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Gender in Management: An International Journal
Growth barriers of women-owned home-based businesses in Iran: an exploratory
study
Meisam Modarresi, Zahra Arasti, Kambiz Talebi, Maghsoud Farasatkhah,
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Meisam Modarresi, Zahra Arasti, Kambiz Talebi, Maghsoud Farasatkhah, (2017) "Growth barriers of
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International Journal, Vol. 32 Issue: 4, pp.244-267, https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-03-2016-0069
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Growth barriers of women-owned
home-based businesses in Iran:
an exploratory study
Meisam Modarresi, Zahra Arasti and Kambiz Talebi
Faculty of Entrepreneurship, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, and
Maghsoud Farasatkhah
Department of Planning in Higher Education,
Institute for Research and Planning in Higher Education, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to identify the growth barriers of women’s home-based businesses
(HBBs) in Iran.
Design/methodology/approach –The qualitative approach was used by 22 in-depth interviews with
Iranian female HBBs owners/mangers.
Findings –Business growth barriers of women were categorized in a multi-level framework of individual
barriers (micro), business-related barriers (medium) and environmental barriers (macro). The most important
micro-level barrier is lack of skills and experience, while the nancial barriers identied as the most
business-related one and, nally, the problems of having work interactions with men is the most important
environmental barrier women-owned HBBs mentioned.
Research limitations/implications –The results of this paper can help policy-makers better
understand growth barriers for women-owned HBB and attenuate these barriers by developing purposeful
supportive growth policies that are commensurate with the barriers. Also, HBB women owners themselves
could better concentrate on removing barriers by deepening their understanding of their business growth
barriers.
Originality/value –The paper contributes to the scarce knowledge about women-owned HBBs in Iran, a
rapidly growing, developing country, which can provide better insights from a less explored context.
Moreover, as there is only a limited understanding of HBB growth, especially in relation to women business
owners, the paper results can prove helpful for researchers in the domain of female entrepreneurs.
Keywords Iran, Business growth, Growth barriers, Home-based business, Women’s business
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Encouragement and support of women entrepreneurs could help their effective participation
in the economic development of their countries (Roomi and Parrot, 2008). Although women’s
businesses have recently grown three times faster than men’s, most women’s businesses
have remained small and underdeveloped. In fact, growth is a stage in business development
that many women’s businesses do not experience (Morris et al., 2006). According to the 2012
women’s GEM[1] report, in all economies women exhibit more fear of failure and have a
narrower growth perspective as compared with men, and of course, the effect of limitations
and environmental conditions for men and women are different in all countries such that
women face severe problems when they grow from one stage to the next (Kelley et al., 2012).
In the 2015 GEM report, the environmental constraints on women have been mentioned, yet
again, as the biggest challenge women face worldwide (Kelley et al., 2015). There are different
points of view regarding less growth in women’s businesses. Some feminist theories
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1754-2413.htm
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Received 31 March 2016
Revised 19 October 2016
Accepted 9 December 2016
Gender in Management: An
International Journal
Vol. 32 No. 4, 2017
pp. 244-267
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1754-2413
DOI 10.1108/GM-03-2016-0069
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attribute gender differences in business growth to gender discriminations (Cliff, 1998)or
deliberate choices of women (Brush et al., 2004). Some other researchers refer to the
service-oriented nature of women’s businesses (Buttner, 1993).
On the other hand, the home-based business (HBB) is one of the most popular types of
businesses among women, such that work at home is an important source of employment for
women all around the world (Chen et al., 1999). Because while engaged in generating income
from such activities, women can manage household affairs and take care of children, as well
(Sinai, 1998). Women-owned HBBs are expanding in all sectors, mostly in a full-time and
determined way, and providing both local and global societies with much added value
(Wynarczyk and Graham, 2013); yet, they are faced with numerous problems and obstacles
on their path toward growth. The women who own HBBs experience rather more problems
compared to their male counterparts (Mason and Reuschke, 2015). As home businesses are
considered one of the major ways to resolve the problem of unemployment among women
(White, 1996;Mahmud, 2003), the owners of home businesses in Iran are also mostly women.
However, only a very limited number of people are employed in women-owned HBBs and
usually everything is handled by the owner of the business. This shows that women-owned
HBBs lack the motivation or ability needed for business growth (Modarresi, 2013). Although
studies have been conducted on women-owned HBBs growth obstacles, (Holmes et al., 1997;
Breen, 2010;Breen and Karanasios, 2010), rst, there is a need for much more research
(Breen, 2010), and second, most of the studies related to women’s entrepreneurship (including
women-owned home businesses) have been only conducted in the context of the Western
countries and there is only limited research on Islamic societies in this respect (Roomi, 2013).
