dc.description.abstract | This article explores women’s entrepreneurship research conducted in Zimbabwe. For this
purpose, a literature review approach was adopted where all journal articles published
between 1990 and 2018 that addressed the issues of women entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe
were searched and analysed. The articles were searched on Google Scholar using the following
keywords: women entrepreneurs, women small business owners, women in informal sector
and Zimbabwe. In total, 11 articles were retrieved, indicating a dearth of research studies on
women entrepreneurship, particularly from the formal sector perspective, giving a glimpse of
the entrepreneurship landscape in Zimbabwe. The content analysis of the selected articles
resulted in the identification of eight themes: (1) feminism perspective, (2) informal sector
trading, (3) motivations for entrepreneurship, (4) entrepreneurship characteristics, (5) obstacles
in entrepreneurship, (6) socio-cultural challenges, (7) cross-border trading and (8) coping
strategies within the context of women entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe. Discussions on these
themes were situated within the broader literature and trends on existing women
entrepreneurship literature. The study has implications at a practical and theoretical level.
Supporting women entrepreneurship has positive effects on poverty reduction in agreement
with the Sustainable Development Goals, and this study suggests women’s empowerment to
operate at higher echelons of the business sector with bespoke support mechanism that fosters
sustainable development. Also, the study proposed suggestions for future research on women
entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe and other African countries. | en_US |