Women in Family Business

Author 1: Name: Dr. Madhurima Lall Affiliation: Reader in the faculty of commerce, Department of Applied Economics, Lucknow University, India.

City: Lucknow

State: Uttar Pradesh Zip Code: 226010 Country: India Phone: 09451913387 Email: madhurima_lall@yahoo.com

Author 2:Shikha Sahai Affiliation: Senior Lecturer in Institute of Productivity & Management, Lucknow, India. City: Lucknow State: Uttar Pradesh Zip Code: 226006 Country: India Phone: 0335910121 Email: shikhasahai@rediffmail.com Key Words: Entrepreneurs, Perception, Intensity, Problems and Future plans

Women in Family Business This paper is based on a research intended to provide a comparative analysis of the status of women entrepreneurs and men entrepreneurs in Family Business India. It first draws demographic & psychographics profiles of women and men entrepreneurs in family business, identifies & address operational problems faced by women and men entrepreneurs in family business, draws their inclination for future plans for growth and expansion and also for the furtherance of research on women entrepreneurs in India. Introduction Family managed business employs half the worlds workforce and generate well over half the worlds GDP. In the U.S. 24 million family businesses employ 62 percent of the workforce and account for 64 percent of the GDP. In India it is estimated that 95% of the registered firms are family businesses. Moreover it is also estimated that presently women entrepreneurs comprise about 10% of the total entrepreneurs in India. It is also clear that this percentage is growing every year. If prevailing trends continue, it is not unlikely that in another five years, women will comprise 20% of the entrepreneurial force in India. As a part of this economic and social development it is clear that the role of women entrepreneurs is important. But there is dearth of research on women entrepreneurs to get clearer insight about them. Holmquist (1997) points out that empirical studies of women entrepreneurs and the development of theories about women entrepreneurs is a neglected subject in descriptive & perspective research work. Baker et al. (1997) stated that surveys with focus on women entrepreneur still account for only 6-8 percent of international research into entrepreneurship.

Brush (1992) concluded from the review of existing research that womens business leadership cannot be understood using traditional (male oriented) framework of business analysis. She writes significant difference have been found in skills, business goals, management styles, business characteristics and growth rates. These variations suggest that women perceive and approach business differently than men. The growth of women entrepreneurs, the dearth of researches on women entrepreneurs their differences in characteristics & growth rates from male entrepreneurs, has stimulated the researchers to undertake a study on Women Entrepreneurs in family business in India. The researchers intend to study multifaceted demographic and psychographic variables and draws a comparative analysis with men entrepreneurs. Statement Of The Problem This research is intended to conduct a comparative assess multi-dimensional issues and challenges related to women entrepreneurs in family b analysis of the status of women and men entrepreneurs in family business. The various variables that have been investigated in this research are demographic variables (age, marital status, education of self, parents and spouse, number of children), pyschographic variable (self-esteem of women entrepreneurs have been assessed to understand the self concept of women entrepreneurs), the degree of commitment of women entrepreneurs towards their business (entrepreneurial intensity), entrepreneurial challenges in running the business and finally the future plans of women entrepreneurs for expansion.

Demographic Profile

Entrepreneurial Intensity

Entrepreneurial Challenges

Women Entrepreneurs

Self-concept

Future Plans for Expansion & Growth

The Scope of The Study

The Objectives of the study are a) To draw the demographic and psychographic profile of women and men entrepreneurs in family business. b) To compare the entrepreneurial intensity of women and men entrepreneurs in family business. c) To analyze and compare the key challenges faced by women and men entrepreneurs in family business. d) To analyze and compare the future plans for expansion and growth of women and men entrepreneurs in family business. Model of the study (research methodology) The Research design chosen for this research is exploratory and descriptive research design. After thoroughly considering the problem and the research objectives the researchers selected a two stage research design in stage one exploratory research design was used followed by stage two in which descriptive research design was used. Reasons for using two research designs

Research is an iterative process; by conducting one research project we learn and may need additional research. This means that we may need multiple research design. At stage one a questionnaire instrument was used to collect data from women and men entrepreneurs, followed by stage two in which qualitative data was collected by a focus group meeting of women entrepreneurs only. Research design: exploratory research design & descriptive research design Universe: Women and men entrepreneurs in urban areas of Lucknow. Sources of information: Primary data and secondary data Primary: questionnaire & focus group meeting Secondary: scanning magazines, reports, internet, journals etc.