Moreover, these limited studies (McElwee and Al-Ryami, 2003;Roomi and Parrot, 2008;
Jamali, 2009;Mordi et al., 2010) have not taken the growth barriers in HBBs into
consideration (in the context of Islamic countries). In light of the above-mentioned issues and
the importance of focusing on understanding the barriers on the path of growth with respect
to women’s entrepreneurship in special contexts, it becomes possible to strengthen positive
policy measures and also minimize the entrepreneurial gender gap (De Bruin et al., 2007).
On the other hand, the handicraft industry plays an essential role in the economy of
developing countries (Richard, 2007), such as Iran, by generating wealth for local communities as
well as ensuring the continuation of local traditions from one generation to another (Graburn,
2006), through poverty reduction and sustainable development (Vencatachellum, 2006), rural
development (Gough and Rigg, 2012) and protection of local cultures (Yang, 2006). Moreover, the
economic participation and export markets of this industry is expanding in developing countries
(Richard, 2007). For instance, the handicraft sector in India has created 6 million job opportunities
(Garg and Dhingra, 2014) or Columbia has an annual revenue of $400mn from sales and
production of handicrafts (Hnatow, 2009). In Iran, according to the head of Iran’s Cultural
Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO), the handicraft sector comprises 70
per cent of HBBs, the majority of which are owned by women (CHTN, 2014). Iran is one of the
three major countries in the world with the highest rate of handicraft production and the highest
variety. But handicrafts only account for 1.3 per cent of the country’s export (MIMT, 2014).
Therefore, this study aims at lling the gap and developing an insight about the growth obstacles
of women’s HBBs within the handcraft industry in Iran as a Muslim country with its special
socio-cultural contexts for women.
Gender and business growth barriers
Women’s businesses are one of the fastest growing entrepreneurial groups in the world that
have signicant contribution to GNP, jobs, innovations and societal welfare (Brush and
Cooper, 2012). Despite the increase in women’s ownership and the number of female
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entrepreneurs, women-owned businesses are smaller in size, sales growth and the number of
employees compared to businesses owned by men (Morris et al., 2006). Moreover, a literature
review of female entrepreneurs suggests that the majority of women are less likely to pursue
various forms of entrepreneurial activities (e.g. launching a business, owning/managing a
business, commercialization) than men (Jennings and Brush, 2013). This might be because
women entrepreneurs face numerous problems compared to their male counterparts, when
growing from one stage to the next (Kelley et al., 2012).
The theory of liberal feminism argued that gender discrimination has limited women’s
abilities, creating barriers to their growth (Welter et al., 2014). For instance, difculty in
obtaining managerial experiences because of job discrimination (Greer and Greene, 2003)
and unequal opportunities for men and women in the eld of entrepreneurship (Cliff, 1998)
are among the reasons that trigger the barriers to women’s business growth. However, social
feminists argue that women’s aims and preferences may vary based on their social values;
and these preferences restrict their perspectives for growth (Welter et al., 2014). For example,
keeping a business small to avoid neglecting the family issues can be a preference for women
(Brush et al., 2004). Gender limitations make women select small-sized service businesses
which are mostly home-based with a low start-up capital and a very low growth potential, so
that they can play their main gender role (Ehlers and Main, 1998).
The institutional theory considers the restrictive boundaries which impose rules, policies,
institutions and culture on entrepreneurship. This theory suggests that the growth or lack of
growth in women’s entrepreneurship is inuenced by the formal and informal institutions
governing the society (Welter et al., 2014). For example, less legitimacy and credibility for
women’s entrepreneurship bring about restrictions for women in the society (Baughn et al.,
2006), or women’s businesses in male-dominated societies will be mostly conned to
self-employment, employment in traditional elds (handicrafts), as well as low-growth and
home-based jobs (Welter and Smallbone, 2010).
Regardless of the fact that which theories should be used as the basis for explaining
women’s entrepreneurship, a better identication of women’s entrepreneurship requires a
study of a complicated collection of the interaction of (related) factors at the macro, medium
and micro levels. The importance of having an appropriate theoretical framework that
considers all the three levels have been duly emphasized in key researches in this domain
(Brush et al., 2009;De Bruin et al., 2007). De Bruin et al. (2007, p. 334) described such a
framework in this way:
[…] an integrated framework must reect the embeddedness of women’s entrepreneurship in the
macro, meso, and micro environments. Moreover, the framework should also have a cultural context
so that differences across countries and institutional settings can be analyzed.
Notwithstanding, little attention has been paid to this subject, and very few studies have
taken these three levels into account when conducting research on women’s
entrepreneurship (Jamali, 2009). Syed and Ozbilgin (2009) developed a suitable multi-level
framework that bridges the divide between macro/national, meso/organizational and micro/
individual levels of analyses. In their viewpoint, the macro level involves societal and
structural conditions (laws, institutions, culture and political economy);the micro level
includes factors like individual agency, motivation, identity and various forms of human
capital that inuence individual capabilities and opportunities and the meso level involves
organizational processes that mediate employment opportunities according to individual
abilities and contextual circumstances. This multi-level framework that was previously used
by Jamali (2009) in the women’s entrepreneurship eld is very useful for conducting a more
comprehensive, realistic and context-specic framing of women’s entrepreneurship,
especially women’s business barriers, because women suffer from multi-facet barriers
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including micro-, meso- and macro-level factors in any given specic context (Jamali, 2009).
