English Abstract
Abstract :
Purpose- In light of Bahrain's vision 2030 that focuses on enabling women and supporting the initiatives toward an entrepreneurial market, there are only few studies that have been elaborating the barriers and explaining the factors that affecting entrepreneurial intention among Bahraini women. In addition, this study will shed lights on the supports the Bahraini women are receiving from the Supreme Council of Women, Tamkeen, and Bahrain Development Bank.
Methodology- Extensive literature analysis to propose the underlying conceptual framework has been combined with an empirical quantitative analysis based on a pre-designed questionnaire that has been distributed among entrepreneurial Bahraini women. The empirical analysis used data for 396 Bahraini women. The research problem has been investigated by the extensive research analysis of the previous related literature in the entrepreneurship field. Also, special attention has been devoted to Bahrain's economic and environmental aspects concerning the activities undertaken to enable women and to support entrepreneurship choices in light of Bahrain vision 2030.
Findings- The findings provide a clear conclusion about the impact of the psychological and environmental factors on the entrepreneurial intention among Bahraini women. The results suggests that there is a significant positive motivational influence by the psychological factors represented by the personality traits and entrepreneurial attitude on the entrepreneurial intention among Bahraini women. Similar attitude has been reflected by the entrepreneurial environmental factors represented by the economic, social and policy environment on the entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, there are three factors that have shown stronger impact on the entrepreneurial intention comparing to the other factors; namely, locus of control, spiritual attitude and material attitude.
Limitations- This is a cross-sectional study that emphasized the women's choices of the entrepreneurial path. Therefore, the absence of longitudinal studies has limited the concluded results and imposes limitations on the proposed recommendations. Inputs of representatives from policy makers such as Supreme Council of Women, Tamkeen, and Bahrain Development Bank have not been collected due to time deficiency, the inputs from the concerned officials would made impact if it had been collected.
Practical Implications- This research expects to enrich the previous literature about the premier role of Bahraini women in the economy. Also, this thesis has provided empirical evidence about the motivational factors and constraints concerning the entrepreneurial path of Bahraini women. It provided some recommendations and promote initiatives to better support the positioning of Bahraini women in the economy concerning entrepreneurship activities.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurship, psychological factors, environmental factors, Bahraini women
