Reports on Saudi Arabia entrepreneurship suggest that women get high level support. In fact, the Kingdom has been leading in the Arab region in terms of regulatory reforms related to this field. This progression is a good indicator for the entire kingdom given that women can make significant contributions to the economy. The provision for an integrated study on the history and development of women entrepreneurship as well as the opportunities and challenges in place can be a great motivation to women entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia.
Since the historical elections of two businesswomen to the board of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) in 2005, the history of women entrepreneurship became significant. These women who were also entrepreneurs changed the face of Saudi business and encouraged economic participation of females.
This participation led to other landmark developments such as the 2010 appointment of two businesswomen to the board of the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EPCCI), not to mention the election of a businesswoman to serve as the Vice Chair of JCCI for the first time (Vaid, 2011).
Revisiting such entrepreneurial developments can be a great motivation to the upcoming women entrepreneurs. Hence, this research will review such histories to point out the circumstances that these successful women have gone through.
The purpose of this project is to focus on the development of women entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia with an emphasis on why they chose to start their own businesses. It also identifies various opportunities and problems they face.
A research conducted by Sadi and Al-Ghazali “doing business with impudence” in 2009 is the main motivating factor to research on women entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia (Sadi & Al-Ghazali, 2009). The major aim of their research was to find out the reasons why Saudi women chose to venture in business as well as an examination of the approaches they made.
In Saudi and the Arab region, few researches have been conducted to investigate the trends, opportunities and problems encountered by women entrepreneurs and the motivation they have in running their own businesses. The major aim of the project is to undertake an empirical approach to investigate the potential opportunities and challenges which women entrepreneurs face when venturing in Saudi Arabia.
There is a pressing need to find ways through which upcoming entrepreneurs can be motivated to invest in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this project will consider exploring the historical trends which have made Saudi women to invest in business.
Although there is substantial development in women entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia, Minkus-McKenna investigated ease of starting a business in MENA region and ranked Saudi Arabia below Israel. Although the country was ranked first in the ease of doing business, it is far much behind other MENA countries when it comes to women starting businesses.
The rationale for conducting this research is that Saudi women are increasingly becoming active in entrepreneurship, yet they encounter unique challenges when compared to Saudi men. An investigation of Saudi laws relating to women reveal that they are to date restricted by custom to open their own businesses, buy property, drive and make investments in real estate.
In fact, even the simplest duty of reporting a case to a police station must be accomplished by a male guardian (Abdullah, 2007, p.1). The so called women rights and freedoms are perceived to go against the very moral fiber of conventionalist culture and an ignorant departure from the teachings of Allah to the Muslim community.
When registering for a new business venture, the process is technically the same for both women and men entrepreneurs. The only law applying to ventures owned by women is to have all female workers in the assigned section of women with separate entrance and exit avenues; and a male manager in the section designated for men (Parker, 2007, p.1).
Nonetheless, there have been changes in several decisions pertaining to the rights of Saudi women over the last several years. Until late, a female Saudi could not practice commercial activities without a male agent representing her in management and in handling the procedures for establishing a legal (Fakkar, 2007, p.1). However, it has been suggested that some Saudi women still complain that they require male agents to accomplish certain business tasks.
These observations add to the motive to do the projected research. The project will start with reviewing the history of women entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia. This will offer the opportunity to highlight key women figures and their motivation to business.
The project will then focus on identifying the business opportunities available for Saudi women and the problems they will certainly face when investing as well as making recommendation on how to exploit the opportunities while solving the problems effectively. Thus, the project is a way of motivating and encouraging upcoming Saudi women to venture into new businesses.
In the recent past, a new interest has emerged to encourage women entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia. In October 2010 for instance, the third exhibition for the Young Business Expo was specifically arranged for female Saudis in Jeddah at the International Exhibition Center (Monitor Group & DSG, 2010).
Learning institutions especially universities have engaged in activities that encourage women to start business across the kingdom. International organizations such as Gulf Corporation Council have also embarked on a mission to support women especially in the gulf region where their involvement in business is very low.
Therefore, as a response to these positive developments, this project is also intended to arm Saudi entrepreneurs with the necessary strategies to exploit business opportunities and solutions to the problems they will encounter when venturing.
