kitching, J., 2013. Entrepreneur motivations and life
course. International small business journal, 31(1), pp.34-56.
Jussila, M., 2014. A Survey of Female Entrepreneurs in Australia: Investigating the factors
motivating women to become entrepreneurs.
Kelley, D.J., Singer, S. and Herrington, M., 2012. The global entrepreneurship monitor. 2011
Global Report, GEM 2011, 7.
Lahti, E., 2013. Women and leadership: factors that influence women's career success: female
leaders' reflections on their career development and leadership.
Lisetchi, M. and Brancu, L., 2014. The entrepreneurship concept as a subject of social
innovation. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 124, pp.87-92.
McGowan, P., Redeker, C.L., Cooper, S.Y. and Greenan, K., 2012. Female entrepreneurship
and the management of business and domestic roles: Motivations, expectations and
realities. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 24(1-2), pp.53-72.

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Rauth Bhardwaj, B., 2014. Impact of education and training on performance of women
entrepreneurs: A study in emerging market context. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging
Economies, 6(1), pp.38-52.
Solesvik, M., Westhead, P. and Matlay, H., 2014. Cultural factors and entrepreneurial
intention: The role of entrepreneurship education. Education+ Training, 56(8/9), pp.680-696.
Van Hulten, A., 2012. Women's access to SME finance in Australia. International Journal of
Gender and Entrepreneurship, 4(3), pp.266-288.

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7. Appendix
Figure: Women entrepreneurs in the Global Press
Figure: Men and Women Entrepreneurs in Australia