Sometimes, however, the categorization of these factors into different levels is somewhat
difcult because of their interactions and overlaps. For instance, although an entrepreneurial
woman has the responsibility to play a maternal part – a role at the micro level – this can be
also viewed at the macro level, if the socio-cultural norms of a society consider the maternal
part as a superior role for a woman (Brush et al., 2009). Table I illustrates studies conducted
on growth barriers to women’s businesses.
In general and after reviewing the related literature, it can be said that access to capital
and nancial support is considered as the most important barrier to the growth of women’s
businesses in most parts of the world (Coleman, 2007;Roomi et al., 2009). Compared to men,
women encounter very tough procedures for obtaining capital (Derera et al., 2014), and once
they try to access various kinds of entrepreneurial capital, they are placed in an unfair
position because of cultural and socio-economic contexts where they work and also because
of occupational experiences and personal concerns (Carter and Shaw, 2006). As a matter of
fact, the characteristics of the two different genders, that is the owner (a woman) and the
business (mostly male-dominated), cause discriminations in access to capital (Loscocco et al.,
1991). Reviewing the literature proves that the barriers which are specic to women (which
men may rarely face) are related to family issues as well as socio-cultural problems, including
lack of social support or approval, both of which are heavily inuenced by gender
characteristics. Women have less work experience compared to men; therefore, it adversely
Table I.
A summary of studies
on growth barriers of
women’s businesses
Researcher Barriers to women’s businesses
Hisrich and Brush (1986) Lack of experience in nancial planning, conict between business and
personal affairs, poor locations, lack of capital and professional skill
Still and Guerin (1991) Lack of support and expert services, lack of nance, lack of business
management skills such as marketing as well as the simultaneous
management of both the house and the business
Loscocco and Robinson
(1991)
Lack of access to governmental agreements and capital, lack of managerial
and business skills and family obligations
Brush (1997) Lack of being taken seriously; responsibilities toward their children; shortage
of capital; lack of education or entrepreneurial trainings
McElwee and Al-Ryami
(2003)
Lack of women’s business networks to exchange information and receive
consultation on job-related subjects, bureaucracy and its expenses, lack of
needed skills and difculty in employing experts
Grundy and Ben-Yosef
(2004)
Lack of access to the required capital, lack of business knowledge, cultural
attitudes toward women’s understanding of their position in the society
Brush and Gatewood (2008) Lack of motivation and ambitions, commitments, accounting knowledge and
insight, nancial relations and social networks
Roomi and Parrot (2008) Lack of access to capital, land, business location, information technology and
training, inherent attitudes in a male-dominated society, support and
encouragement by family members and lack of social capitals
Roomi et al. (2009) Lack of information needed for developing the business, lack of skillful
workforce, inability to create networks, lack of training opportunities, the
responsibility of taking care of babies and family requirements
Jamali (2009) Creating balance between the business and family life, negative social
attitudes and accessibility of capital
Mordi et al. (2010) Family obligations; lack of access to capital and networks; lack of acceptance
S.M.A. et al. (2016) Lack of social acceptance for women’s entrepreneurial ventures and women-
owned businesses, inadequate credibility as a result of little training,
insufcient experience and/or education for running a business and difculty
in accessing mostly male-dominated networks
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affects the (female) human capital needed for the growth of their business (Fairlie and Robb,
2009). Moreover, gender differences in social capital stemming from gender-dominated roles
in a society have a direct effect on the decision to expand a business and, accordingly, on its
survival and success (Elam and Brush, 2010).
