Research On Rural Female Entrepreneurship With Social Capital Perspective

Entrepreneurship is an effective way for rural women to improve their positions in family and society. However, it is hard for rural women to start-up, because of the hindering factors, such as human capital, social capital, financial problem, and system environment. Many researches have prove that social capital plays an important role on discovering business opportunity, obtaining resources for starting-up, and gaining entrepreneurial performance. It is also found that social capital is a key factor which could help rural women to gain resources needed in entrepreneurship.Some researches are developed in the field, but not all the problems are solved. That is the reason why this paper intended to discuss the issue of rural females’entrepreneurship on the perspective of social capital theory and gender theory. The paper focuses on the influence and gender difference of social capital on rural entrepreneurs’start-up willingness, entrepreneurial performance, and entrepreneurial finance, furtherly, how to improve the level of social capital of rural females in order to help them became entrepreneurs. One purpose of this article is to explain how the social capital of rural female entrepreneurs works by employing the main postulates of gender theory and economics theory. The second purpose of this study is, therefore, to show how different structure and function of private social capital influence the availability for rural female entrepreneurs to start up a business.This paper is composed of four parts. Part one is the preparation for analysis, and included chapter one and chapter two. Chapter one states the background and significance of research, and put forword research goal and main research contents based on the research background, and illustrate the framework of this paper. Chapter two mainly included the correlation concept limits and relevant theories and models. Part two is status survey and included chapter three and chapter four. Chapter three analyzed the current situation of rural women’s self-employment and chapter four illustrated the. current situation of rural female entrepreneurs’social capital, such as the network size and network density and network structure of rural female entrepreneurs’social capital. It is found the personal networks of the rural female entrepreneurs are smaller in terms of size, because the female are less particularistic than the male. In the female networks, social distances between members of in and out groups are clear-cut, and therefore, the female entrepreneurs are likely to report fewer numbers of ties than the male. The network structures, i.e., size, density, structural holes, and composition, of the male and female rural entrepreneurs differ due to the gender. The networks of the female rural entrepreneurs are smaller than that of the males for several reasons. The females have inherent inclinations to prefer fewer but trusted particularistic ties. The networks of female rural entrepreneurs are composed of more family members, village mates, and close friends due to the prevalent role of social capital. The networks of female rural entrepreneurs are denser and more homogeneous than the males. This claim is proved by gender evidence in the paper. The economic reforms resulted in the violent destruction of the existing institutions and networks in village. This pushes rural female entrepreneurs to create new networks and clusters that increased the absolute size of personal networks over time. Part three is empirical analysis, and included chapter five and chapter six. Chapter five researched on the usage and gender difference of rural female entrepreneurs’social capital. Based on three surveys of rural female entrepreneurs in Liaoning province, the effect of social capital on the start-up activities of rural entrepreneurs is analyzed, and the gender difference between male and female entrepreneurs is discussed. In general, social networks of rural female entrepreneurs facilitate venture birth and development, although under certain conditions it may hinder firm performance by constraining entrepreneurial activities. In pioneering stage, rural female entrepreneurs utilize different network ties such as more "strong ties" compare to male entrepreneurs.The female make greater efforts to reduce uncertainties and inconsistencies in their immediate business worlds, and therefore, the networks of the rural female entrepreneurs are likely to have fewer structural holes defined as the absence of a link between two contacts. Chapter six researched on the influences of social capital on rural female starting-up with empirical analysis.The study incorporated social capital as independent variables that impact actions of rural female entrepreneurs and her availability to start up. With multiple regression analysis, it is found that network construct played a more significant role in affecting rural female’s start-up willingness compared with network density. The higher of the occupational status in network, the more resources and more profit a rural female entrepreneur will achieve. It is found that social capital has greater affect on rural female entrepreneurs’financial support than male; and her social capital total index had an obviously positive correlation with finance supports obtained by the female, while the impact of social capital total index is weaker to the male. Further, the size of network and the reciprocal behaviors will influence entrepreneurial performance also. Part four is policy recommendations, included chapter seven. This paper’s findings suggest that better established connections are important at every stage of start-up to female than to male. It is improved that the probability of getting supporting increasing with the expanding of social network, and the participation of society activities and organizations by the rural female entrepreneurs. Therefore rural females should expansion their network, and increase participation of society activities and organizations.