The priority of society to move on the path of economic development has made the phenomenon of female entrepreneurship a topic of scientific circles. Entrepreneurship is a kind of human action that is crystallised in the field of work and economic activity (Wong et al. 2005; Abdessalem et al. 2018; Servantie et al. 2016). Competitive advantage and positive discrimination play an important role in women's entrepreneurship and employment growth, including women's development, economic growth and social equivalence.(Acs and Szerb 2007; Galino et al. 2014; Audretsch et al. 2018; Özsungur 2019). Entrepreneurship is defined as the identification and context of the opportunity regardless of the organisation of current resources (Jafari-Sadeghi 2020; Lundberg and Rehnfors 2018). With this study, Influential factors in changing the position of women in the world of men's business towards economic freedom and change in their business lifehave been tried to determined.
Barriers to gender entrepreneurship can adversely affect competition, productivity, and growth potential both domestically and internationally; theories and aspects about the working life of women are put forward by the previous studies about the subject are included in the pervasive literature review (Harrison and Mason 2007; Kobeissi 2010; Sadeghi et al. 2019a;). Economic growth has reduced gender disparities (Goel 2018; Gupta et al. 2014). The important feature that distinguishes this study from other isinvolves the investigation ofthe precursor to economic growth is the impact of four financing factors on women's entrepreneurship.
Numerous studies have examined the impact of being a woman and the existence of barriers to raising capital and starting a business (Wu and Zhang, 2019); therefore, it is time to systematize academic progress in this regard and to reflect on future research directions in order to gain a deeper insight into the field of women entrepreneurship. Accordingly, the existing literature has recognised that women entrepreneurship is influenced by factors of various levels, such as the institutional environment, individual self-employment level and the interaction of opportunity-driven entrepreneurs with necessity-driven entrepreneurs or the organisational level ( Leitch et al. 2018; Jafari-Sadeghi et al. 2019b; Özsungur 2019; Etemad 2014). Given the developments in women's entrepreneurship at the national and international levels and the importance of such entrepreneurship for economic growth and poverty alleviation, therefore, this article seeks to fill the gap by focusing on women entrepreneurship and exploring financial factors and media influence in the domestic market and the international environment.
Availability of financial resources is an important indicator for increasing international entrepreneurial activities (Alakaleek and Cooper 2018), and the basic assumption is that women entrepreneurship with sufficient access to financial resources has a chance to succeed in the domestic and international economy (Cetindamar et al. 2012), but a set of financing factors affect the ability and motivation of women entrepreneurs, such as the media, governance support, banks and financial institutions. The need for financing is not limited to starting a business domestically, but women entrepreneurs are constantly in need of financing to survive and grow internationally and increase exports (Metu et al. 2015).
To this end, this study analyses effects of improving access to financing on female entrepreneurial activity in domestic and international environment by focusing on three research questions:
1. What would be the effects of financing factors on female entrepreneurship, upon total entrepreneurial activity (domestic) and upon international activities (export)?
2. Will private capital influence the self-employment activities of women? Do government programs (grants) have an effect on women’s motivation?
3. How does the impact of public media on women establish business ownership?
To respond to these questions, we apply binomial logistic regression modelling using two models to examinethe impact of the impact of financial related variables on the extent of female entrepreneurial activities and job creation opportunities in domestic and international activities. On the other hand, we analyse the effectiveness of public media to support process enhances the activities of women entrepreneurs. Such a wide range also improves reliability and extends the findings beyond findings that are more concentrated in the United States or two European developed countries.
Overall, this research contributes to the literature in three main ways. First, we shed new light on the concept of female entrepreneurship and foresight they need for starting an activity. Moreover, we emphasise the role of financing and financial support, which is a more effective backward step to motivate and create entrepreneurial opportunities for women. Second, according to the European Parliament (2013), access to finance is a barrier to women’s entrepreneurship. We examine this gap in access to financing services and for women entrepreneurs in terms of GEM (2016) and analyse the differences between European countries and the US in reducing financial barriers to establishing a business. Third, this study intends to investigate the effects of public media on the development of women's business.
