Keywords

Entrepreneurship, Women Entrepreneurs, Motivational Factors, Business Performance, Cronbach’s Alphas.

Introduction

According to Government of India – “A woman entrepreneur is defined as an enterprise owned and controlled by a woman having a minimum financial interest of 51 percent of the capital and giving at least 51 percent of the employment generated in the enterprise to women.”

Entrepreneurship is considered as one of the most important factors contributing to the economic development of the nation. Women entrepreneurship is gaining importance in India as they are contributing towards the growth of economy and improvement of their socio- economic conditions. This study focuses on examining the demographic profile of women entrepreneurs and examines the impact of various motivational factors and performance of women entrepreneurs in Aizawl city, Mizoram. The primary data was collected from 291 women entrepreneurs who are registered with Mizoram Taxation department, who had run the enterprises for more than 5 years and still running the enterprises.

Motivation and Performance of Women Entrepreneurs

Motivation is the word derived from the word ’motive’ which means a drive within the individual to fulfill his or her needs, desires or wants. It is the process of encouraging people to accomplish the goals. According to psychological context, factors to encourage the people’s behaviour can be-desire for money, success, recognition, job-satisfaction, team work, etc. One of the most important functions of management is to create willingness amongst the employees to perform in the best of their abilities. Therefore, the role of a leader is to arouse interest in performance of employees in their jobs. The process of motivation consists of three stages:

1. A felt need or drive

2. A stimulus in which needs have to be aroused

3. When needs are satisfied, the satisfaction or accomplishment of goals.

Therefore, we can say that motivation is a psychological phenomenon which means needs and wants of the individuals have to be tackled by framing an incentive plan.

Some of the notable motivating factors for enhancing women entrepreneurs are like a desire to be independent, to have a better financial condition, to achieve in life. According to Kumar & Kalyani (2011), Greater support is required especially in educational institutions for women youth to improve their skill in entrepreneurship. Educational institution, training centers and NGOs plays an important role in motivating women entrepreneurs especially in rural and semi urban areas. Small and medium scale sectors to be promoted to women by providing special considerations and assistance would be of great help for the growth of the economy. Separate cells should be implemented for women entrepreneurs that are manage by women officials, special incentives and scheme for assistance to women entrepreneurs to promote women entrepreneurship in Mizoram (Lalhunthara 2012). Effective entrepreneurial training programmes, desire to experience business management, interest and push from family, friends and relatives which are considered as motivating factors for women entrepreneurs to take up entrepreneurship. As a consequence, motivation factor influences the women entrepreneurs work to a great extent.

Examined the impact of human and financial capital on the performance of women entrepreneurs in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria (Abiodun & Amos 2018). They suggested more studies focus on the performances of women entrepreneurs on the nation’s economic growth and development in the future research that would represent the state of Nigeria (Zizile & Tendai, 2018).

Their study revealed that Entrepreneurial competences have an impact on the performance of women-owned SMMEs in East London, according to the findings of the research. Entrepreneurial skills are equally important for the establishment and sustainability of SMMEs in East London. Entrepreneurial ventures play an important role in creating job that could rescue out of unemployment and poverty and thereby enhancing self-confidence, self- sufficiency, self-esteem and developing skills. Entrepreneurship has changed the global scenario of women in the country; it has changed women to come forth from four walls to the business world.

Review of Literature

Schwarts the first ever notable article on women’s entrepreneurship. The study was based on an interview with 20 female entrepreneurs. The study came into conclusion that women entrepreneurs were mainly motivated by the desire to be independent, to achieve satisfaction in their job and economic stability. Women entrepreneurs faced problem relating to credit financing too unlike their male counterpart.

Suganthi (2009) attempted to analyse the motivational factors that influenced the women entrepreneurs to undertake business in Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu State. Unmarried women entrepreneurs are mainly motivated by profit and technical skills possessed. Whereas, married women entrepreneurs are motivated by their family member’s advice. Women entrepreneurs as a whole are motivated by profit earning, gained in the business and personality development that influenced them to take entrepreneurship.

Moses et al., (2010) examined motivation and entrepreneurial challenges among women entrepreneurs. Their study concluded that motivational variable whether push or pull factor, intrinsic or extrinsic are positively related to challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. Effects of family advices, financial, psychological and environmental factor are motivating factors for women entrepreneurship.

