Reema Altheyab – “Female Entrepreneurship: Factors governing the Performance of Female-owned SMEs in Saudi Arabia” – PhD Seminar

Abstract:

There is limited literature that examines SMEs’ growth, barriers to growth, female entrepreneurs and the Saudi economy dimension, where these are considered together. So, this research aims to make a significant addition to a small body of empirical evidence in the literature review by considering the previous dimensions together. Specifically, it aims to investigate the performance of female-owned SMEs in Saudi Arabia by measuring their sales growth and employment growth, using male-owned SMEs as a control group. It will control for the personal characteristics of the entrepreneur (e.g. age) and for the location of the business. Economic theory of entrepreneurship will be used as the theoretical lens for this research. The research instrument will be a questionnaire. Stratified sampling techniques will be utilised to collect data from 400 Saudi entrepreneurs. The results will show whether barriers to growth are greater for women than for men.