Statistical design Stratified random sampling and convenience sampling would be used as the sampling technique. Convenience sampling would be used, because it uses those respondents who are willing to volunteer. The information is readily available and a large amount of information can be gathered quickly. Stratified random sampling would be used because every member of the population strata has the equal chance of selection. It is simple to design and interpret and can calculate the estimate of the population and the sampling error. If sampling from the strata is simple random sampling then whole procedure is called stratified random sampling. If data of known precision is wanted for certain subdivisions of the population, then each subdivision or strata can be treated as a population. Administrative convenience may dictate its use, so that each field office can supervise one strata. Sampling problems may differ markedly within a population (e.g.

Women is Small Scale Industries and Women in Service Industry). Stratification will almost certainly produce a gain in precision in the estimates of the whole population, because a heterogeneous population is split into fairly homogeneous strata. For the proposed study the researcher has chosen Lucknow as the geographical area of study. Journals, books, reports and other published materials have been utilized to collect the secondary data and conduct review of previous researches. Since women in family business is relatively less researched subject in India both qualitative and quantitative instruments have been used to collect data in two stages: a) In stage 1 collection of data is being done through questionnaire method so as to cover a wide range of population. b) After summarizing the data collected through stage 1, the data would be re-tested and reinforced through focus group meetings at stage 2.

Review of literature Holmquist (1997) points out that empirical studies of women entrepreneurs and the development of theories about women entrepreneurs is a neglected subject in descriptive & perspective research work. Baker et al. (1997) stated that surveys with focus on women entrepreneur still account for only 6-8 percent of international research into entrepreneurship. Brush (1992) concluded from the review of existing research that womens business leadership can not be understood using traditional (male oriented) framework of business analysis. She writes significant difference have been found in skills, business goals, management styles, business characteristics and growth rates. These variations

suggest that women perceive and approach business differently than men. A major expansion of academic interest in women entrepreneurs has occurred since the late 70s, prompted by the perception that businesses owned by women are having an increasing impact on society and the economy. A number of authors in the area of entrepreneurship theory have argued that there is a need to feminize the research on entrepreneurship (Moore,1990; Hurley, 1991; Stevenson, 1990; Fischer et al., 1993), since much is still not understood about the ways women contribute to entrepreneurship and the problems they face. The issue is of more than academic interest. As a result of lack of knowledge of womens contribution to entrepreneurship, public policies and programs to assist women to own and run their own businesses are likely to be misdirected (Barret M.A. Mary, 2005). The present research is an attempt to address the dearth in gender studies on entrepreneurship and identify whether there is a difference between men and women entrepreneurs multi-dimensional variables. On one hand it compares the perceptual variable (self-esteem) and intensity of efforts to run business (entrepreneurial intensity) of women and men entrepreneurs and on the other hand it compares the operational problems and future plans of expansion and growth of women and men entrepreneurs in family business. To date there is paucity of research on comparative analysis of women and men entrepreneurs in family business in India. Business owners characteristics: Studies on business owners charactertics continue to compare women and men. Most studies have concluded that women are more similar to men than they are different in terms of demographic characteristics: marital status (married), age (35-40), birth order (first born) and have self employed father. (Changati, 1986; Hisrich and Brush, 1987)

