Female Entrepreneurship and the Role of Family Support in Oman

What is it about?

This paper assesses the impact that family characteristics have on reducing women’s perception of barriers to entrepreneurship in Oman. The research tests whether family income, entrepreneurship/business experience and family size influences women’s perception of barriers to entrepreneurship. The research found that none of the three family characteristics being tested were able to predict a change in the perception of barriers to entrepreneurship. This finding differs from previous research conducted in the Western world, where family characteristics, including the three being tested, have been found to influence offspring’s entrepreneurial potential and perception of the barriers to entrepreneurship.

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Why is it important?

This research helps to address the paucity of studies about female entrepreneurship in developing countries and the results challenge some of the extant findings in the literature, which have found that family characteristics influence offspring’s entrepreneurial opportunity and perception of barriers in Western contexts. The finding that family characteristics do not influence the perception of barriers to entrepreneurship in Oman, highlights potential weakness in family support for female entrepreneurship. Increasing family and wider institutional support for female entrepreneurship could develop and increase the entrepreneurial potential in Oman.