Sandhu, Navjot and Scott, Jonathan M. and Gibb, Jenny and Hussain, Javed G. and Akoorie, Michele and Sinha, Paresha
(2017)
Exploring entrepreneurial finance and gender in an emergent entrepreneurial ecosystem: the case of the Punjab, northern India.
In:
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Growth of Women’s Entrepreneurship.
Elgar, pp. 172-196.
ISBN 9781785364617
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Exploring entrepreneurial finance and gender in an emergent entrepreneurial ecosystem - The case of the Punjab, Northern India June 2017.pdf
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Abstract
Our exploratory chapter offers contextualized empirical evidence and theory of how entrepreneurial finance supports women-led firms in an emergent entrepreneurial ecosystem within the state of Punjab, in northern India. By emphasizing the social, cultural, and informal aspects, we posit that the Punjab context is an emergent entrepreneurial ecosystem in which informal institutions (social structure, culture, entrepreneurs, households, and lenders) and more formal institutions (such as formalized bank lending and educational establishments) are interwoven and interdependent. Drawing on questionnaires of selected women entrepreneurs located in five districts of the Punjab, we found that women entrepreneurs in emergent entrepreneurial ecosystems possess few overall assets, suffer from weak enforcement of financial rights and the existence of unequal inheritance rights. Consequently, they have limited access to community and social resources. Gender-based obstacles, conventional thinking and socio-cultural values aggravate the difficulties faced by women. Due to their lack of access to formal finance, women must approach informal lenders. For example, a quarter of women interviewed reported incidents of sexual harassment by informal lenders, especially in the rural and semi urban areas. Indeed, one-fifth who were exploited by informal lenders belonged to the scheduled classes or lower castes (Dalits: literally ‘the oppressed’), or so-called ‘untouchables’, illustrating the relationship between their caste and types of treatment and behaviour by these informal lenders.
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