Self-perception and self-esteem: Entrepreneurial activity predicts entrepreneurial self-image and that gender is an important control variable. Starters of non-franchise businesses are most likely to view themselves as entrepreneurs. In addition, other activities, including acquisition, managing a business beyond start-up, steering a company into high-growth trajectory, intrapreneurship and business ownership are also associated with a higher entrepreneurial self-image. Women tend to select different activities than men, choosing less frequently those activities both genders view as entrepreneurial (this is indirect effect). In addition, women are less likely to perceive of themselves as entrepreneurs, independent of activities undertaken and may value activities differently (Thurik A. Roy, Uhlaner Lorraine M. And Verheul Ingrid, 2002.) Self-concept is defined by Sabin (1954) as those ideas the individual has of himself or herself that he or she learned in relationship with others. If our self-concept is negative we feel dissatisfied and unhappy (Rogers, 1980). Ross and Lyle (1978) indicate that women can excel in any venture once they have positive frame of mind. They further argued that females could assimilate to roles requiring high self-esteem and self confidence. In contrary view, according to Dipboye (1975) female actually come to believe and accept that in some manner, she is deficient and hence inferior and subordinate to male status. Rosenbergs self esteem scale has a very high alpha coeffiecient of 0.82 and hence it was used to compare the self-esteem of women and men entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial Intensity:

In a study involving members of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), Cooper and Dunkelberg (1986) observed that there are several paths by which one might become a small business owner, including founding the business, purchasing the business, inheriting the business and being promoted or bought in by other owners. They hypothesized that significant differences in the degree of entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial intensity could be expected. However, they never developed an empirical/ operational measure of entrepreneurial intensity. They suggested that it may not be directly measurable or observable but may be inferred through its reflection in a set of characteristics that they identified from previous research (Keats & Bracker, 1988). These included background, attitude and a complex set of factors associated with previous careers, incubator organizations and the process of starting (p. 62). According to Cooper and Dunkelberg, these characteristics collectively reflected the conceptual variable degree of entrepreneurship. The visualization of a successful enterprise, combined with parental and spousal support, in addition to the right circumstances, such as life stage, education and nutrientrich environment, can cause an individual to generate a great fire in the belly, termed high entrepreneurial intensity (EI). This level of commitment to the entrepreneurial endeavor can be characterized as the passion required for entrepreneurial success (Selz, 1992). The instrument to measure entrepreneurial intensity (EI Scale) was developed by Harold Welsch Patrick J Murphyand Jianwen Lio. The EI scale has been administered successfully in United States, Mexico, Russia, Poland, Romania, Hungry and several Baltic countries have responded to the items on a five-point scale (Pistrui et al. 1997;2007) Preliminary alpha coefficient indicate scale reliability ranges in the low

seventies to low eighties (Pistrui et al. 1997; 2000). It is characterized by a single-minded focus to start a business and work towards its survival and growth, often at the expense of other worthy and important goals.

Operational problems: Some studies in the 1980s began to report unique barriers confronting women business owners. Most significant barrier reported by women entrepreneurs are discrimination experienced by them in seeking venture capital and exclusion from business networks (Hisrich and Brush, 1987). In 1990s women continued to experience gender discrimination (Buttner, 1993; Shragg, et al., 1992) including limited access to capital, difficulty in competing with government contracts and lack of information about where to get assistance (NFWBO, 1992). Women reported that they had to work harder to prove their competence to suppliers, customers (Buttner, 1993; Gould and Parzen, 1990) and to be taken seriously (Adamski,1995). Women still reported struggling with others (banks, government, suppliers and competitors (Gay, 1997; Robertson, 1997). There are a variety of constraints on women and the ability of women to upgrade their production continuously. These include poor access to market information, technology and finance, poor linkages with the support services and an unfavorable policy and regulatory environment. These constraints are further compounded by the need to compete in an aggressive business environment with rapid technological and the globalization of production, trade and financial flows (UNIDO 2001). Although many constraints are shared by both female and male entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs face additional obstacles; this is due to deeply rooted discriminatory socio-cultural values and

traditions, embedded particularly in the policy and legal environment, and in institutional support mechanisms. In many instances women are unable to benefit from services and must struggle to overcome or circumvent discriminations in business circles (UNIDO, 2001).

