Constraints and opportunities facing women entrepreneurs in developing countries: a relational perspective

摘要

Purpose - This purpose of the paper to examine the interplay of constraints and opportunitiesrnaffecting female entrepreneurship in developing countries. The paper integrates salient micro- andrnmacro-level perspectives and provides a rounded account of opportunities and constraints as part of arnholistic interdependent system.rnDesign/methodology/approach - The paper adopts an integrative multi-level research design andrnan interpretive research methodology, capitalizing on in-depth interviews with ten womenrnentrepreneurs to explore their perceptions and interpretations of constraints and opportunitiesrnfacing female entrepreneurship in the Lebanese context.rnFindings - The findings presented in this paper clearly illustrate the relevance of micro-, meso-, andrnmacro-level factors in entrepreneurship research and the usefulness of integrating multiple lens andrnunits of analysis to capture the complexity of the women entrepreneurship experience in any particularrncontext.rnOriginality/value - The value added of this research lies in adapting a framework recentlyrnpopularized in the context of diversity management for use in entrepreneurship research, helping torncapture in turn the dynamic interplay of multiple levels of analysis and objective/subjective factorsrninfluencing female entrepreneurship.