Empowering Women Entrepreneurship During and After Covid-19 Pandemic- A Study in South India

Aim: Examining the success of women's entrepreneurship, during and after Covid-19 pandemic, in South India. Methodology: The study adopts the quantitative method. Data is acquired through 'survey' as the tool. The regression and percentage analysis are used for examining the data with SPSS as software. The targets are the women entrepreneurs (SMEs) in South India. The sample size (n) is 254. Association of the variables is found through hypothesis testing. Findings: The outcome from analyses indicates both internal and external factors impact the success of women entrepreneurs in India amid Covid-19. More than external factors, during Covid-19, the motivation, need-for-achievement, self-confidence and risk-taking were found to be more impactful in a woman entrepreneur's success. Value/Originality: The paper examined and investigated the impact of Covid-19 on women entrepreneurs and found that technological implications in businesses and social networking in entrepreneurship during Covid-19, highly assisted the women entrepreneurs and supported their sales and operations which the traditional business lacked and was limited during Covid-19. Conclusion: Research concluded that internal and external factors indeed impact the small-and-medium entrepreneurs where during the Covid-19, internal factors impacted more than external factors. Though external factors like socio-cultural and economic hindrances impacted the women entrepreneurs, the willingness, risking capability and level-of-confidence to compete and survive was found to be the key drivers that kept the women entrepreneurs to sustain.