A Study of Competencies and Challenges of Indian Women Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are innovators, job providers and people who perform economic activities while fulfilling responsibility towards the society (Ahmad N & Seymour R, 2006). According to the 6th Economic Census released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, there are 58.5 million entrepreneurs in India, of which 14 % are women entrepreneurs. The aim of the research paper is to outline empirical research on the competencies required by women entrepreneurs to start a business and to sustain the same successfully. This paper also aims to discuss the problems and challenges encountered by women entrepreneurs in running their business. A survey of women entrepreneurs was conducted in Gujarat using a structured questionnaire and personal interview. The questionnaire was designed with a list of competencies, problems and challenges faced by the women entrepreneurs that were compiled from previous theoretical and empirical research. The entrepreneurs were asked to give their ratings based on their perception and experience on five-point Likert scales. A factor analysis was conducted in order to identify clusters of competencies that loaded onto each group. The most common problems and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs were identified statistically.The factor analysis identified 9 clusters of competencies from the list of 36 competencies, which are necessary for entrepreneurs to start the business and sustain with it. The results show that the major problems faced by the women are lack of finance, difficulty in work-life balance and high socio-cultural barriers over the life of the business.The outcome of this paper can be used by researchers, government agencies, non-government organisations and incubation centres to understand and develop policies that help more and more women to become entrepreneurs and run their business successfully.