Barriers to the growth of women’s home-based businesses
In a systematic review of the literature on HBBs, Anwar and Daniel (2014) suggested that
most of the research in this domain address the gender-related topics, while only few studies
have been conducted on the growth of HBBs (Vorley and Rodgers, 2012). Meanwhile,
researchers have reached different results on the growth of women’s HBBs. Some studies
have found these kinds of businesses weak and with very limited motivation and potential
for growth (Loscocco and Smith-Hunter, 2004;Thompson et al., 2009). Yet, most studies
conducted on women’s HBBs have proved that they are completely serious and are growing
across all sectors (Breen, 2010;Breen and Karanasios, 2010;Wynarczyk and Graham, 2013;
Clark and Douglas, 2014;Modarresi et al., 2016b). The rst group believes that women go for
HBBs because they have no other alternatives. Therefore, as the house is used as a business
location, the growth of their business has been limited; their activity is thoroughly made
marginal, because less time is used for the business; its survival is even under question
(Thompson et al., 2009), but Breen and Karanasios (2010) believe that managerial
qualications and access to capital and marketing skills make women-owned HBBs grow. Of
course, there are signicant gender differences at work in HBBs (Holmes et al., 1997). The
barriers to the growth of HBBs are different to some extent for men and women. For example,
a study in Australia (Breen, 2010) showed that the lack of capital was a common barrier for
both genders, but women’s family commitments versus men’s risk-aversion characteristic
have been two different barriers with regard to HBBs. A study by Mason and Reuschke
(2015) on HBBs in Scotland showed that women who owned HBBs experience rather more
problems compared to their male counterparts. According to their ndings, disappearance of
the boundaries between the family and the business, isolation, limited working space and
difculty in employing people are among the women’s HBBs problems. Moreover, based on
the results of the study by Wynarczyk and Graham (2013), the obstacles to the growth of
women’s HBBs are as follows: lack of skills in using and upgrading technology in the
business, lack of technical skills and the related supports, lack of managerial skills – a
business which leads to imbalance between life and business for some women and
outsourcing are not cost-effective for a small-sized HBB – isolation and lack of interaction
with co-workers and, as a result, lack of access to networking or local supporting groups for
(using) consultation on business problems. The results of Newbery and Bosworth (2010) also
showed that capital, role conict between home and the business, access to social networks,
size and characteristics of home plan, lack of skillful workers and employment-related rules
are considered to be the barriers to the growth of women’s HBBs. Among other obstacles that
prevent women’s HBBs from growing, one can mention the fact that most of such businesses
fail to gain access to governmental supports; they confront hindrances in gaining access to
information and trainings and other kinds of supports; and they are even uninformed of
services provided by the governments to support small-sized businesses (Ali, 2011).
Women entrepreneurs in Iran
Women account for half of the population in Iran, but women’s participation rate in the
Iranian labor market is just 12.4 per cent, resulting in total women’s unemployment rate of
19.8 per cent (Rayesi et al., 2014). Furthermore, according to the World Economic Forum
(2015) report, among145 countries surveyed, Iran is among the countries with a high gender
gap in economy ranking: 141 in terms of women’s economic participation; 143 in terms of
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sub-indices such as market participation; 106 in terms of leadership positions; and 108 in
terms of professional careers (which particularly deserves consideration given the high rate
of educated women in Iran). Compared to Western countries, the Iranian society, especially
the Iranian women, suffer from some kind of a mismatch between economic and cultural
changes and the outcomes of a modern world have not been properly aligned with deeper
cultural and social contexts (Javaheri and Ghozati, 2004). Indeed, there is a conict arising
from the Islamic teachings in Iran against the pressure from the secular world; this in turn
results in Iranian women facing barriers to career advancement despite exploiting career and
training opportunities provided through globalization and information technology
(Arab-Moghaddam et al., 2007). Therefore, Iranian women view self-employment as a way of
overcoming the structural barriers to entry to the public sector (Javadian and Addae, 2013)
and occupational segregation (Arasti, 2006;Javadian and Addae, 2013) as well as a means of
contributing to economic development (Arasti, 2006). As a result, women’s entrepreneurship
does not seem to be enjoying an appropriate business environment in Iran, and despite
increased entrepreneurial activities by women, the ratio of businesses run by women to
businesses run by their male counterparts are 2 to 10. This is while the ratio is 50 to 50 in
countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa and Thailand (Kelley et al., 2012). Of course,
the status of entrepreneurship is not very favorable for men either. Based on a GEM (2014)
report, Iran has the worst rank with regard to entrepreneurship as a career choice in
resource-based economies. Also, Iranian female entrepreneurs are too cautious. One of the
main reasons for this can be traced in the socio-cultural structures of Iran which are not
encouraging at all for women’s entrepreneurial activities. There are numerous negative
beliefs and values commonly shared in Iran with relation to women’s employment and
entrepreneurship, especially in small towns. Arasti (2006, p. 109) studied some of these
values in her study on a sample of well-educated women entrepreneurs: a woman’s
employment is considered unacceptable if her family does not need her salary; a woman’s
employment is not allowed, because a woman’s nancial independence is interpreted as a
decline in her husband’s power over her; house-keeping and child care are the most important
responsibilities of a woman; the society simply cannot approve of the presence of women in
certain jobs; it is unacceptable for a woman to work in an all-male working environment; the
society simply cannot approve of the presence of women as a manager; the society does not
believe in women’s managerial skills; and the social insecurity of women. It is noticeable that
these beliefs are compounded by the families that reinforce excessive dependency of girls on
their mothers, believe that girls and boys have different manners of nding autonomy, give
boys more freedom in being away from home, and it is exacerbated in the context of
education by regenerating gender inequalities such as gender segregation and depiction of
male superiority in the contents of educational resources. This, in general, leads to the
development of a poor gender identity among women which, in turn, affects the
psychological and personal structures of women and their attitudes toward
entrepreneurship (Javaheri and Ghozati, 2004). But the results of Arasti’s (2006) show that
despite all this and all the challenges that Iranian female entrepreneurs face, they have the
necessary qualities and skills for being competent entrepreneurs at running their ventures
like in other parts of the world. In fact, college education has attenuated the negative beliefs
toward female entrepreneurs in the society (Arasti and Akbarijokar, 2008) and gave women
entrepreneurs enough self-condence to deal with these barriers (Arasti, 2006). Moreover, it
is expected that with time more women nd themselves in entrepreneurial positions than
before in Iran (Javadian and Singh, 2012). As mentioned in the Forbes report, with an increase
in the level of university education, Iranian women have progressively gained more presence
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in the domains of business and have played a signicant role in the development of startups
(Guttman, 2015).
