Keywords

Women Entrepreneurship Dimensions, Entrepreneurial Attitude, Entrepreneurial Engagement, Rural India, Emerging Economy.

Introduction

Entrepreneurship creates new economic opportunities for society and contributes to the overall growth and departure from poverty. The entrepreneurship has emerged as a global concept and contributed to the economic development of the country (Balogun & Zhang, 2019). The entrepreneurship is a driving force, its innovative ideas led to job creation and new developments in the nation. Women's participation in economic development will create wealth for the family and the nation. It increases the economic freedom, survival capacity of Indian women. Finally, it leads to women's empowerment. In today's world, small businesses are seen more than ever as a vehicle for entrepreneurship, contributing not only the employment, social and political stability but also innovative and competitive power (Nanez Alonso et al., 2021).

Nation development needs proper encouragement of potential women entrepreneurs. As per the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, among all emerging markets Share of entrepreneurship is very low. Especially women in India are far behind compared to the world women entrepreneurs. India ranked 52 among 57 countries studied for the MasterCard Index of Women entrepreneurs (Chen et al., 2021; Esmaeilian et al., 2020; Jayawardhana & Colombage, 2020). Though the importance of entrepreneurship highlighted through government and non-governmental bodies, still it is not achieved to the expected global standard. The development of women entrepreneurship compared to other countries is very low in rural India because of low skilled labor, lack of technology and low productivity jobs (Jon, 2018). In urban India, women entrepreneurs can be found a little better compared to rural India. Due to lack of resources or information, poverty, low literacy, family constraints, financial instability, marriage commitment, etc. creates poor entrepreneurial attitudes among rural women. Women in rural India are continuing with traditional low paid petty businesses or tiny cottage industries. Another biggest hurdle in women entrepreneurship is the gender gap. There was a huge gender gap close to 66 percent as per the World Economic Forum (PTI 2018) creates hurdles in women entrepreneurship. This gender gap was measured across four key pillars, namely economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, health and survival (PTI 2018). An interesting thing in recent studies signifies that women's employment was decreased after marriage in urban India compared to rural India. Moreover, the labor workforce is more after marriage in rural women because of family burden. The financial need made the women think in the employment of entrepreneurship expecting that entrepreneurship can provide that financial freedom (Mellon, 2021; Semenihin & Kondrashin, 2018).

Many studies examined issues such as women entrepreneurship Challenges entrepreneurship growth through Self-Help Groups (SHGs) comparison of female and male entrepreneurs. But the research on Entrepreneurial Attitude and Engagement of Rural Women in an emerging economy is scanty. Entrepreneurial Attitude played an active role among women to step into an entrepreneurial venture. Very few studies are there to explain why women are not continuing with entrepreneurship, though there is a scope of the government side.

Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Formulation

Women entrepreneurship dimensions and entrepreneurial attitude: An entrepreneur is an organizer who combines various factors of production to produce a socially viable product. Entrepreneur bears the risk, unites various factors of production, to exploit the perceived opportunities to evoke demand, creates employment and contributes to the economic wealth of a country. Hence, Women Entrepreneurs are the women or a group of women who initiate, organize and operate a business enterprise (Linkov et al., 2018). A woman entrepreneur is a confident, innovative and creative woman capable of achieving economic independence, individually or in collaboration generates employment opportunities for others through initiating establishing and running an enterprise by keeping pace with her personal, family and social life. Past research confirmed that the key drivers of women entrepreneur are financial assistance family-owned business family commitment Entrepreneurship education and training fundin g risk-taking capacity, tax policies freedom and control in decision making and business knowledge and skill. The entrepreneurial dimensions encourage a positive attitude among women entrepreneurs Attitude is demarcated as "A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor". Customer attitude defines the evaluation of a product or service offering. A person's attitude can be measured, and/or prediction could be made whether the person performing or not performing an act.

