Institutional Factors Hindering Equitable and Inclusive Women Entrepreneurship in Northeast Nigeria

Introduction

In developed and developing countries, women entrepreneurship has emerged as a front-burner issue because of its importance in economic growth and development. The bulk of the studies on woment entrepreneurship are from the Anglo-Saxon countries (Tlaiss, 2013; Bastian, Sidani & El Amine, 2018). For example, Garg and Agarwal (2017) noted that women entrepreneurs in the US have taken the lead in entrepreneurial activities and initiatives when measured in terms of participation and contributions. The 2017 report of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) indicated that across 74 economies, there are 274 million women‐owned new or established businesses (Kelley et al. 2017). The 2021 report of GEM confirmed that the number of women entrepreneurs is increasing, as they represent almost one-third of the total growth-oriented entrepreneurs in the world (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2021). In addition, women are reputed to play key roles in entrepreneurship and business development in different communities, but institutional factors hinder them from performing comparatively well as their male counterparts when their performance is measured in terms of sales, employment growth and profitability (Hechavarria et al. 2019). In the U.S., it has been reported that sales of 1.5 trillion dollars were generated by over 9 million businesses owned by women entrepreneurs (Garg & Agarwal, 2017). However, as important as entrepreneurship is in developing countries, such as Nigeria, there appears to be a wide gap in participation by women because of diversity, equity and inclusion issues.

Previous studies have focused on the individual factors hindering the financial performance of women entrepreneurs, such as lack of access to information (Khan & Hossain, 2018), poor access to finance (Oseremen, 2015), and work-family conflict (Itani et al. 2011). However, while these studies provide important information on why women entrepreneurs succeed or fail, they fall short of offering a more collective and in-depth understanding of how several institutional factors affect the financial performance of women entrepreneurs. The present research, therefore, intends to bridge this important gap by leveraging an institutional theory lens. The few studies that focus on the influence of a set of institutions on women entrepreneurship are largely carried out in developed countries and developing economies with relatively stronger institutions (Estrin and Mickiewicz, 2011; Bruton et al. 2016; Xheneti, 2016). Curiously, not many studies have carefully considered on the use of institutional theory to investigate the financial performance of women entrepreneurs, particularly in remote contexts of developing countries, such as Yola, of northeast Nigeria. In other words, how do institutional factors affect the financial performance of women entrepreneurs? The paper makes two contributions. First, it extends academic research on the application of institutional theory to study the financial performance of women entrepreneurs in a developing country context. Second, it articulates the need for more understanding of enterprise development under the influence of institutions in climes of adversity.