Future Plans for expansion and growth: Operating a business is not enough; entrepreneurs need to constantly plan for future expansion and growth of business. But the question arises; what constitutes entrepreneurs willingness for expansion and growth. Hisrichs view (1987) is that women entrepreneurs are uniterested in firms growth and expansion. In contrary discussion by Stevenson (1990) she argues that it is not correct to compare and contrast women and men entrepreneurs that are not homogeneous groups, she further says that probably the distinction between women and men entrepreneurs on future plan for expansion and growth is due to lesser access to capital, borrowed money, information and so on. Hence it was felt imperative to compare and contrast the expansion plan of women and men entrepreneurs in family business based on similar scale of operation and years of establishment.

The following variables have been examined in the research:

Variables: Women entrepreneurs face several challenges in establishing and running the business. To understand the women entrepreneurs, their profiles and their challenges, data has been collected for the following variables: 1. The demographic variables in the study include age, number of children, age of children, past experience, educational qualification and marital status. 2. Self-esteem: It is a perceptual variable, which determines the favorable opinion of self i.e.; entrepreneurs own assessment of themselves. Rosenbergs self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965, 1986) was used to test the self-esteem of women and men entrepreneurs. The instrument is a ten-item scale in which respondents were asked to indicate their perceptions of positive and negative items as true for themselves. Responses were given on a four point range from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Rosenberg reported the alpha reliability of 0.82. 3. Entrepreneurial Intensity: It is the measure of level of commitment to the entrepreneurial endeavor, it can be characterized as the passion required for entrepreneurial success (concept introduced and thoroughly researched by Prof. Harold P. Welsch). It is a 11 item scale with alpha reliability between low seventies to low eighties, each item is measured on 5 point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. 4. Entrepreneurial experiences: As much as seventy-seven operational problems faced by entrepreneurs in running a business were identified. This classification scheme was developed through a preliminary survey on problems encountered by business enterprise in small and medium industries. In all 230 entrepreneurs and senior managers were surveyed through an open-ended response to develop this

scheme which was much more comprehensive and exhaustive than the existing schemes. It was used to observe the degree of types of problems faced by entrepreneurs in running their businesses. The problems were classified into Financing Bodies (3 items), marketing & sales (16 items), human resource management (5 items), Operation management (11 items), Strategic Management (5 items), Financial Management (5 items), general management (6 items), economic environment (5 items), Social environment (4 items), Political and legal environment (12 items), Networking (4 items) and gender discrimination (3 items). 5. The strategies and plans for expansion for future expansion and growth of business: strategic growth and expansion intensions were defined as the degree to which entrepreneurs intend to actively engage in specific strategies to grow and expand their business. On the basis of Miles and Snows (1978) Typology of strategy. Activities measured included adding new products or services, expanding operations, selling to a new market and applying for loan to expand operation. Pistrui (1999) termed these series of entrepreneurial behaviors reflecting strategic characteristics implementable attributes of planned growth: (IAPG). IAPG serves to operationalize the Schumpeterian characteristics described earlier by identifying the specific types of new combinations entrepreneurs tend to pursue. Nineteen strategic intentions were measures in this study.

For the above variables following hypothesis are being tested H1: There is no difference between the self-esteem of women entrepreneurs and men entrepreneurs. H2: There is no difference between the entrepreneurial intensity of women entrepreneurs and men entrepreneurs. H3: Women entrepreneurs face more operational problems than men entrepreneurs. H4: Women entrepreneurs are less inclined to make future plans for expansion and growth of business than men entrepreneurs. Findings Characteristics of business: Equal number of firms (60 each) having male and women owners were surveyed for this research, mean annual revenue of women owned business is Rs. 10.9 Lakh and Rs. 15 Lakh of men owned business, Range of annual revenue of women owned business Rs. 1.8 Lakh- Rs. 20 lakh and Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 28 Lakh for men owned business, Sales revenue has increases by 47%, remained same for 8% and declined for 45% for women entrepreneurs whereas increased for 42%, remained same for 10% and declined for 48% for men entrepreneurs over the previous year. The type of venture that were surveyed included 10% as single proprietorship, 75% in partnership and 15% in private company owned by women and 22% as single proprietorship, 50% in partnership and 28% in private company owned by men entrepreneurs.

