Role Of ICT And Social Networking In Empowering Women Entrepreneurs In Pakistan

Women entrepreneurship is a phenomenon which has received considerable attention of researchers,policymakers and businessmen,both in the developing and developed countries because of its importance in economic development and impact on social development.Despite the increasing number of women entrepreneurs across the world,the recent studies on women entrepreneurship shows that the number of female entrepreneurs is still very low and Pakistan ranks lowest among countries with women entrepreneurs.The female entrepreneurs in Pakistan lack entrepreneurial training and face socio-cultural barriers when they plan to start a new venture or run a business,in comparison with male entrepreneurs.They have no financial channels to support their new business except personal savings,which also shatter their selfconfidence.They test their skills on their own and face multiple challenges.With the emergence of information communication technology(ICT)and social networking(SN)applications,the intrinsic complexity of female entrepreneurship in Pakistan is slightly eased and women are taking chances to start new small businesses at homes,with the support of spouse and personal savings.In this thesis,we have developed a practical framework to integrate ICT and SN with women entrepreneurship in Pakistan,through a resource-based approach for the progression,development and success of female entrepreneurs.Keeping in view the major determinants of female entrepreneurship in Pakistan such as spouse support,education level,knowledge of ICT and facilitation provided by social networking,we considered big cities like Islamabad,Lahore and Faisalabad to target educated entrepreneurs for semi-structured interviews.The data analysis based on confirmatory factor analysis(CFA)and structural equation modelling(SEM)showed that familial support is must for Pakistani female entrepreneurs and SN is extremely helpful for married entrepreneurs.They are using social media applications like Facebook,Instagram and WhatsApp depending upon their knowledge to grow their business and support family income.Fresh entrepreneurs are gaining experience and experienced entrepreneurs are supporting their family and kids' education.The finance generated by them is not huge and they lack formal knowledge about legalizing their business.So,they become an integral part of the informal economy.Furthermore,the qualitative empirical analysis based on structured interviews concluded that some entrepreneurs do not want to legalize their business as they feel no need of registering their small home-based businesses.The empirical findings further indicated that most of the female entrepreneurs need entrepreneurial training and for that,they are waiting for policymakers to start training sessions.At the same token,the role of ICT in empowering women entrepreneurs is revolutionary.The practical application and usefulness of ICT and SN was observed during and after the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic,when the entire world faced successive lock-downs which included both complete and partial shutdown.The traditional ways of doing business suddenly turned to online business through SN.Most of the females in Pakistan used these revolutionary tools to survive the tough time of the pandemic.The empirical analysis of our findings based on TAM showed that the entrepreneurial self-efficacy(ESE)of educated entrepreneurs further increased when they started using SN applications at homes for business.ICT turned out to be a strong independent variable which dominantly impacted social capital building,bridging and self-efficacy both directly and indirectly.This dissertation is based on the role of ICT and networking in empowering women entrepreneurs of Pakistan.Based on the background of the research problem and women entrepreneurship,this dissertation analyzes the main problems faced by them in starting new ventures,by keeping in view the cultural and religious norms(constraints).This dissertation also focuses on the theoretical aspects of gender equality,women empowerment,balanced family life and successful entrepreneurial life to increase confidence in order to create individualism.Furthermore,this dissertation studies the combination of ICT and SN through empirical and nonempirical approaches for the self-creativity and facilitation of females of Pakistan.Focusing on the core issue to transmute the existing gender-based inequalities into opportunities and resources through ICT and SN,to accomplish gender equality,economic,political and social development for women entrepreneurs in Pakistan,the research of this thesis mainly includes the following aspects:(1)Analyze the characteristics and existing problems of female entrepreneurs in Pakistan.This dissertation closely combines the ICT and SN model with female entrepreneurial activities,its applications and systematically tests the elements of developed hypothesis in light of the theory of feminism and innovation.This work promotes the integration of scientific theories and practical applications.(2)Establish the qualitative model in light of the interpretive philosophical stance to study the informal network of female entrepreneurship in Pakistan.This dissertation conducts systematic research from the perspective of technology,management,innovation,practice and opportunities,and further collects the real information for the modelling and analysis of informal entrepreneurship via structured interviews of entrepreneurs.This thesis also presents theoretical support in terms of suggestions to the entrepreneurs and policymakers which also include government,to precisely address the emerging problem of informal economy in Pakistan.(3)This dissertation also conducts research on the survival of micro-entrepreneurs during COVID-19 pandemic.The dissertation considers the primary constructs of TAM like ease of use and usefulness,and analyzes these constructs by employing the theory of TAM for exploring the further outcomes.This dissertation focuses on the influence of ICT on the perception of ease of use and usefulness.The thesis also highlights the suggestions and recommendations that are useful for future business and innovation.The innovations of this dissertation are reflected in terms of the following aspects:(1)The research model of ICT and SN is constructed for the empowerment of female entrepreneurs in Pakistan by considering influential factors.Based on the four core influential factors such as spouse and family support,women education,knowledge of ICT and networking,and facilitation provided by ICT,this dissertation constructs a research model of female empowerment and proposes the research design(scheme)that brings confidence to females in Pakistan.The concept of innovation is also addressed in this dissertation by considering the facilitating role of ICT and SN for the acquisition of resources and to raise the performance of female entrepreneurs which increases their probability to grasp opportunities and overcome socio-cultural barriers.The dissertation mainly focuses on Islamabad,Lahore and Faisalabad that are metropolitan cities of Pakistan with diversified population.(2)The research framework and analysis of informal economic activity and its influencing factors are optimized.This work introduces the main motivational drivers like necessity,necessity+,opportunity,and opportunity+to study the theory of informal entrepreneurship as this area is theory deficient in Pakistan.The influence of such business activity on the life of entrepreneurs is also analyzed and their behavior towards formal business is also a focus of this dissertation.This dissertation develops a hypothesis based on the interpretive philosophical stance by considering the qualitative research method.This dissertation establishes and evaluates the necessity driven resort of these microentrepreneurs and examines their cases in pursuit of overcoming financial crises and creating self-opportunities.(3)The development of research model for a real time problem of survival of microentrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic by the application of TAM.To improve the business activity and solve the problem of financial crisis during the pandemic,this dissertation proposes an accurate and practical model for studying the relationship between ICT adoption,SN(bridging and bonding),and ESE in sustaining lockdown during and after COVID-19 pandemic,through an established theoretical framework of TAM by considering perceived usefulness and ease of use.This dissertation also focuses that ICT and SN worked mainly during the time of pandemic and almost every entrepreneur worked from home by using these tools.This dissertation overall contributes to grasping opportunities,overcoming socio-cultural barriers,acquisition of resources to raise performance,and creating self-opportunity by studying key factors and introducing practical solution to real time problems in order to improve business and deliver confidence to female entrepreneurs.Furthermore,this dissertation contributes to awake females in Pakistan about their potential and individualism.