The paper is organised as follows. First, the literature on financing of female entrepreneurship is presented. Thereafter, we expand a hypothesis for the regard of the empirical analysis. Afterwards, the methodology containing a source of data, the construct of variables and applied methods are presented. Then, expressed prevalent patterns in supporting women’s entrepreneurship are identified.In the next section, the research findings are analysed based on the empirical data analysis.In the final sections,we present the discussion and the conclusions and address the contribution and limitations of this research.
Literature Review
Welch et al. (2008) divided entrepreneurial finance sources into six groups: 1) personal credit, 2) business angels, 3) banks and credit unions, 4) government assistance, 5) financing institutions and 6) private venture capital. Therefore, we can describe entrepreneurs’ sources of financing as personal finance sources, domestic finance sources, capital funding sources, equity funds and debt financing sources. As documented above, men and women have important needs such as financing to start entrepreneurship (Jafari-Sadeghi et al. 2019a). Female entrepreneurs are as motivated as men to start a business (e.g., in terms of independence and financing benefit). Research on women entrepreneurship shows that the participation rate of women entrepreneurs is very different globally, even in countries with similar conditions for women self-employment (Gimenez-Jimenez et al. 2020; Kelly et al. 2017).
However, with the need to balance work and family responsibilities, female entrepreneurs may struggle to access the resources and support they need (Özsungur 2019). By studying German individuals, Wagner (2007) examined gender differences in risk-taking and concluded that 56% of female entrepreneurs cited the fear of failure as a reason to prevent female entrepreneurship. The literature reflects the financial constraints of small and large corporations (Wang 2016), but an increasing number of studies are examining in-depth the differentiations between entrepreneurs in different gender groups (de Bruin and Flint‐Hartle 2005;Kobeissi 2010; Kanze et al. 2018; Simmons et al. 2019;).
According to the perspective of Kerr and Nanda (2009), there are two major research streams on the impact of funding constraints on entrepreneurship. The first focuses on the impact of the development of financial markets on entrepreneurs’ access to finance and business formation rates. The second focuses on the individual characteristics of entrepreneurs in order to assess an entrepreneur’s willingness to start a new business.Regarding the first stream, by examining the factors affecting the formation of firms, Klapper et al.(2010) and Rahim et al. (2019) found that access to finance was positively related to entrepreneurship. In this regard, Alvarado et al. (2017), and Anton and Bostan (2017) cited access to finance as one of the key factors affecting entrepreneurial activity.Concerning the second stream, Thurik et al. (2008) found that the likelihood of self-employment depends on entrepreneurial perception and access to the resources needed to carry out entrepreneurial activity. The research studies showed that a lack of financing support does not appear to have a significant effect on increasing self-employment (hidden entrepreneurship). In this respect, a lack of financing support has a significant negative impact on real entrepreneurship.
Klyver and Schenkel (2013) found that access to financing capital (household income), human capital (entrepreneurial special knowledge) and social capital (influenced by other entrepreneurs) increased the likelihood of starting a new business. Women’s entrepreneurship research as a part of feminist studies is beneficial for the comprehension of entrepreneurship in terms of accentuating gender relations and their structure (Berg 1997) Masculine business management is considered betterdespite the change in the general perspective of society in business (Díaz-García and Jiménez-Moreno 2010). Undeniably, women in all societies are influenced by social norms that influence their entrepreneurship(de Bruin et al. 2007).
Jafari-Sadeghi and Biancone (2017) looked at opportunities that motivate entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. Economic issues remain the key problem faced by entrepreneurs in all nations (Holienka et al. 2016a; Mohapatra 2019). This challenge sets the stage for the creation of new self-employment opportunities for women that can leverage effective economic growth in countries (Acs and Szerb 2007). Entrepreneurship is a valuable combination of resources and the job creation process (Management Study Guide 2019). The complexity and growing competitiveness of today’s world with the rapid developments of the international environment and the transition from the industrial society to the information society as well as the transformation from the national economy to the global economy has led to entrepreneurship as a driving force in growth (Polbitsyn 2017).In this respect, obtaining the funds needed to set up business has always been a challenge for female entrepreneurs (Martín-Ugedo et al. 2019). On the other hand, according to Stayton and Mangematin (2016), without sufficient financing, start-ups will never succeed, and the lack of investment will lead to many failures in a new businessand in the process of starting a start-up business, there are dynamic tensions between time, financial and human resources.
