Exploring the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on women entrepreneurs in Pakistan

IF 3.1 Q2 BUSINESS
Faisal Mustafa, A. Khursheed, Maham Fatima, M. Rao
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引用次数: 34

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on micro-businesses owned by women borrowers of microfinance institutions and to provide policy suggestions to assist women entrepreneurs in managing such an unexpected crisis from a qualitative perspective within developing countries such as Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a qualitative research design to explore the impact of COVID-19 on women’s entrepreneurial activities. Seven women entrepreneurs were selected and semi-structured interviews with focused group discussion under case study research design are used. Thereby providing a contemporary view of the issues faced by women entrepreneurs in the period of huge social and economic upheaval. Findings The results provide valuable insights about how the COVID-19 crisis affected women entrepreneurs by particularly considering household income, business sales, lifestyle and mental health. The liquidation of women-led businesses indicated the necessity to reconsider creativity and digitalization for business survival. Moreover, the results also revealed that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the physical, mental and economic well-being of women highlights the need for considering gender gap issues in forming response policies for COVID-19 in developing countries. Originality/value As the COVID-19 crisis is a recent and existing phenomenon, this study is among the first to explore particularly the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on micro-enterprises mainly owned and managed by women. Thereby claiming that COVID-19 not only physically but also psychologically affected women entrepreneurs. Moreover, the study highlights a need of skill focused training programs for women entrepreneurs to make sure that they can protect their businesses during such difficult times.
探讨COVID-19大流行对巴基斯坦女企业家的影响
本文的目的是探讨COVID-19封锁对小额信贷机构女性借款人拥有的微型企业的影响,并从定性的角度提供政策建议,以帮助巴基斯坦等发展中国家的女性企业家应对这一意想不到的危机。设计/方法/方法本研究采用定性研究设计,探讨COVID-19对女性创业活动的影响。选取了7位女企业家,采用案例研究设计下的半结构化访谈和焦点小组讨论。从而为妇女企业家在巨大的社会和经济动荡时期所面临的问题提供了一个当代的观点。调查结果通过特别考虑家庭收入、企业销售、生活方式和心理健康,为了解COVID-19危机如何影响女企业家提供了有价值的见解。女性领导的企业倒闭表明,有必要重新考虑企业生存所需的创造力和数字化。此外,研究结果还显示,2019冠状病毒病大流行对妇女身心和经济福祉的影响突出表明,发展中国家在制定2019冠状病毒病应对政策时需要考虑性别差距问题。由于2019冠状病毒病危机是一个近期存在的现象,本研究是第一批特别探讨疫情对主要由女性拥有和管理的微型企业的影响的研究之一。因此,新冠肺炎不仅在身体上,而且在心理上也影响着女企业家。此外,该研究还强调,需要为女企业家提供以技能为重点的培训项目,以确保她们能够在这种困难时期保护自己的企业。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
7.40
自引率
15.60%
发文量
15
期刊介绍: Launched in 2009, the International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship (IJGE) aims to facilitate the natural evolution of the field of gender and entrepreneurship by drawing together the very best research contributions from around the world. The journal seeks to: -Provide a dedicated publication outlet for high calibre, international research of interest to scholars, entrepreneurs and policy makers in the field of gender and entrepreneurship -Offer a unique perspective on the practice of gender and entrepreneurship by including sections dedicated to practitioner and policy content -Support a more consistent global approach to the presentation of research in the field -Platform the work of dynamic young researchers and those who are in a position to offer new perspectives on this particular research area -Enable those active in the area as researchers, educators, trainers, practitioners, support personnel and policy makers to keep up to date with the field on an international level. The coverage of the journal includes, but is not limited to: Entrepreneurship, Female/Women’s entrepreneurship , Business, Management, Strategy, Gender, Economics, Internationalization, Marketing.
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