The distribution of industries included 12% in manufacturing, 62% in service and 26% in retail for women owned business and 20% in manufacturing, 45% in service and 35% in retail industry for men owned business. Median number of employees is 5 for women owned business and 12 for men owned business. Median years of operation is 5 years for women owned business and 7 years for men owned business. Demographic Profile of men and women entrepreneurs: Age: Women entrepreneurs in the age group of 25-35 is 12% whereas for men entrepreneurs it is 14%, for age group 35-45 it is 56% for women and 45% for women, 45-55 it is 24% for women and 27% for men entrepreneurs for 55 and above it is 8% for women and 16% for men entrepreneurs. Marital Status: 86% of women entrepreneurs and 83% of men entrepreneurs are married. Median number of children is two for both women and men entrepreneurs. Median age of youngest child is 5 for women and 3 for men entrepreneurs. Education: 8% of women and 5% of men entrepreneurs have the education level of 10+2, 77% of women and 84% of men entrepreneurs have the education done graduation and 15% of women and 11% of men entrepreneurs have done post graduation. Hypothesis testing Hypothesis 1: There is no difference between the self-esteem of women entrepreneurs and men entrepreneurs.

The mean value of self-esteem of women entrepreneurs is 34 (SD 2.6) whereas mean value of self-esteem of men entrepreneurs is 36 (SD 2.4). Though the self esteem of both men and women entrepreneurs are high but the mean value of self esteem of women entrepreneurs is low than that of men entrepreneurs, hence it was not clear whether this difference is significant or not and hence an independent sample t test was performed to confirm the same. The t value was found to be 2.77 where as significant value of two tailed test was .007 (Table 1.2), hence the statistical value of t was far less than the critical value of t which rejects the null hypothesis that there is no difference between the self-esteem of women and men entrepreneurs. It was found that self-esteem of men entrepreneurs is significantly different and infact more than the women entrepreneurs.

Hypothesis 2: There is no difference between the entrepreneurial intensity of women entrepreneurs and men entrepreneurs. From the table 2.1 it can be seen that the mean value of entrepreneurial intensity of women and men entrepreneurs are 37 (SD 5.6) and 42 (5.3), when independent sample t test was performed it was found that t value of 5.58 was far less than the significant (two tailed) test value of 000. And hence the second hypothesis is also rejected and it is concluded that entrepreneurial intensity of women entrepreneurs is significantly different from men entrepreneurs, infact it is far less than men entrepreneurs. Hypothesis 3: Women entrepreneurs face more operational problems than men entrepreneurs. In all 77 operational problems were identified for running a business, in the categories of Financing Bodies (3 items), marketing & sales (16 items), human resource

management (5 items), Operation management (11 items), Strategic Management (5 items), Financial Management (5 items), general management (6 items), economic environment (5 items), Social environment (4 items), Political and legal environment (12 items), Networking (4 items) and gender discrimination (3 items). 77% of Women entrepreneurs and 56% of men entrepreneur reported problems in obtaining finance, 88% of women and 76% of men entrepreneurs reported marketing management as a problem, 67% of women and 60% of men entrepreneurs reported human resource management as a problem, 23% of women and 18% of men reported operation management as problem, 8% of women and 10 % of men reported strategic management as a problem, 85% of women and 60% of men reported financial management as a problem,52% of women and 43% of men entrepreneur reported general management as problem, 67% of women and 45% of men reported operation management as a problem, 12% of women and 11% of men reported economic environment and 56% women and 41% men reported social environment as a problem, 7% 0f women and 10% of men reported political environment as a problem, 66% of women and 39% of men reported networking as a problem and 87% of women and 0% of men reported gender discrimination as a problem. In absolute term the mean value of problems faced by women and men entrepreneurs is 63 (SD = 1.6) and 53 (1.4) respectively. Hence from the above analysis it can be easily concluded that women entrepreneurs face far more operational problems than men entrepreneurs. Hence hypothesis can be accepted.