Female and access to credit, finance and capital
Despite many analyses and studies to eliminate barriers, women still face many obstacles in creating entrepreneurships. The evidence illustrates that the barriers women face are more crucial than the barriers men face. Starting a business with access to finance and credit can be significant in two ways. On the one hand, it can be an important incentive to start and grow a business. On the other, it is an obstacle for women. According to a study by Vial and Richomme (2017), only 10% of women entrepreneurs in France receive bank support, which is one-third lower than their male counterparts. This factor can limit their ability to access finance. Orhan (2003) concluded that women perceived that this discrimination and perception would undoubtedly affect their business start-ups. Thus, they preferred to start their own business with little capital, unlike men. Numerous studies have claimed that the biggest obstacle to women’s entrepreneurship and engaging in innovative jobs is access to finance (Tandrayen-Ragoobur and Kasseah 2017). They also show that female entrepreneurs have fewer funds than their male counterparts in France (Vial and Richomme 2017) and Italy (Simone and Priola 2015). With due attention to the Female Entrepreneurship Index 2018, the United States is the top country for the female entrepreneur. We seek to determine whether this perception of discrimination is changed by reducing the financing barrier, and if these barriers are reduced, we seek to determine to what extent are women able to start a business and have financing self-esteem.
Prevalent patterns in supporting women’s entrepreneurship
The first common model of supporting entrepreneurship is the “model of supporting and encouraging entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises” (Stockdale and Standing 2006). This template is mostly based on Italian experiences and contains several policies (Addis and Joxhe 2017). First, “developing the legal entrepreneurial platform” by creating legal support packages to create a conducive environment for small and medium-sized enterprises; second, “developing infrastructure” in transport, telecommunications and Information and communications technology (ICTs), and third, “culturalisation” to develop entrepreneurship education and culture at the level of society (Baughn et al., 2006). Other services include “providing services to small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs”, which include simplifying administrative rules and procedures and accessing information. Corporate-specific policies are another policy that involve encouraging company registration and formalisation, governance, defining and protecting intellectual property and helping small and medium-sized businesses go bankrupt. Other “policies and techniques” used in this template are “education and communication with industry” in technology transfer, consulting and providing specialised services and networking and “financing assistance and loan payments.”
The second model is called the Global Model of Entrepreneurial Assessment and shows a causal relationship between entrepreneurial activity and the level of economic development. According to this model, “general national conditions” and “entrepreneurial conditions” will affect countries” entrepreneurship development (Ghura et al. 2017). In order to improve the “national general conditions”, governments must develop policies such as improving foreign trade, changing the role of the state in influencing industry and commerce, streamlining financial markets, making the labour market flexible and developing physical infrastructure (Pergelova and Angulo-Ruiz 2014). Improving the “special entrepreneurial conditions for women” (Lee and Rogoff 1998) includes financing support, research and development; the development of professional infrastructure; the remediation of market barriers; the access to physical infrastructure; and ultimately, culturalisation (Brindley 2005). The role of the government for entrepreneurship development is not limited to financing support (Obaji 2014), and the simultaneous implementation of appropriate educational and cultural policies, reform and facilitation of business-related laws is essential for the growth and presence of entrepreneurial forces.
Hypothesis Development
Financing and domestic support are seen as crucial for new business creation. Entrepreneurship would not exist without financing support (Gregory, 2019). Entrepreneurship begins with financing and leads to opportunities (Management Study Guide, 2019). However, it cannot take place without opportunities, even if the potential entrepreneur is an exceptionally hard worker (Short et al., 2010). The provision of capital is defined as “Situations in which goods, services, raw materials, and organising methods can be introduced through the formation of new means, ends or means-ends relationship” (Eckhardt and Shane 2003). Financing openness has a significant effect on the rate of entrepreneurship in emerging and developed markets (Gregory 2019).
