Women entrepreneurs in a developing economy

Abstract

While research on women entrepreneurs is extensive in developed countries, little has been done in this area in non‐OECD and developing economies. This research focuses on the characteristics, performance, and problems of women entrepreneurs in one developing economy – Turkey. The results indicate that while the women entrepreneurs exhibited many similarities with their counterparts in other countries they differed in other aspects such as in their reasons and motivation for starting a venture and problems encountered. These differences reflect in part the effect of a different social structure in a developing economy, particularly the impact of occupational segregation, wage disparity, and participation in a non‐supported sector of the economy. These findings suggest that the theories regarding women entrepreneurs based on developed economies need to be carefully examined before being applied to non‐OECD and developing economies.