Attitudes result from the multiplication of beliefs with their evaluations and influence behavioral intention. The theory of reasoned action (TRA) indicates that "Attitude" is an important predictor of "Behavioral intention". Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) an extension of the theory of reasoned action (TRA) also deals with behavior. The Theory of Planned Behavior constitutes three dimensions such as, (1) The individual's attitude toward the behavior (2) Subjective norm and (3) Perceived behavioral control. The first dimension, Attitude refers to perceptions of personal desirability to execute a certain behavior outcome depends on individual expectations and beliefs. Subjective norm is a reflection of individual beliefs that influence the intention to perform in a certain purchase behavior (Mikhaylov et al., 2021; Nanez Alonso et al., 2019). The people close to the individual, such as family members, friends, neighbors, spouses are considered as referents to influence individual behavior. The third dimension perceived behavior control affects individual perception in executing certain behavior based on previous experience and expected obstacles. The performance of a behavior is determined by the strong intention to perform that behavior. The intention was viewed as a function of the person's attitude towards performing the behavior. In other words, as per the Theory of planned behavior there used to be a significant and substantial relationship between the intention (dimensions) towards entrepreneurship that reflect on their attitude. Based on the above argument the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1: Enternprenuership dimensions have a positive impact on Entrepreneurial Attitude.

Entrepreneurial Attitude towards Entrepreneurial Engagement

The concept of “Attitude” is more dynamic and responsive to external objects and is capable of change. Leadership, creativity, achievement and personal control will lead to a strong attitude in a person and towards his or her enterprise. The intentions (attitudes) are formed based on factors such as behavior, subjective norms and perceived control (Kufeoglu & Ozkuran, 2019; Morozova et al., 2020; Pollani, 2021). Personal attitude is an important factor to assess positively or negatively towards specific intentions and behavior. It obtained from the beliefs of the consequences caused by behavioral beliefs. These positive personal attitudes influence the formation of women entrepreneurial engagement. The attitude is an inner behavior motive human beings have to build either a positive or negative attitude. In many studies it is proved that the high correlation of attitudes and subjective norms to behavioral intentions, and subsequently to behavior (Rana et al., 2019; Rossi et al., 2019). The self-efficacy of women entrepreneurs will lead to either positive assumptions or negative assumptions. The positive assumption or positive intention in the form of attitude leads to readiness to perform a given behavior to a woman entrepreneur (Energy Institute, 2018; Kristmannsdottir & Armannsson, 2003). The engagement was defined as, “The intensity of an individual's participation in and connection with an organization's offerings and/or organizational activities, which either the customer or the organization initiate”. Even the researcher confirmed that engagement as a psychological state which developed out of motivation. Over the process of entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurs develop belongings towards the activity and develop a positive attitude. This positive attitude reflected in their dedication and motivation in the form of entrepreneurial engagement that in later stage produce through loyalty, trust and commitment. The engagement dimensions used to be more effective if the individual carries a positive attitude. Based on the above argument following hypothesis is proposed:

H2: Enternprenuership attitude lead to having a positive impact on effective entrepreneurial engagement.

Mediating Role of Entrepreneurial Attitude

The entrepreneurial engagement explains the intrinsic motivation to interact and stimulate entrepreneurial activity. The intrinsic motivation comes from different support for the different support systems either from government, society or from family. However, maintaining a balance between family and work life is a major challenge for women entrepreneurs who have children and a working husband (IRENA, 2019).Facing a lot of challenges like family responsibility, gender discrimination, no support from stakeholders/ employees, lack of business administration, usually suppress the intention. Still some remedial measures like promoting micro-enterprises, unlocking institutional framework by the governments/non-government organizations, cooperatives, etc. boost the motivation in women entrepreneurs and helped to cultivate a positive entrepreneurial attitude and engagement. The potential and determination to step up, uphold and supervise their enterprise in a very systematic and appropriate manner, and getting support from society, family, and government can make these women entrepreneurs to be engaged more professionally. It becomes a part of the mainstream of the national economy and they can contribute to the economic progress of the nation. Female entrepreneurs even though they have an education, but lack in management skills to start a business in traditionally male-dominated industries. They need experience of additional managerial training (Bowen & Hisrich, 1986; Mnif et al., 2021; Wagner, 2019) to sustain in their entrepreneurial journey. In other words, engagement was a reflection of women's attitude towards entrepreneurship. This reflects their participation in different entrepreneurial activity Figure 1. The above argument proposed that:

Figure 1 Conceptual Model

H3: Entrepreneur attitude mediates the relationship between Women Entrepreneurship Dimension and Effective Entrepreneurial Engagement.