Hypothesis 4: Women entrepreneurs are less inclined to make future plans for expansion and growth of business than men entrepreneurs. 43% of women entrepreneurs draw future plans where 77% of men entrepreneurs draw future plans. When the variables of future plans were analyzed separately women who drew future plans could be classified into: 42% women drew plans for market expansion, 32% women drew plans for technological up gradation, 22% drew plans for searching financial aid, 12% planned for increasing the scale of operation and only 8% drew plans for organization development, whereas 72% men drew plans for market expansion, 60% men drew plans for technological up gradation, 64% drew plans for searching financial aid, 87% planned for increasing the scale of operation and a decent 58% drew plans for organization development. Hence this fourth hypothesis is accepted that women entrepreneurs are less inclined to expansion and growth of business as compared to men entrepreneurs. Results of focus group meeting A focused group meeting was further conducted to identify various reasons for scoring less on all the scales (self-esteem, entrepreneurial intensity, future plans) and having more operational problems than their male counterparts. As far as self-esteem, entrepreneurial intensity and future plans are concerned, the women in the focused group meeting concluded that since they had multiple roles to play they were not able to give their 100% to their business (all of them agreed that in a country like India, even now the primary role of women remain performing household and child rearing activities.) Strikingly all of them found work-life balance a major cause of concern and the most important reason for not being able to contribute significantly to their business and hence

lower self-esteem, entrepreneurial intensity and future plans for expansion and growth. When they were asked to discuss the various operational problems the most significant problems that emergent were work-life balance, marketing management, financial management and obtaining finance from financial bodies all these were in accordance with the data collected through the survey. Implication of the findings In summary the following distinctions were found; women entrepreneurs score less in all the variables analyzed in this study ie; they had lower self-esteem, entrepreneurial intensity, faced more operational problems and had fewer plans for growth and expansion as compared to men entrepreneurs, the focus group meeting also supported that women entrepreneurs had lower status (in terms of self-esteem, entrepreneurial intensity, future plans) and more problems than men entrepreneurs in family owned businesses. It is proposed that though there has been considerable growth in the number of women opting to work in family owned business but they still have lower status and face more operational challenges in running the business. The purpose of uncovering these differences is to enable the entrepreneurs, researchers and policy makers to identify more clearly the attributes of distinction between women and men entrepreneurs and to move closer to the field understanding the challenges of women entrepreneurs. The scope for future research is to seek reasons for difference between the women entrepreneurs and men entrepreneurs in family business (note that all the difference have positioned women entrepreneurs as weaker than their male counterparts). We hope that our present research would help understanding women

entrepreneurs in family business better, formulate policies to further facilitate the growth of women entrepreneurs and also for furtherance of research on women entrepreneurs.

Conclusion Academics and governments appear to be focused on encouraging entrepreneurship, because it symbolizes innovation and a dynamic economy. The number of women willing to risk starting their own businesses is growing. But few studies have been conducted in India that address gender analysis of entrepreneurship, which has meant that women's contributions and concerns remain too often ignored in economic structures, such as financial markets and institutions, labour markets, economics as an academic discipline, economic and social infrastructure, taxation and social security systems, as well as in families and households. The present research is an effort to provide some meaningful information and understanding about women entrepreneurs in family business to researchers, policy makers and women entrepreneurs themselves. It desires to do value addition to the field of Research & Their Implications on Women Entrepreneurs in family business. References: Aldrich, H., (1989), Networking among women entrepreneurs, in O. Hagan, C.m Rivchum & D. Sexton (Eds), Women-owned businesses, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship research, Babson College. Aldrich, H.E., & Liou, N (1997), invisible entrepreneurs: the neglect of business owners by mass media and scholarly journals in the USA, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 9, 221-238.

