Developing a framework for successful women entrepreneurship in the Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a framework for successful women entrepreneurship in the Nairobi County, Kenya, by focusing on a sample of Nairobi County women entrepreneurs. It is time to share the women entrepreneurs' success stories because entrepreneurship is a roller coaster journey complex with unexpected detours, hurdles, and dead ends. So, who is a successful woman entrepreneur? How has she succeeded where so many have failed? Therefore, the study aimed to make recommendations to assist sustainability and foster the strategic gesture of current and future women entrepreneurs. The study adopted an exploratory, descriptive qualitative research approach, including twelve women entrepreneurs within Nairobi, chosen through a non-probability purposive sampling technique. Women entrepreneurs in County Kenya were interviewed using a semi-structured interview discussion guide. The data analysis process engaged the data-driven inductive method and the deductive templates of codes approach. As a result, seven themes emerged from the empirical data analysis: motivation, perceptions of success, measures of success, attributes of success, contributing success factors, challenges to success and recommendations. Findings revealed that women are motivated to enter entrepreneurship by numerous factors, with the pull and push factors taking the lead. The women in this study were pushed into entrepreneurship by family obligations, job dissatisfaction, and financial and family commitments. The research participants were pulled into entrepreneurship by the desire for independence, the desire to have personal wealth, financial security, recognition, and an affiliate, the opportunity to engage in personal development, and the opportunity to provide security for the family. The study discovered that women entrepreneurs view success through two lenses: personal and business level, interpreted as tangible/objective and monetary. At the same time, the intangible is seen as subjective and non-monetary. In addition, the women entrepreneurs in Nairobi County confirmed that doing business has challenges. The main challenges identified were gender inequalities, socio-economic inequalities, business challenges, financial challenges and work-life balance. The contributing success factors noted in this study include personal attributes, information management, support network, human capital, effective time management and business-specific factors. In addition, a woman entrepreneur's attributes include personal, family, business, and socially oriented attributes. Finally, the study makes recommendations for women entrepreneurs from individual, business, and environmental levels. Additionally, recommendations for decision-makers and policymakers, including the government, financial sector, networking organisations and the education sector, were put forth.