Research Methodology

To collect the response a rural-based survey was administered. Since entrepreneurial engagement is the reflection of women's belief and attitude towards entrepreneurship, the survey method is the best to serve such purpose (NYFED, 2019; Saleh et al., 2020).

Hyderabad, a part of South India, is one of the most Techno-savvy capitals of India. The average literacy rate is 66.54% but the unemployment problem is more pronounced in the rural areas of Telangana. According to the 2011 Census, 68.84% of people are living in rural areas of India and government schemes and training, like Make in India and others, are encouraged rural women to start something of their own. Women empowerment has been increasing so rapidly all over the world and women are starting their own business to seek greater control over their personal and professional lives. The participants in the survey were selected from the rural women of an emerging economy, India. The local language Telugu is used to collect information from the respondents. The questionnaires were distributed at the rural self-employment training institute (RSETIS) Telengana as a subsidiary of the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) Hyderabad. Purposive sampling method was used and 463 timely responses were received out of which 342 were used for further analysis. Table 1 shows the demographic details of the study respondents.

Measures

In the survey, all hypothesized constructs were measured through multi-item scales to capture the meaning (Capegemini, 2021; Giungato et al., 2017; Sahin & Topal, 2017; Shonder et al., 2003). All these measures were adopted from prior literature and modified to match the women's entrepreneurial context. The scale items then confirmed the content validity. In total, the final survey questionnaire consists of 36 items.

In the survey questionnaire, items were divided into four sections. The first section captures women respondents' demographic details such as age, education, income, occupation, household size, bank transaction details and so on based on entrepreneurial context. To measure women's entrepreneurial dimension scale, the researcher adopted the focus group, experts opinion and cross varied from previous literature. All the entrepreneurial dimensions questions were measured along a seven-point Likert scale ("Strongly disagree"=1 to "Strongly agree"=7) with 21 sub-dimensions. The measurement of entrepreneurial attitude was adopted from Curran and Meuter, 2005, which were measured along with semantic differential scales ("Bad"=-3 to "Good "=+3). The measurement of entrepreneurial engagement was adopted from Van et al., 2016 consists of four items and measured along a seven-point Likert scale ("Strongly disagree"=1 to "Strongly agree"=7). Table 2 contains the details of the items used in the survey questionnaire.

Data Analysis and Results

The proposed set of hypotheses was tested by following the two-step procedure. First, before the testing of hypotheses, we have carried out measurement model testing through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to confirm the psychometric properties of the constructs. After the measurement model confirmation, we have examined the structural model to examine the hypotheses. In this stage, the study also examined the mediating role of entrepreneurial attitude between women's entrepreneurial dimensions and entrepreneurial engagement. A combination of SPSS 24 and AMOS 10.0 software packages are used to carry out all the data analyses.

Construct validation: measurement model analysis: The entrepreneurial dimensions were identified using factor analysis having factor loading more than 0.60 using principal axis factoring technique. The major factors were identified such as societal support, Individual skill set, and Financial & Legal support. Measurement model testing was performed using AMOS (version 10.0) to examine the presence of construct validity and reliability, including convergent and discriminant validity. Convergent validity of the scale dimensions explains the extent to which items measuring their corresponding construct are correlated (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). The convergent validity of the constructs could be satisfactory if factor loadings and average variance extracted (AVE) are above the threshold of 0.5. From the analysis, it found that all standardized loadings on the latent constructs were significant (p < 0.001, ranges from 0.64 to 0.91), supporting the convergent validity of all scale dimensions. The examination of the measurement model showed a good fit X2 (328) = 539.63 (P<0.001), (X2/df = 2.26; GFI = .970; AGFI = .951; NFI = .979; CFI = .947; RMSEA= .049). Further, for all the constructs AVE values were greater than the preferred cut-off, confirming convergent validity. Discriminant validity captures the extent to which the constructs proposed in the study are unique and distinct from each other. This can be examined through the comparison of AVE estimates to squared inter-construct correlations. Discriminant validity should be achieved if the squared inter-construct correlations should be smaller than the AVEs. Table 2 indicates that in all the cases the square roots of AVE values were greater than their corresponding inter-construct correlations, confirming discriminant validity. In support of these findings, the composite reliability (CR) estimates of all hypothesized constructs were between 0.78 and 0.92, suggesting adequate scale reliability. All these findings support the construct validity and reliability of the scale dimensions.

