Women entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia : investigating strategies used by successful Saudi women entrepreneurs

Abstract

Most of the literature on womens’ entrepreneurship relies on quantitative data research. As a result, women entrepreneurs have had limited opportunities to describe their own opinions, experience and their ways of conducting business. Also, there is little research that looks into the business establishment experience of Arab women entrepreneurs in general and Saudi women entrepreneurs in particular. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the situation, this study uses a qualitative approach. Ten Saudi women entrepreneurs were interviewed in order to investigate the factors that drove them to entrepreneurship, the problems they faced during the establishment of their businesses, and the strategies that they employed to overcome those problems. The analysis suggests that there are four main factors that encourage the sample to enterprise; the factors are: Family support, Government support, Professionalism, and Partnership. Because family is at the core of Arab societies, family was found to be a positive, significant factor that plays a supportive role for the participants. This study also investigated the problems Saudi women face in their early stages of business establishment. Types of problems that were identified from previous literature were cultural, gender-cultural, and governmental. The investigation indicates that the problems faced by the participants and the way they perceive them varies depending on the participant’s family social status in the region. The study found three strategies employed by the participants: family involvement, prior work experience and partnership. These strategies were used by the participants in this study and have helped them in overcoming problems and to succeed in their business.