Kumar & Kalyani (2011) studied the women entrepreneurs who run small scale industrial units of SIDCO Industrial Estate. 144 small scale entrepreneurs’ units sample size were taken from 432 population. The study concluded that women and men do not have much differences with regards to cost reduction and profit maximization. Entrepreneurial training and activities are a significant factor in increasing employment opportunities. Educational institutional, Training centres and NGOs plays an important role in motivating entrepreneurial skills among women entrepreneurs.

Akehurst et al,. (2012) examined the characteristics of women entrepreneurs and their elements of motivation to run their business in Valencia region in Spain. Their study revealed that the type of financial assistance they received had a great effect on their motivation. Demographic factors, age at the time of undertaking the new project and the size of the firm and loans taken had a motivating elements or factors for the women entrepreneurs.

Neema (2014) presented a report on the study where International Labour Organization (ILO)contracted Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship Development (IMED) to conduct Women Entrepreneurship Development (WED) assessment in Tanzania during May to October 2013. Their assessment revealed that even though many initiatives, policies, programmes and organization have been introduced in order to support women entrepreneurs, they found that women entrepreneurs are not well informed about business procedures and assisting them with their requirements.

Lalhunthara (2015) made a study on the micro enterprises in Aizawl district in Mizoram. In his study he found that 84.7% are male, while 15% are women entrepreneurs. According to him as very little women are engaged in entrepreneurship there is a need for special incentives for women entrepreneurs in the form of schemes, financial support, marketing support, infrastructure support, training and separate policies for micro enterprises. But the scenario is different in the case of handlooms and tailoring where 53.4% and 34.5% of women are engaged respectively. He recommended that education and years of experience in the field would be an insight in the functioning of the business enterprises.

Manish & Marjina examined empowerment of rural women through entrepreneurship. They found out that Self Help Groups (SHG’s) are an institutional innovation that foster empowerment of women. There is a need for the government to frame policies for the development of women entrepreneurship. Literacy level could also be helpful to overcome cognitive constraints and for technical and skill understanding.

Shastri et al., (2019) made a study on motivational and challenges of women entrepreneurs in Jaipur city of Rajasthan. Their study revealed that pull factors including the urge for creativity, self-identity, to be independent and to contribute something to the society are the main motivations for female entrepreneurs to start their business. Their study also indicated that female entrepreneurs in Rajasthan were mainly motivated by pull factors rather than push factors while starting their business activities.

Solesvik et al., (2019) conducted a cross – national study on motivation of female entrepreneurs. Their studies concluded that female entrepreneurs often aimed to generate an additional social value beyond the monetary gains and acted as an agent of social change. The social needs, stakeholder satisfaction and the relationship feature were the three novel types of motives reported by female entrepreneurs in addition to the traditional monetary motives. According to the investigation made in three countries namely Norway, Russia and Ukraine, the female entrepreneurs in all these countries suggested that the relationship aspects in business was an important motive for the launching and the expansion of their firms.

Debnath et al., (2020) studied the motivational factors that encourage women to become a successful entrepreneur and their contribution for the growth of sustainable Development Goals(SDGs). Their study was conducted on 203 women entrepreneurs of different districts of Bangladesh. Strong support from the family, training, Information and communication Technologies (ICTs) knowhow, financial support, positive legal support would motivate women to achieve SDGs.

Objectives

1. To examine the demographic profile of women entrepreneurs in Aizawl, district of Mizoram

2. To investigate the factors that motivated women entrepreneurs to start their business and their performances.

3. To analyze the relationship between motivational factors and performance of women entrepreneurs in Aizawl City.

Women Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship development among women is one activity that promises encouraging results. “Entrepreneurship is the professional application of knowledge, skills and competencies and/or of monetizing a new idea, by an individual or a set of people by launching an enterprise de novo or diversifying from an existing one (distinct from seeking self-employment as in a profession or trade), thus to pursue growth while generating wealth, employment and social good”.