Structural model analysis and hypotheses testing: After confirming the psychometric properties of the scale dimensions, the overall model fit was examined by conducting structural equation modeling (SEM). The considered model fit indices include ratio of the chi-square to the degree of freedom (X2/df), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Goodness of Fit Index (GFI), Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI), Normed Fit Index (NFI), and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA). A model is considered to be a good fit to the data when the values of CFI, NFI, and GFI are greater than 0.9, AGFI is greater than 0.8, RMSEA is smaller than 0.08, and X2/df is smaller than 5 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988; Hair et al., 2010). The examination of the model fit indices support the fact that the model fit very well to the data (X2/df =2.323; GFI = 0.982; AGFI = .961; NFI = 0.969; CFI =0.957; RMSEA= 0.039). Then, the examination of the hypotheses shows that the relationship between the entrepreneurial dimension on entrepreneurial Attitude is significant (Hypothesis 1: β =0.577, t=10.617, p <0.001). This supports the fact that the entrepreneurial dimension in women positively influences women's' entrepreneurial Attitude. The standardized path coefficient from women's' entrepreneurial Attitude towards entrepreneurial engagement is also found to be significant (Hypothesis 2: β = 0.369, t = 6.65, p<0.001). This finding indicates that women's' entrepreneurial Attitude is a significant and direct predictor of their engagement. To examine the indirect relationship of entrepreneurial dimensions on entrepreneurial engagement, we have used Baron and Kenny's (1986) procedure. The result shows the fact that the indirect effect of entrepreneurial dimension value on entrepreneurial engagement has a significant effect (indirect effect = 0.216, p <.001). Moreover, the result also supports the fact that there is a significant direct effect from entrepreneurial dimensions on entrepreneurial engagement (direct effect: 0.015, p < 0.00). Thus, it supports the partial mediation of entrepreneurial Attitude in between entrepreneurial dimension and entrepreneurial engagement (Hypothesis 3). In total, the study results supported the fact that women's entrepreneurial dimension consists of three dimensions, such as Societal support, Individual skill set, and Financial & Legal support. The total configuration of these dimensions influences entrepreneurial engagement via the development of evaluation of women entrepreneurs towards entrepreneurial skills (Tables 3 and 4).

Discussion and Conclusion

Women Entrepreneur, in a larger sense, a woman who accepts a challenging role to meet her personal needs and become economically self-sufficient. The present study findings suggest that women's entrepreneurial dimensions mainly consist of Societal support, Individual skill set, and Financial & Legal support. The major motivation comes from their own family in different sorts of mental and physical support through free mobility even though different social and cultural boundaries exist. The family members (parents, in-laws, husband) played a major role in their societal support. The women's skill set and confidence in terms of risk-taking capacity, the fulfillment of family commitment enrich them to stand on their own and take the challenge. The entrepreneurship venture would not have been completed without the support from the government in terms of financial and user-friendly legal support. The government awareness campaign on public media, social platforms, NGO's enrich a strong attitude among the poor rural women. Agreeing to past literature the present study also supported that development of Rural Women Entrepreneurs through Workshop Training is being studied and it is found that workshops organized by different NGO's helped rural women how to access financial support, new entrepreneurial ideas to start something of their own and mentorship to face the challenges in their entrepreneurial journey. The study revealed that trained rural women entrepreneurs have better business skills and abilities. Therefore, they can easily access different markets and can start a business on a sustainable basis. Untrained rural women mostly faced a lot of problems in managing their business. Another finding of this paper was that unmarried rural women entrepreneurs feel that they can face problems of availing bank loans because there is a possibility of change in their destination after marriage. It is highly essential to promote rural entrepreneurship to eradicate unemployment among rural educated people.