As a result, capital-based entrepreneurship is considered entrepreneurship that recognises and creates the right business opportunities to establish more new jobs, in which novel activities will attract situations to reach new markets (Lehner 2014). The previous literature has found mixed results regarding the association between financing receipts and entrepreneurship. A substantial set of studies show that funds are related to entrepreneurial success (Dutta and Sobel 2018). According to Yousafzi et al. (2018), regarding entrepreneurial research in the field of export, approaches to date cannot completely ignore gender impacts and gender processes. This means the role of financing with a focus on banks and other financial institutions have a significant impact on women entrepreneurship activities. Hence, we propose the hypothesis:
H1a. In one country, banks and financing institutions have a positive relationship with entrepreneurship among women.
H1b. In one country, banks and financing institutions have a positive relationship with women entrepreneurs’ entry into export opportunities.
Economic situations influence the rate of entrepreneurial activities in a country (Koellinger and Thurik 2011). At the individual level, private capital affects entrepreneurial activity directly (Dutta and Sobel 2018). A pivotal point regarding the link between the individual and the role of private capital without government obstacles, is that individuals, surprisingly, create their own jobs without interruption. Apart from limited circumstances, most entrepreneurs increase business activities. In this regard, the available capital is one of the key factors in understanding the challenges specific to women’s entrepreneurship (Bozhikin et al. 2019). As anticipated, private capital provides a context for women to take advantage of this opportunity without any financing concern and pulls them toward entrepreneurship.
Creating a relationship between entrepreneurs and investors to invest in new business processes, such as contracts, corporate valuations and export activities, has a strong and positive relationship because of their mutual interests (Batjargal and Liu 2004). Our next hypothesis concerns received or expected capital from private investors that protect the interests of women entrepreneurs. With specific regard to women entrepreneurs, access to this type of venture is a distinct stimulus which is completely different from the field of motivation to start, which provokes women to create new business opportunities. In other words, we argue that the necessity of women’s entrepreneurial activities is implemented. Hence, we propose a second hypothesis:
H2a. Access to a private venture within the country will push women entrepreneurs to
create business opportunities.
H2b. The access to a private venture within the country will push women entrepreneurs to
create export opportunities.
The function of financing progress on entrepreneurship has received attention in the literature on entrepreneurship (Gregory 2019). Most definitions of entrepreneurship refer to skills that leverage resources to address social problems by using business principles (Bozhikin et al. 2019). Governments create public-private partnerships with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial organisations and social entrepreneurs can more effectively address social and environmental issues in some context by partnering with government (Armanios et al. 2017). Finally, governments create programs that manifest women associations, media campaigns and registers for enterprises and labels (distinguishing products and services of social enterprises from these ones of for-profit companies) in support of social entrepreneurship (SE) (Bozhikin et al. 2019). Hence, the role of the government in the women entrepreneurial process can also be a priority in terms of taxes, fees, donations and grants, the removal of trade barriers and export laws, decrees and directives. Government authorities could support not only women entrepreneurs, but also key players in the entrepreneurship ecosystem to further develop the export category in international entrepreneurship (Lehner 2014). The empirical results illustrate that government support procedures have the highest effect on the improvement of the satisfaction of women entrepreneurs (Lee et al. 2011). Hence, we propose hypothesis 3:
H3a. Government program (grants) and removing obstacles (lows) will contribute to women entrepreneurship within the country.
H3b. Government program (grants) and removing obstacles (lows) will contribute to women entrepreneurships engaging in export.
Entrepreneurship requires the discovery of a social need. Moreover, the discovery of social needs depends on the recognition of the community and its demands and the cultural, social and economic context (Gidron and Hall 2017). In identifying the need for any entrepreneurial activity, the theorist should have insight into the environment and know what solutions to address this need are available elsewhere in the world. Certainly identifying requirements and delivering information without awareness is not possible (Glavas and Mathews 2014). Therefore, information and knowledge such communication is the requirement of every entrepreneurial activity. Public media has created tremendous opportunities in providing data and strong communication platforms. The media has increased the importance and value of information and communication. As a result, entrepreneurship has benefited. Women in this context play a significant role in business (Orser et al. 2010). Accordingly, it is assumed that the media plays an important role in stimulating the export of entrepreneurs, and that the media and public relations support process enhances the activities of women entrepreneurs.Due to this support, they can start their own businesses. Hence, we propose a fourth hypothesis:
H4a. There is a positive relationship between the role of public media and the entry of women into entrepreneurship.
H4b. There is a positive relationship between the role of public media and the activities of women entrepreneurs in export.