Brenner Gabrielle A., Filion Louis Jacques, Menzies Teresa V., Dionne Lionel (2006) in Problems Encountered by Ethnic Entrepreneurs:A Comparative Analysis Across Five Ethnic Groups, new England Journal of Entrepreneurship, Fall 2006.

Brush C.G. (1992), Research on women business owners, past trends, a new perspective and future dimensions; Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice as in Fenwick T. Women Entrepreneurs: A critical review of literature.

Brush, C.G. (1991).Antecedent influences on women owned businesses. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 6 (2), 917 as in Annotated Bibliography on women Business Owners: A diversity lens, New England Journal of Entrepreneurship, 1991.

Carr, D. (1996). Two paths to self-employment? Women and mens selfemployment in the united states, Work and Occupations, 1996, as in Annotated Bibliography on women Business Owners: A diversity lens, New England Journal of Entrepreneurship,

Chaganti, R. (1986), Management in women-owned enterprises, Journal of Small Business Management, 1986. as in Annotated Bibliography on women Business Owners: A diversity lens, New England Journal of Entrepreneurship,

Coleman, S. (1998). Access to Capital; A Comparison of men and women-owned small business. Retrieved June 6, 2006 from frontiers of Entreprenurship 1998 Edition at Babson College website: http://www.babson.edu/entrep/fer/papers98/V/V-B/V_B.html

Cooper, A., Dunkelberg, W. (1986), Ownership Structure and entrepreneurship, Strategic Management Journal, 7, 503-522.

Cromie, D and Birley, S (May 1992), Networking by Female Business owners in Norther Ireland, Journal of business Venturing, Vol 7, no 3, pp 237 51. as in Annotated Bibliography on women Business Owners: A diversity lens, New England Journal of Entrepreneurship,

Gundry Lisa K. And Welsch Harold P. (2001): The ambitious entrepreneur: high growth strategies of women-owned enterprise in Journal of Business Venturing, 16. 453- 470.

Hisrich Robert and Brush, C. G. (1984), The women entrepreneur; Management skills and business problems, Journal of Small business Management, 1984 as in Annotated Bibliography on women Business Owners: A diversity lens, New England Journal of Entrepreneurship.

Hisrich Robert and Brush, C. G. (1985) Women and minority entrepreneurs: A comparative analysis, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Wellsley, MA: Babson College.

Hisrich Robert and Brush, C. G. (1987) Women entrepreneurs: A longitudinal study. Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, 1987.

Hisrich, R. D. And Brush, C.G. (1983), the Women entrepreneurs: Implications of family, educational and occupational experience, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, 1983

Hisrich, R. D. And Brush, C.G. (1986). The woman entrepreneur: A comparative analysis. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 1986, as in

Annotated Bibliography on women Business Owners: A diversity lens, New England Journal of Entrepreneurship. Hisrich, Robert D. And Fuldop Gyula, (1993), Women Entreprenurs in controlled economies: A hungarian Perspective, Frontiers of Entreprenurship Research, pp 590-91. Holmquist, C. & Sundin, E. (1990), whats special about highly educated women business owners? Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 2, 181-193. Liao Jianwen and Welsch Harold (2004), Handbbok of entrepreneurial dynamics, sage. Thousand Oaks. Moore, D.P. & Buttner, E.H. (1997), women entrepreneurs: moving beyond the glass ceiling. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Stevenson, L (1986): Against all odds: the entrepreneurship of women in Journal of small business management, 24. Stevenson, L (1990): Some methodological problems associated with researching women entrepreneurs, in Journal of Business ethics, 9, 439- 446. Terpstra, David E. And Olson, Philip D., Entrepreneurial startup and growth: a classification of problems, Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice.

