Factors Affecting Enterepreuerial Orientation Level of Business Women: The Case of Gambela Region of Ethiopia

Abstract

It is widely accepted that the Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) sectors have the potential to provide a livelihood for a considerably large number of people in least developed countries such as Ethiopia. African women entrepreneurship development is generally inadequate and beset with numerous constraints and challenges, which have to do with culture, entrepreneurial orientations and their total perceptions in entrepreneurship. This study is therefore to examine women entrepreneurial orientation, determine factors affecting entrepreneurial orientation Level of business women. The result indicated that the levels of EO of business women were in low to medium level of category. The result also showed that number of business, age, level of education, prior experience, the size of the business, business age since its establishment, need of independence motivational factors, self achievement, social network, and market availability (compete) are significantly associated with entrepreneurial orientation. Among the socio-economic variables, diversification of businesses or the tendency to own more than one business has been found to be positively related with the entrepreneurial orientation of women.