The emergence of women entrepreneurs and their contribution to the national economy is quite visible in India. The number of women entrepreneurs has grown over a period of time especially in the 1990s. Women entrepreneurs need to be lauded for their increased utilization of modern technology, increased investment, finding a niche in the export market, creating a sizeable employment for others and setting the trend for other women entrepreneurs in the organized sector. The Government of India has defined women entrepreneurs based on women participation in equity and employment of a business enterprise. Accordingly, the government of India has defined women entrepreneurs as” an enterprise owned and controlled by a woman having a minimum financial interest of 51 per cent of the capital and giving at least 51 per cent of the employment generated in the enterprise to women.

According to the Sixth Economic Census released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, out of the total 58.5 million entrepreneurs in India 8.50 million constitute of women entrepreneur i.e., 14% of the entrepreneur’s base in India. The employment in women-owned enterprises is only 1.67 people per business in average.

Methodology

The data for the study was collected from the respondent belonging to Aizawl city district of Aizawl, Mizoram, the data for the study was collected both from primary and secondary sources. The representative sample of 291 respondents were taken from the population of 1191 women entrepreneurs in Aizawl, who are registered with Mizoram Taxation department. Women entrepreneurs who had run the enterprises for more than 5 years and still running the enterprises. The primary data was collected through structured questionnaire from the women entrepreneurs.

Data Analysis

Questionnaires were structured into two parts, Motivational factors and performance. The respondents were asked to select from five-point likert scale (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree and Strongly Agree). The collected data were transferred into Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Several statistical tools were used in analysing the results like frequencies, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Secondary data was collected from published books, journals, magazines, reports and newspaper.

Reliability Test

The internal consistency of items was shown by Cronbach’s Alpha indicates that motivational factors have shown a value of 0.612 indicating the acceptable marking of reliability indicates that performance of women entrepreneurs has obtained 0.712 which shows positive and acceptable test of reliability.

Findings and Discussions

A structured questionnaire was framed and data was collected from 291 women entrepreneurs in Aizawl City, Capital of Mizoram. The number of women entrepreneurs engaged in entrepreneurship are abundant in Aizawl city. Therefore, it was thought that Aizawl city represents the whole scenario of women entrepreneurs in Mizoram.

Profile of the Respondents

The profile of the respondents represent age, marital status, education, availment of loans and number of employees in the enterprise. monthly income before and after staring the enterprise, reasons for starting the enterprise Table 1.

Table 1 Profile of the Respondents
Characteristics	Classification	Frequency	Percentage
Age	Below 30	34	11.7
	30-40	83	28.5
	40-50	78	26.8
	50-60	62	21.3
	Above 60	34	11.7
Marital Status	Married	172	59.1
	Unmarried	60	20.6
	Widow	43	14.8
	Divorced	16	5.5
Educational Qualification	Matric	178	61.2
	Graduate	93	32
	PG	9	3.1
	Technical Profession	11	3.8
No. of employees in the enterprise	Less than 5	161	55.3
	10-Jun	4	1.4
	More than 15	7	2.4
	Total	172	59.1
	No employees	119	40.9
Have you Availed loans	Yes	128	44
	No	163	56

Women entrepreneurs in Aizawl city largely consist of middle aged. It was found that out of 291 respondents, 83(28.5%) women entrepreneurs fall in the age group 30-40 and 78(26.8%) in age group 40-50 years. 34 (11.7%) respondents belong to the age group below 30 and above 60 years. The percent distribution of women entrepreneurs by age indicates that most of the women entrepreneurs in Aizawl city are between 30 to 60 years. It is clearly understood that the majority 178(61.2%) respondents possess matriculation while 93(32%) of the respondents have graduate level education. And 11(3.8%) and 9(3.1%) are with technical and post graduate level of education respectively. Less number of respondents who have post graduate level and technical profession can indicates that high level of academic qualification is not necessary to promote the entrepreneurship initially. It is found from the field survey that many of the women entrepreneurs, instead of continuing their education prefers to start their business at young age due to economic constrain and also to attain financial independence. The majority 172(59.1%) of the respondents are married. 40.9% of the respondents have no employee in the enterprise whereas 55.3% of the women entrepreneurs have employed other in their enterprises. 2.4% of the respondents have employed more than 15 employees in their business. 56 % have not availed loans from any sources whereas, 44% of women entrepreneurs have availed loans from the banks and from other sources.

