Broadening the entrepreneurship funnel for women in poverty contexts: Field‐experimental evidence from India

Abstract

Research We study how providing knowledge about “how to do entrepreneurship” influences women's pre‐entry decision to enroll in micro‐entrepreneurship training in poverty settings. We carry out a field experiment study with unemployed women in rural India, randomly exposing them to “founding templates” that depict simple and replicable business set‐ups and practices. We find that exposure to founding templates, especially those that exemplify social support rather than self‐dependence, significantly increases women's sign‐ups to entrepreneurship training. We also find that increased sign‐ups are accompanied by enhanced perceived ease of starting a business. These results shed light on what motivates women in the pre‐entry stage and offer insights on how to increase enrolment, ultimately broadening women's participation in entrepreneurship in poverty contexts.Managerial Micro‐entrepreneurship training is a widely used intervention to support women's participation in entrepreneurship in poverty settings. While existing research predominantly focuses on assessing the impact of such interventions, we ask when women are motivated to sign up for training in the first place. Our study involved a full‐day information workshop, targeting unemployed women in rural India and providing them with frameworks and practical examples of replicable business setups and practices. Results indicate that access to templates, especially those that exemplify social support rather than self‐dependence, significantly boosts women's confidence and motivation to consider entrepreneurship as a viable option. We thus identify a key institutional lever for broadening the funnel of women's entry into training and entrepreneurship.