Assessing Factors Influencing Female Entrepreneurship Intentions and Behaviour

Abstract

There has been an increasing level of interest in female entrepreneurship across the world in recent times. Female entrepreneurship represents a significant aspect of economic growth, particularly in developing countries, leading to job opportunities, socio-economic growth, prospects of innovation, poverty reduction, etc. Nevertheless, despite the growing awareness of its prominence, the research in this area has received limited attention in the entrepreneurship literature. While traditional cultural norms have been inclined to hinder Saudi women’s engagement in entrepreneurship, this country has seen several successful female entrepreneurs. However, although the Saudi government is creating more programmes to encourage women to become entrepreneurs, only a few have taken advantage of this initiative. Moreover, only a limited number of research studies have analysed the impact of the key factors influencing female entrepreneurs’ intention to start their own ventures. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify the constructs that affect Saudi female students’ intentions to start a new business after professional degree programmes. The paper proposes an integrated model of the theory of planned behaviour and an entrepreneurship event model, validated with data collected from one of the larger Saudi public universities.