Reason for Starting the Enterprises

The number of women entrepreneurs is increasing day by day. The involvement of women in business is still likely to grow even in the coming years. The attitude of the people also changed from the past as women are accepted to engage in business. Women of today are not only confined to four walls of their homes. There is also a tendency to attain economic independence among women, entrepreneurship is one of the alternatives to achieved that kind of independence. The attainment of any kind of sustainable development and upliftment of socio -economic condition of women are up most important for economic development for the country Table 2.

Table 2 Reason for Starting the Enterprise
Reason for starting the enterprise	Frequency	Percentage
Family tradition	192	66
Brings higher income	19	6.5
To be self employed	65	22.3
Small investment is required	9	3.1
No other alternative for income	6	2.1
Total	291	100

Motivational Factors of Women Entrepreneurs in Aizawl

Entrepreneurial motivation is the process that stimulates and inspires an entrepreneur to put out greater effort in order to attain his or her business objectives. In other terms, entrepreneurial motivation refers to the forces or drives that influence an entrepreneur's voluntary behaviour as an entrepreneur's direction, intensity, and persistence.

Table 3 shows the item for motivational factors and their mean, standard deviation and reliability of 291 women entrepreneurs. The Internal consistency of factors was shown by Cronbach’s Alpha with a value of 0.61 indicating the acceptable level of reliability.

Table 3 Descriptive Analysis on Motivational Factors of Women Entrepreneurs
Motivational Factors	Mean	Std. Deviation	Cronbach's Alpha
Dissatisfaction with current job	4.01	0.91	0.61
Success stories of entrepreneurs	3.56	1.09
Being entrepreneur was a lifelong goal	4.38	3.09
To support family financially	4.04	0.95
To maintain my personal freedom	3.12	1.33
To be able to use my past experience and training	3.88	0.87
To build a business to pass on	4.39	3.09

To evaluate the respondents ‘motivational factors’, 7 factors are selected to analyse after the collection of data and the result revealed that the factor ‘To build a business to pass on’ mean 4.39 and standard deviation 3.09 shows the highest mean score followed by’ Being entrepreneur was a lifelong goal’ mean 4.38 and 3.09 standard deviation, ‘To support my family financially’ mean 4.04 and 0.95 standard deviation, ‘Dissatisfaction with current job’ mean 4.01 and 0.91 standard deviation, ‘To be able to use my past experience and training’ mean 3.88 and 0.87 standard deviation, ‘Success stories of entrepreneurs’ mean 3.56 and 1.09 standard deviation and ‘To maintain my personal freedom’ mean 3.12 and 1.33 standard deviation indicating the push and pull factors of motivation.

Personal or external causes such as a divorce or getting turned over for a promotion, low satisfaction, lack of opportunity is known as push factors, and they frequently have negative connotations. Pull factors, on the other hand, are associated with positives attributes like flexibility with family, freedom in independence and identifying an opportunity that motivate people to start enterprises (Hakim, 1989). The results indicate that the two most important motivating factors are to build a business to pass on and entrepreneurship was a lifelong goal. The results suggest that both push and pull factors are important in motivating women entrepreneurs. There can also be multiple factors that motivates women to start a new business.

Performance of Aizawl Women Entrepreneurs

Naser et al. (2009) concluded their studies from 449 women entrepreneurs that government and non-government policies plays an important role in supporting the steps taken by women entrepreneur that can encourage her performance in entrepreneurship Table 4.

Table 4 Descriptive Analysis on the Performance of Women Entrepreneurs
Performance	Mean	Std. Deviation	Cronbach's Alpha
This entrepreneurial venture has a great deal of personal meaning for me	3.65	1.01
I am ready to take additional investment to the business	3.86	0.86
I am having profit throughout all the years from my business	3.46	1.15
As an entrepreneur i am able to take risk in decision making	2.93	1.17	0.71
I have great improvement in entrepreneurial activities	4.21	0.83
I feel emotionally attached to the entrepreneurial venture	4.29	0.76
I feel strong sense of identification in the society because of my entrepreneurial venture	3.64	1.05
I benefitted a lot from, entrepreneurial trainings	2.74	1.28
I can make use of technology for my business (Computer, Phone etc)	3.89	1.23