Many individual and environmental factors affect women’s business growth. Results of a
qualitative study on a sample of Iranian experts on women’s entrepreneurship (Arasti et al.,
2012) pointed out that growth orientation is a complex phenomenon which is affected by
personal factors including goals (economic and non-economic), motives (push and pull
factors), female identity (internal and external stakeholders), and individual characteristics
(personality and demographic characteristics and personal attitudes and skills).
In the Iranian context, despite the recently growth of women’s in business, many women
experience internal and external barriers to start a business. Some of internal problems of
women in business are related to their less self-condence, less achievement motivation,
more fear of failure, weakness in entrepreneurial networks, and nally less knowledge and
experience both in business and management. However, their external barriers are related to
their access to nancial and non-nancial resources, social value about women’s abilities in
management, lack of role model in the society, and nally diversity of their responsibilities
which cause difculty in work–family balance (Arasti and Bahmani, 2017).
As there is no study conducted on growth of women’s HBBs in the context of Iran, it is
clearly essential to do more in-depth studies on this subject. The present research aims to ll
this gap and, as indicated by Javadian and Singh (2012), contributes to the literature on the
newly emerged subject of women’s entrepreneurship in Iran while keeping a demanding eye
to the global theoretical participation because of the limited studies in this area. So the
present paper is aimed at identifying growth barriers to women’s HBBs in Iran, a rapidly
growing, developing country, which can provide more insights from a less-explored context
and further add to its body of knowledge.
Research methodology
Research approach
As indicated by Henry et al. (2015), entrepreneurship and gender-related research should
approach qualitative methodologies such as biographies, case studies and discourse
analyses more carefully; in this study, a qualitative research methodology has been used
based on in-depth interviews, as we need to develop insight about people (women owning
and managing HBBs in this study), attitudes, behaviors, value systems, concerns and
motivations, culture and lifestyles (Richards, 2005).
Sample and data collection
In line with the denition of Roberts and Chrisman (1996), the participants of this study were
women who had started and expanded a business from home and were still operating all or
part of their business activities at home and used their home as the location of their business.
To dene an expanded business, Delmar and Wiklund (2008) indicated both nancial
measures (increase in sales) and non-nancial measures (increase in number of employees),
but Bamiatzi and Kirchmaier (2014) mentioned increase in sales as business expansion. To
select our sample, a database of home-based women entrepreneurs operating in the
handicraft industry was obtained from the handicraft syndicate in the province of Tehran.
Then, by obtaining information from syndicate ofcials, phone interviews with women
entrepreneurs and visiting women’s workshops in some cases, we carefully selected a list of
40 women’s HBBs with more than 3.5 years of experience and increased sales. But
interestingly, some of them also had increase in the number of employees.
Data were gathered using semi-structured face-to-face interviews with the women from
the list of women’s HBBs who accepted to participate in this research. They were asked to
explain the barriers they suffered from in growing their businesses. While in a qualitative
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study, it is not possible to predict the sample size from the beginning; interviews continued
until the process of analysis and discovery reached the point of theoretical saturation. In
total, 22 in-depth interviews were conducted.
The theoretical saturation of data greatly helps the internal validity of the qualitative
research (Rao and Perry, 2003). Furthermore, based on Eisenhardt (1989), three techniques
were used to increase the validity and reliability of the qualitative data. First, the response
speculation technique was used to avoid the additional effect of the respondents when asking
an open-ended question. Then, the interviewees were reassured that the data would be
published condentially and anonymously so as to increase the truthfulness of the
statements. Ultimately, by pre-announcing the meeting topic, each interviewee had prior
experience and knowledge about the goal of the study.
Table II shows a detailed description of the women who were interviewed in this research.
Most of them were married, aged between 30 and 40 and 55 per cent of them had university
education.
