abstract: 'There has been a growing level of interest in female entrepreneurship in

  recent years. Initially, there was an awareness of the lower

  participation of women than men in the creation and growth of new

  enterprises. More recently, there is recognition that female

  entrepreneurship can have a positive impact on economic prosperity. This

  paper looks at female entrepreneurship in a rural area, as well as their

  motivation for starting a business and their attitude towards growth.

  Entrepreneurs start a business for a variety of reasons, such as making

  money, flexible working hours, others may want to employ family members

  or feel they have no other option. It can be difficult to start a

  business in any circumstance yet there is evidence that some groups may

  find it more difficult. Women in particular, may face additional

  problems starting a business. Access to resources, including finance,

  skills and access to markets, may be more difficult for some females.

  One of the reasons given by the EU (2002:3) for promoting female

  entrepreneurship is that they are a source of `economic growth and new

  jobs'' and that the barriers they face in setting up and running a

  business must be tackled. There is an understanding that entrepreneurs

  in general make a contribution towards economic growth, mainly in terms

  of job creation but also in terms of innovation. Therefore, if the

  numbers of entrepreneurs can be increased by bringing the levels of

  female entrepreneurship to the equivalent for male business owners, then

  that will help the economy. In the US, female entrepreneurs account for

  38.8\% of all privately owned firms (Minniti et al, 2005) and this is

  seen as one of the reasons for the higher GDP than in countries where

  the participation rate for women is lower.

  This paper looks at four case studies of women in a rural area. Low farm

  incomes and a lack of alternative employment can act as an impetus for

  female entrepreneurship in rural areas. Distance from local markets can

  make it more difficult for a rural enterprise to succeed and generally,

  rural businesses have a lower turnover than those in urban conurbations.

  The case studies include a farmer''s wife trying to generate additional

  income, one running an IT business from home, another developing a

  forestry business, and one running a seed business and opening a fashion

  retail outlet. Two of the women are very successful and are making good

  profits whereas the other two are barely making a living. What are the

  differences between these women? This paper looks at the different

  attitudes of these women, their reasons for starting a business and how

  they are trying to grow their businesses. This study found that although

  they did want to grow their business and make money, their main

  motivation was the lifestyle.'
affiliation: Fuller-Love, Nerys, Univ Wales, Sch Business \& Management, Aberystwyth,
  Dyfed, Wales.
author: Fuller-Love, Nerys
author_list:
- family: Fuller-Love
  given: Nerys
booktitle: 'PROCEEDINGS OF THE NINTH WEST LAKE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SMALL AND

  MEDIUM BUSINESS (WLICSMB)'
da: '2023-09-28'
editor: RenYong, C and Hosseini, J
files: []
isbn: 978-7-81127-091-4
keywords: female entrepreneurship; motivations; attitudes
language: English
note: '9th West Lake International Conference on Small and Medium Business,

  Hangzhou, PEOPLES R CHINA, OCT 21-23, 2007'
number-of-cited-references: '21'
pages: 519-526
papis_id: 607062ad637ae2299e0ff42b600c5d24
ref: Fullerlove2008femaleentrepreneursh
times-cited: '0'
title: 'Female entrepreneurship in a rural area: Motivations and attitudes towards
  growth'
type: proceedings
unique-id: WOS:000255185400085
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '26'
web-of-science-categories: Business; Business, Finance; Economics
year: '2008'