Theoretical and Managerial Implications

The findings have proven that the women's entrepreneurial dimensions mainly consist of Societal support, Individual skill set and Financial & Legal support, acted as a motivation for their favorable attitude. This favorable attitude drives rural women toward entrepreneurial engagement behavior. In a larger sense, a woman who accepts a challenging role to meet her personal needs and to become economically self-sufficient usually carries a stronger entrepreneurial attitude. The attitude helps them to face various undefined challenges.

Past studies tested the Theory of planned behavior and its substantial relationship between the intention (dimensions) towards an object and its impact on their attitude formation. The information acquired by an individual helped in the formation of a particular belief and attitude that reflects in their behavior such as their engagement towards a particular activity. In other words, the behavior seemed to be reasoned or planned. In the present study women, entrepreneurship attitude was established out of dimensions such as societal, individual and financial support. The favorable attitude leads to strong entrepreneurial engagement behavior. Therefore, the present study suggests future research should consider the entrepreneurial dimensions as a reason for entrepreneurial attitude through the Theory of planned behavior framework. In India, being there is a huge social and family commitment to a woman, her step into employment or entrepreneurship is very less. In several instances, the financial need of the family is the only thing making her be employed. Otherwise, normally women are treated as a symbolism of the familyhood. Past studies confirmed that there is a gender bias, women are less entrepreneurial than men less confidence to engage in risky business ventures that affects their entrepreneurial intentions. The findings confirmed that at present, it has been changed. Women have diverse experiences that are reflected in their entrepreneurial endeavors and have a desire to contribute to economic and social development irrespective of resistance from society. The findings agreed with past research that entrepreneurial passion came from the encouragement of family members, resources provided by the government under the women empowerment schemes/policies and self-confidence. These opportunities for economic growth have encouraged women in rural India towards an entrepreneurial attitude. The changing societal attitudes towards women entrepreneurship enabled strong intentions in rural women entrepreneurs. As the initiative from the government, rural India is still evolving towards education and economic development. The conservative rural culture creates challenges to get participation from the rural women participants. The researcher needs to have the patience to listen to them and understand their anguish, then only the participation will increase. Another biggest issue is, usually, rural people won't disclose the financial matters to the third/unknown party. Sometimes, we may not get reality in words. Only through the observations of their activities, researchers can come to some expectations/ conclusions like their spending pattern on children's' education, house, vehicles, and another kind of comforts. Future research can be extended to understand their choice for business enterprise, hesitant for risk-taking businesses or explore new business ideas.

References

Balogun, H., & Zhang, B. (2019). On the sustainability of block chain funding. In 2018  International Conference on Data Mining Workshops (ICDMW), 89-96.

Google Scholar, Cross ref

Capegemini. (2021). Capgemini's World Payments Report 2021. Retrievd from https://www.capgemini.com/in-en/news/capgeminis-world-payments-report-2021/

Chen, L., Cong, L.W., & Xiao, Y. (2021). A brief introduction to block chain economics. In information for efficient decision making: Big data block chain, and relevance, 1-40.

Google Scholar, Cross ref

Energy Institute. (2018). Full cost of electricity. University of Texas Austin.

Esmaeilian, B., Sarkis, J., Lewis, K., & Behdad, S. (2020). Blockchain for the future of sustainable supply chain management in Industry 4.0. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 163, 105064.

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Cross ref

Giungato, P., Rana, R., Tarabella, A., & Tricase, C. (2017). Current trends in the sustainability of bitcoins and related blockchain technology. Sustainability, 9(12), 2214.

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Cross ref

IRENA. (2019). Renewable power generation costs in 2019. International Renewable Energy Agency.

Jayawardhana, A., & Colombage, S. (2020). Does block chain technology drive sustainability? An exploratory review. Governance and Sustainability.