Tables: Table 1.1

Group Statistics Std. Error Mean .04207 .04116

Selfesteem

Gender F M

N 60 60

Mean 34.537 36.171

Std. Deviation 2.6935 2.4354

Table 1.2
Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances

Sig.

Df

T-test for Equality of Means Sig. Mean Std. Error (2tailed) Difference Difference

95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper -.04630 -.04630

Self esteem

Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed

.219

.641

-2.777 -2.777

80 79.96 2

.007 .007

-.16341 -.16341

.05885 .05885

-.28053 -.28053

Table 2.1 Group Statistics Std. Error Mean .08797 .05177

Entrepreintensity

Gender F M

N 60 60

Mean 37.051 42.756

Std. Deviation 5.6326 3.3150

Table 2.2 Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances T-test for Equality of Means Sig. (2tailed) Mean Differenc e Std. Error Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Entreprene ur Intensity Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed 8.185 .005 -5.589 80 .000 -.57051 .10207 -.77364 Upper -.36738

Sig.

Df

-5.589

64.741

.000

-.57051

.10207

-.77437

-.36665

Women in Family Business

Family managed business employs half the worlds workforce and generate well over half the worlds GDP. In the U.S. 24 million family businesses employ 62 percent of the workforce and account for 64 percent of the GDP. In India it is estimated that 95% of the registered firms are family businesses. Moreover it is also estimated that presently women entrepreneurs comprise about 10% of the total entrepreneurs in India. It is also clear that this percentage is growing every year. If prevailing trends continue, it is not unlikely that in another five years, women will comprise 20% of the entrepreneurial force in India. As a part of this economic and social development it is clear that the role of women entrepreneurs is important as well as their presence is growing Several researchers suggest that there is dearth of research on women entrepreneurs to get clearer insight about them. They point out that empirical studies of women entrepreneurs and the development of theories about women entrepreneurs is a neglected subject in descriptive & perspective research work. Moreover research also have concluded from the review of existing research that womens business leadership cannot be understood using traditional (male oriented) framework of business analysis. There are significant differences in skills, business goals, management styles, business characteristics and growth rates of women and men entrepreneurs. These variations suggest that women perceive and approach business differently than men. The growth of women entrepreneurs, the dearth of researches on women entrepreneurs their differences in characteristics & growth rates from male entrepreneurs, had

stimulated the researchers to undertake a study on Women Entrepreneurs in family business in India. Our study attempted to draw a comparative analysis of women and men entrepreneurs on various variables which included: demographic profile, business characteristics, self-esteem, entrepreneurial intensity, operational problems in running business and future plans of growth and expansion. The entrepreneurs were sampled from a wide range of industries in service and retail sector. Our study sought to find answer to the questions like what are the demographic and business characteristics of women and men entrepreneurs, are the self esteem and entrepreneurial intensity of women entrepreneurs less than men entrepreneurs, do women entrepreneurs face more operational problems than men entrepreneurs and are the intensity of future plans of women entrepreneurs different from men entrepreneurs. One hundred and twenty (sixty each) entrepreneurs were surveyed. In summary the following distinctions were found; women entrepreneurs score less in all the variables analyzed in this study ie; they had lower self-esteem, entrepreneurisl intensity, faced more operational problems and had fewer plans for growth and expansion as compared to men entrepreneurs. The purpose of uncovering these differences is to enable the entrepreneurs, researchers and policy makers identify more clearly the attributes of distinction between women and men entrepreneurs and to move closer to the field understanding the challenges of women entrepreneurs, the scope for future research is to seek reasons for difference between the women entrepreneurs and men entrepreneurs in family business (note that all the difference have positioned women entrepreneurs as weaker than their male counterparts). We hope that our present research would help

understanding women entrepreneur s in family business better, formulate policies to further facilitate the growth of women entrepreneurs and also for furtherance of research on women entrepreneurs.