A majority of them started their businesses from home in the past four years. A few of them
(four participants) had established a workshop outside their home and performed only a part
of their work at an external workshop. It should be noted that all of the respondents
conrmed their sales growth but were reluctant to mention their turnover and other nancial
data. Job creation through these businesses was very low, and the businesses were usually
operated by the owners. In this study, only 32 per cent of the HBBs had more than one
employee.
Of the examined business ventures, 55 per cent use exhibitions as the only channels to
offer their products. Only 18 per cent of them handled all business tasks including sales at
home. This indicates the special cultural constraints, difculty of commuting to private
properties and problems at home. Moreover, only 27 per cent of them used the internet as a
complementary measure for selling their products. This indicates the predominance of
traditional methods of management and marketing in Iranian HBBs.
Table II.
Prole of
entrepreneurs and
home-based
businesses
Personal prole No. (%) Home-based business prole No. (%)
Age Age of the business
Fewer than 30 4 (18) 4-6 14 (64)
30-40 14 (64) 6-8 6 (27)
More than 40 4 (18) More than 8 2 (9)
Educational level Number of employees
Secondary school 10 (45) 1 15 (68)
Bachelor’s degree 11 (50) 1-10 3 (14)
Master’s degree 1 (5) More than 10 4 (18)
Marital status Place of sale products
Single 5 (23) Only home 4 (18)
Married 15 (68) Only exhibition 12 (55)
Divorced 2 (9) Internet as a supplementary place besides home
and exhibition
6 (27)
Number of children Location of business
Fewer than 2 15 (68) Tehran 11 (50)
2 7 (32) Varamin 6 (27)
Total 13 had children Shahryar 3 (14)
Boumehen 2 (9)
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Data analysis
The systematic content analysis method was used for a detailed analysis of the data. Hence,
the data were collected and analyzed concurrently, and each interview was compared to the
previous interviews. The data analysis consisted of three stages of open coding, axial coding
and selective coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) on 22 interviews. Open coding is generally
the initial stage of qualitative data analysis. In the opening part of the analysis, the emphasis
was placed on words, not on their meanings. The transcripts of all the interviews were read
carefully and coded one by one. At axial coding, the researcher identied facts that
illustrated or justied certain themes and made it possible to divide the data into themes and
sub-themes. Normally, the identication of main themes and sub-themes takes place during
the phase of selective coding. After open coding, the developed codes were reviewed by
comparing the interviews. Then, the repeated categories were omitted, and the smaller
categories were integrated into more general ones (axial coding). Finally, the theoretical
framework by Syed and Ozbilgin (2009) was used to link the data with the theoretical
explanation of the ndings. As a result, the identied themes (i.e. barriers) which were
individual in nature and stemmed from the individual’s situation were classied under the
sub-category of “micro-individual barriers”. The barriers related naturally to the HBB were
classied under the sub-category of “meso-organisational barriers”. And nally, the barriers
which stemmed from the environment were classied under the sub-category of “macro/
national barriers”.
Research ndings
This section presents the results of the content analysis of the in-depth interviews on growth
barriers to women-owned HBBs. After axial codication of the narrations, 13 barriers were
identied, and with consideration of the multi-level framework by Syed and Ozbilgin (2009)
and based on their nature, these barriers were classied into three categories:
micro/individual, meso/organizational and macro/national barriers.
Micro/individual barriers
Lack of skills and experience. Most of the women in this study had, out of necessity, turned to
entrepreneurship as a form of self-employment to earn an income; they lacked sufcient
previous experience for doing business; and they had not undertaken any training course to
obtain business skills. Almost half of them had not high educational levels, and when even
educated, they had not graduated in management or business elds of study and they had
not even been trained for business skills. They admitted that they lacked basic business
skills, especially in marketing and advertisement elds, while marketing is deemed as a
basic skill for the growth of a business. More than half (55 per cent) of women owning HBBs
in this study admitted that they were embarrassed and suffered from lack of marketing
knowledge and need for business marketing training. Mozhdeh, a 26-year-old married
woman with no children and who had a 6-year-old business stated:
I did not know the market, and did not know either how to sell what I produced. The easiest way I
knew was the internet, but it had its own problems, because I did not know how to advertise and how
to introduce my website.
Low physical ability. Insufcient physical ability for doing certain jobs, tiredness, muscular
weakness and job-related physical damage have been mentioned by some women (28 per
cent) as problems in doing more work and accepting more orders; two of them were of course
women with physical disabilities. The subject can be related to the specic nature of
handiworks which imposes pressures mainly on the arms or other limbs; women’s HBBs in
other areas might not require more power and muscular body. Among other cases related to
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low physical ability mentioned by these women, we can refer to the difculty of lifting heavy
objects, moving and carrying weighty loads and the exhaustion caused by doing physical
jobs. Delaram, a 23-year-old single woman who had been in her business since she was 18,
explained:
This job needs a little masculine strength; that’s why my hands are full of blistersall the time. If I
went on doing the job, the blisters of my hands would pop up. I had to wait for them to get well, so
that I could resume my job, later. […] Sometimes, my patience would grow thin because of the heavy
pressure on my arms and neck.