Google Scholar, Cross ref

Jon, T. (2018). Decarbonizing Bitcoin: Law and policy choices for reducing the energy consumption of block chain technologies and digital currencies. Energy Research and Social Science, 44, 399-410

Google Scholar, Cross ref

Kristmannsdottir, H., & Armannsson, H. (2003). Environmental aspects of geothermal energy utilization. Geothermix, 32(4-6), 451-461

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Cross ref

Kufeoglu, S., & Ozkuran, M.A. (2019). Energy consumption in Bitcoin mining, Technical Report. University of Cambridge, 2019.

Linkov, I., Trump, B.D., Poinsatte-Jones, K., & Florin, M.V. (2018). Governance strategies for a sustainable digital world. Sustainability, 10(2), 440.

Google Scholar, Cross ref

Mellon, B.N.Y. (2021). Innovation in Payments, a Spotlight on Digital Currencies.

Mikhaylov, A., Danish, M.S.S., & Senjyu, T. (2021). A new stage in the evolution of cryptocurrency markets: Analysis by hurst method. In strategic outlook in business and finance innovation: multidimensional policies for emerging economies.

Google Scholar, Cross ref

Mnif, E., Lacombe, I., & Jarboui, A. (2021). Users perception toward Bitcoin Green with big data analytics. Society and Business Review.

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Cross ref

Morozova, T., Akhmadeev, R., Lehoux, L., Yumashev, A.V., Meshkova, G.V., & Lukiyanova, M. (2020). Crypto asset assessment models in financial reporting content typologies. Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 7(3), 2196.

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Cross ref

Nanez Alonso, S.L., Jorge-Vázquez, J., Echarte Fernández, M.Á., & Reier Forradellas, R.F. (2021). Cryptocurrency mining from an economic and environmental perspective. Analysis of the most and least sustainable countries. Energies, 14(14), 4254.

Nanez Alonso, S.L., Jorge-Vázquez, J., Echarte Fernández, M.Á., & Reier Forradellas, R.F. (2019). Cryptocurrency Mining from an Economic and Environmental Per-spective. Analysis of the Most and Least Sustainable Countries. Energy Economics, 9, 16-21.

Indexed at

Nyfed. (2019). Best Practices for payments, clearing and settlement activities, report of the payments risk committee. Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Pollani, F. (2021). Sustainability and digital technologies: a comparative analysis of the environmental impact between the Euro cash payment system and the Bitcoin payment system using an LCA-based approach.

Google Scholar

Rana, R.L., Giungato, P., Tarabella, A., & Tricase, C. (2019). Sustainability of bitcoins and blockchain. In Proceedings of BASIQ International Conference on New Trends in Sustainable Business and Consumption, 771-777.

Indexed at

Rossi, M., Mueller-Bloch, C., Thatcher, J.B., & Beck, R. (2019). Blockchain research in information systems: Current trends and an inclusive future research agenda. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 20(9), 14.

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Cross ref

Sahin, H., & Topal, B. (2017). Economic Comparison of building heating with geothermal energy and natural gas, Conference proceedings.

Saleh, A.J., Alazzam, F.A.F., Rabbo Aldrou, K.K.A., & Zavalna, Z. (2020). Legal aspects of the management of cryptocurrency assets in the national security system. Journal of Security & Sustainability Issues, 10(1).

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Cross ref

Semenihin, A., & Kondrashin, A.(2018). Leading role of state as a regulator of crypto currency. In 2nd International Conference on Social, Economic and Academic Leadership (ICSEAL 2018), 329-334.

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Cross ref

Shonder, J.A, Mclain, H.A., Martin, P.E., & Hughes, P.J (2003). Comparative analysis of Life-cycle costs of geothermal Heat Pumps and three conventional HVAC systems.

Indexed at, Google Scholar

Wagner, K., Keller, T., & Seiler, R. (2019). A comparative analysis of cryptocurrency consensus algorithms. In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Applied Computing 2019.

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Cross ref

Received: 26-May-2022, Manuscript No. AMSJ-22-12082; Editor assigned: 30-May-2022, PreQC No. AMSJ-22-12082(PQ); Reviewed: 13-Jun-2022, QC No. AMSJ-22-12082; Revised: 16-Jun-2022, Manuscript No. AMSJ-22-12082(R); Published: 20-Jun-2022