Table 4 explains, the performance of Aizawl women entrepreneurs and their Mean, Standard deviation and reliability of 291 of women entrepreneurs. The Internal consistency of factors was shown by Cronbach’s Alpha with a value of 0.71 indicating the satisfactory level of reliability. To evaluate the respondents ‘performance factors’, 9 factors are selected to analyse after the collection of data and the result revealed that the factor,’I feel emotionally attached to the entrepreneurial venture 4.29 shows the highest mean score with .76 standard deviation followed by,’ I have great improvement in entrepreneurial activities’ mean 4.21 and standard deviation .83, ‘I can make use of technology for my business (Computer, Phone etc) mean score 3.89 and standard deviation 1.23, ‘I am ready to take additional investment to the business’ mean score 3.86 and .86 standard deviation. ‘This entrepreneurial venture has a great deal of personal meaning for me’ mean 3.65 and 1.01 standard deviation. ‘I feel strong sense of identification in the society because of my entrepreneurial venture’ with mean score 3.64 and 1.05 standard deviation. ‘I am having profit throughout all the years from my businesses with 3.46 mean and 1.05 standard deviation. ‘As an entrepreneur i am able to take risk in decision making’ with mean 2.93 and 1.17 standard deviation. ‘I benefitted a lot from, entrepreneurial trainings’ mean score 2.74 and 1.28 standard deviation. The results indicate that the emotional attachment to the entrepreneurial venture and great improvement in entrepreneurial activities are the two main factors that indicate on the performance of women entrepreneurs in Aizawl and the performance of women entrepreneurs is somewhat high.

Relationship Between Motivational and Performance of Women Entrepreneurs

The correlation coefficient is a statistical measure of how strong a relationship is between two variables. Croxton and Cowden define correlation as “When the relationship is of quantitative in nature, the appropriate statistical tool for discovering and measuring the relationship and expressing in a brief formula is known as correlation” The values range between -1.0 and 1.0. A calculated number greater than 1.0 or less than -1.0 means that there was an error in the correlation measurement. “Pearson Corelation analysis is employed to measure the relationship between two or more variables”

Table 5 shows the results of correlation analysis of the relationship among factors that motivated women to enter into business and their business performance. Hence, motivational factors have a positive correlation with business performance (r =0.280: P= 0.000). Thus, this indicates that there is a significant relationship between the motivation to become entrepreneur and the performance of women entrepreneurs in Aizawl city.

Table 5 Correlation between Motivation and Performance of Women Entrepreneurs
		Motivation	Performance
Motivation	Pearson Correlation		.280**
	Sig. (2-tailed)	1	0
	N	291	291
Performance	Pearson Correlation	.280**	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0
	N	291	291

Discussion

The study examines the relationship among motivational factors and performance of women entrepreneurs in Aizawl. The results shows that push factors (necessity) factors are the most significant motivating factors for women entrepreneurs. However, some pull (opportunity) factors are also an important motivator. This shows that entrepreneurs are not only motivated by single factor, as there are multiple motivators for starting a new business. As women entrepreneurs are mostly motivated in having a business to pass on to family and feeling of emotional attachment to business strengthen the performance of women entrepreneurs.

Conclusion

The study examines the demographics profile of women entrepreneurs in Aizawl and the relationship between motivational factors and performance of women entrepreneurs. The findings of the study revealed that majority of women entrepreneurs are married between the age of 30 – 40 and have a matriculation certificate. It is found from the field survey that many of the women entrepreneurs, instead of continuing their education prefers to start their business at young age due to economic constrain and also to attain financial independence. Women entrepreneurs make a significant impact on the economy not only in their ability to create jobs for themselves, but also in creating jobs for others. Less number of entrepreneurs have availed loans from the banks or other sources. Both the motivational and performance factors show positive and acceptable test of reliability. However, push factors seem to be more significant. Lastly, the study discovered that there is a positive correlation between motivational factors and performance of women entrepreneurs.

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Received: 02-Jan-2024, Manuscript No. ASMJ-23-12014; Editor assigned: 04-Jan-2024, PreQC No. ASMJ-23-12014(PQ); Reviewed: 17- Jan-2024, QC No. ASMJ-23-12014; Revised: 22- Jan -2024, Manuscript No. ASMJ-23-12014(R); Published: 28- Jan-2024