Family responsibilities. Similar to many other societies, women shoulder family burdens
in Iran, and men seldom take part in activities like cooking or looking after the children
to help women. Female entrepreneurs in this study are not an exception. Some of these
women considered numerous house-keeping duties as hindrances in the way to their
business growth. In addition to creating job-induced stress and anxiety, these numerous
roles and duties can limit the time needed to spend for running the business. It is clear in
the statements made by the Masoumeh, a 41-year-old mother of two children with a
7-year-old business:
[…] in addition to doing my business, I am also performing my husband’s administrative jobs,
I do the cooking at home, I have to deal with the kids and check their progress at school every
now and then. I have to work even on weekends from 8 a.m. till late at night in order to make up
for my last week’s overdue jobs […] all my work is done in a hurry. I face lack of time for doing
my house work.
Family members’ disapproval. Although most of the women in this study talked about their
family’s support in expanding their businesses, only few of them (three individuals)
expressed that their families (spouse, children) were openly against the growth of their
businesses for different reasons, the most important of which was concerns about the
women’s physical health and men’s strict cultural considerations toward women in Iranian
families. For instance, Nikia, a 31-year-old single woman with a master’s degree, who was a
university teacher, stated:
[…] I have problems in running a workshop. My family wants the workshop to be in a nearby
location, a familiar and safe place like the center of the city. But now you could hardly nd
workshops which are not far away or in the outskirts. That is why my father opposes running a
workshop out of the city.
Apparently, it is of great importance to ensure women’s psychological and social security in
Iranian families; the limitations caused by the male members of the family in ensuring such
security are considered as barriers to the growth of women’s businesses, especially among
single women. Zahra, a 42-year-old woman with two children and a 7-year-old business,
narrated the problem as follows:
My husband is strictly disapproves of it. He says it is better to quit your job today than tomorrow.
He says women should not be nancially independent. If they are, they will become rude. He says a
woman has the responsibility of taking care of her husband and children in the best manner, not
working outside […] my kids are not happy about me working. They, too, tell me to stop working,
because they are concerned about my physical health.
The statements made by this interviewee are true about the women whose husbands believe
in a negative stereotype; these husbands say that “a working woman and her nancial
independence will reduce the man’s authority”. It is also true about the women whose family
members are worried about their health.
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Meso/organizational barriers
Business nancing. The biggest barrier that most of the interviewed women in this study (96
per cent) faced in terms of business growth was related to lack of capital and difculty in
nancing the growth of their business. They believed that government’s nancial support
for HBBs was too little to pave the way for business growth. The maximum amount of loan
for the HBBs was too small and could not help the business growth, on the one hand, and
there were many strict procedures for receiving these very small amounts of loan, on the
other hand. Banks usually avoid giving loans intended for HBBs for the fear that the
borrower would not be able to pay it back, or by requesting heavy collateral, the banks
dissuade the applicants because they cannot nd sponsors or prepare securities or collateral.
Some of the interviewed women stated that they had come across problems both in
supplying raw materials and also in employing workers, because of the lack of capital, while
some others failed to run an out-of-the-city workshop, because they could not generate the
capital for renting or buying a suitable place. Leila, a 38-year-old divorced woman with one
child and a 12-year-old business, pointed to this barrier as follows:
If I had the required capital, my business would develop so much. When there are more orders, you
need more hands; and the more money and sponsors you have, the bigger can be your business. We
can now accept and nish 4 orders out of 10, because rstly I cannot afford the money for the raw
materials, and secondly, I do not have enough capital to employ more workers […]. I myself kept on
requesting for a loan several times, my father did so as, well, but all in vain. I requested a loan so that
it could serve as an initial investment to promote my business, but the bank told me that there was
no budget. Once I found someone to recommend me to the bank, but I was told there was a need for
two civil servants as my bondsmen. I could not nd any one, so I was not granted the loan.
Disturbance and restriction of working hours. Using the house space for business activities
usually causes disturbances for the people around. The female entrepreneurs in this study
believed that noise, disorderliness and commuting of customers are among the causes that
trigger the protest of family members and sometimes the neighbors. Delaram says:
[…] There are so much noise, disorderliness and dirtiness in this business; for example, when I break
a tile, small pieces of the broken tile would scatter all over the place, say, on the T.V. set and under
the sofa, and I cannot stop it. For example, once my mum was walking about the room, when
suddenly a shard of glass cut her foot; she then began screaming and complained what a business it
was! […] The noises would sometimes disturb the neighbors, so I had to work in the morning till
noon; I was forced to stop working in the afternoon and in the evening.