Methodology
As noted before, this project is largely aimed at discussing the history and the presence of Saudi women entrepreneurs, investigating the business opportunities in place as well as the problems they will certainly encounter in venturing. It is also the aim of the study to recommend the best strategies to exploit the opportunities and most effective solutions to the problems.
A review of the historical trends in women entrepreneurship is imperative because the field lacks enough theoretical and empirical perspectives which can give the necessary information on how to go about women growing their own businesses in Saudi Arabia.
This lack of substantial information on women entrepreneurship calls for an inductive approach of research. Lichtman (2009) is of the opinion that an inductive approach should go with a qualitative research. In this project, the empirical intention is to investigate opportunities and problems encountered by Saudi women in growing their own businesses. It does not involve any measurable quality, hence makes the study qualitative.
The justification for this study approach is that the project focuses on understanding the context within which it takes place and not focusing on a cause-and-effect relationship. It is imperative to avoid a rigid methodology in order to allow for an alternative explanation for what is going on. As Klenke (2008) links an inductive approach to positivism philosophy, the project will try to find out ways to enhance women entrepreneurship by analyzing the responses put forward by successful women entrepreneurs.
Two methods will be adopted to collect data. The first method will be an online survey through questionnaires. This will ensure that the information collected from the participants is standard. The questionnaires will be administered online through email. This will make them available to the target groups who do not work at the same time and eliminate the risk of loss, mishandling and unintended access.
An official at the Eastern Chamber of Commerce Center at Dammam will provide the needed direction to entrepreneurs to get their cooperation. However, the participants will send the filled questionnaire directly to a predetermined email address because some issues such as regulations and financing are sensitive to the government and funding institutions. The responses will be more favorable if the questionnaires are anonymous.
The other method of extracting information will be drop-off and pick-up method that will still use questionnaires. A set of questionnaires will be handed to the business center in the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce. This method is adopted due to the proximity of the region to the researchers.
This secondary source of information will act as the comparative tool for the outcomes of the Dammam case. This is important to ensure that the responses are varied and the sample represents the entire Saudi women population. Considering the size of the sample, it can be argued that certain suggestions may apply to a particular region and not the whole kingdom. Therefore, a comparison is important to test this representation.
Collins (2010, p.42) comments that a research project using an inductive approach is more likely to be concerned with the context in which activities are taking place and might mean that a small sample is more appropriate than a large sample. Therefore, the sample will consist of 75 Saudi women entrepreneurs; 50 will be from Damman and the rest from Jeddah.
These participants will consist of Saudi women who have been successful in growing own businesses. They must be recognized by either the Eastern or Jeddah Chambers of Commerce and be willing to participate. Their businesses must also not be more than three years old. These conditions ensure that the project focuses on the current and relevant aspects under the study.
Data Sources
Primary Data
- Online survey through questionnaires
Secondary Data
- Drop-off and pick-up questionnaires
Literature Sources
- Publication on entrepreneurship history in Saudi Arabia
- Saudi Government publications on women and business
- Publications on women entrepreneurship
- Publications on Saudi Arabia women entrepreneurship
- Publications on Saudi business policies
- Reports from business related agencies such as banks and markets
Aspects of MBA Syllabus Used
This project will apply modules involving various MBA aspects and in particular the courses in Entrepreneurship, finance and strategic management as well as Management of change.
Reference
Abdullah, S. 2007, Jowhara Al-Angari: strengthening Saudi Women’s rights. Web.
Collins, H. 2010, Creative Research: The Theory and Practice of Research for the Creative Industries. AVA Publishing, Worthing.
Fakkar, G. 2007, Removing obstacles to women’s business. Web.
Klenke, K. 2008, Qualitative research in the study of leadership. Emerald Group Publishing, London.
Lichtman, M. 2009, Qualitative Research in Education: A User’s Guide. SAGE, Los Angeles.
Minkus-McKenna, D. 2009, Women entrepreneurs in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Web.
Monitor Group & DSG 2010, Growing aspirations: supporting women’s entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Web.
Parker, M. 2007, Women ‘own’ some 1,500 companies. Web.
Sadi, M. A. & Al-Ghazali, M. 2010, ‘Doing business with impudence: a focus on women entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia.’ African Journal of Business Management, vol.4 no.1, pp. 1-11.
Vaid, I. Y. 2011, ‘Saudi women and entrepreneurship opportunities in architecture and interior design.’ Middle East Studies Online Journal, vol.4 no.3, pp.445-459.