Female entrepreneurs are compelled to set a time limit for doing their business to minimize
the troubles and to respect both the family members and the neighbors. However, the
restriction and reduction of working hours are regarded as barriers to doing more activities
and, in turn, the business growth.
Lack of concentration and repeated work interruptions. The interviewed women believed
that there was no complete concentration when doing business in the house. Some of the
interviewees mentioned guest’s visits as the major cause of work interruptions. Nasim, a
31-year-old married woman with one child who had a 4-year-old business, stated:
It has happened many a time that I have brought my working tools in the hall (of the house when an
unexpected guest has come to my house forcing me to pack all the tools. After the guest is gone, I do
not have any concentration to resume the job […] when we have an uninvited guest, everybody
would say, “Come on! Put everything away!” But that’s easier said than done, because you have to
collect the tools one by one; I have suffered a lot for that.
The nature of HBBs and, in fact, doing the business affairs and handling the
mother-dependent kids as well as the children’s needs can impose repeated pauses and
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interruptions, which take their toll on the concentration needed for the job. For instance,
Zohreh, 40-year-old mother with two children and a 4-year-old business, stated:
Sometimes, it happens that I cannot resume my work for at least two hours, when my small son
begins screaming, because I thoroughly lose my concentration, and because it is a
thinking-based and energy-consuming job. For example, you have to think at the same time
about two million colors, and single out the color to make your design. Therefore, you need a
very calm environment.
The above-cited cases may reduce the quality and the quantity of their business and have a
negative impact on more business activities and growth.
Lack of sufcient space. Insufcient space is a major problem for most of the interviewed
women (64 per cent) in developing their businesses. Expressing discontent with the lack of a
separate working space and/or a limited work space, the women believed that they were
beset by the lack of space. They had to take measures to arrange for an outside space to
develop their business which was not always possible because of high rental fees. Shabnam,
a 32-year-old married woman with a 5-year work experience, stated:
We lack sufcient workspace, and our space inside the house is too small and I cannot accept many
orders as a result […] (When I was young) there were too many members in our family and we had
only two rooms. Can you imagine that I had occupied one fourth of the home space? If we had just one
separate room or even a very small store, it would be great.
No place to sell the products. Having no place to offer products is another problem which half
of the women complained about. They believe that they might be able to overlook or tolerate
the problem of space insufciency for production, yet they face a more serious problem in
offering their products. It was hard for the customers to come to the house because the family
members would oppose or the neighbors might object and/or the customers themselves did
not like it. Therefore, most of the HBBs had problem selling their products. As they lacked
sufcient space to store and keep their products, they had to deal with middle-men, and
accordingly, they had to sell their products at a very low price. These are the brokers who
mainly get the lion’s share. Masoumeh said:
Since there is no place for me to sell my product, I am forced to offer it to middle-men; the problem
is that they want to gain much of the prot. For example, they sell the product they buy from me at
a double price. I don’t make a prot proportionate to the efforts I expend (for the production), but the
broker is gaining a double prot.
The interviewed women believed that there was not a permanent fair to sell their products to
encourage them to increase their production. They claim that the existing fairs are rst held
temporarily, and second, the booths are rented at very high fees. Mozhdeh points to this
problem:
There has to be a place where we can easily offer our products. As a producer, I have to know that
if I produce at home for 20 days, there is a place to sell them […]. All producers suffer from the same
problem; they produce, but they have no place to offer (their products). The places (booths) they offer
are too expensive. How much prot do I gain to pay millions of Rials for a booth?
Macro/national barriers
The problems of having work interactions with men. A considerable number of the
interviewed women (73 per cent) were dissatised with the masculine working environment
in Iran. They believed that the negative stereotypes about working women, particularly
those working with men, had led men to treat them unequally, misuse their femininity and
defraud them. Nikta explained:
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When I go shopping, just because I am a woman, some shopkeepers shortchange or overcharge me,
because they believe women know nothing about business.
Another problem with female entrepreneurs was that they were not trusted completely.
Some men avoid transacting with businesswomen. Nasim stated:
When I take my works to show them to the shopkeepers, they reject them. They, sometimes, reject
them without asking the price. But, when I have my husband or my father takes my works to the
shops, they buy it because [they] think it is much better to work with men.
This distrust in women is visible even in the public sector. The interviewed women
complained about public inequalities toward women and the lack of equal opportunities
compared to men. Homaa, a 38-year-old mother of two children who wrote and painted
besides her engagement in the handicrafts, said:
Early in my career, when I approached an organization to do the marketing for my works, nobody much
cared for me. They did not hear me because I was a woman […] They do not give major projects to
women […] Since most organizational decision-makers are men, there is discrimination against women.
For example, if an exhibition is going to be held, most exhibition stands are given to men.
In all the above cases, businesswomen are in unequal conditions compared to businessmen
which have a signicant negative effect on the growth of their business.
Negative attitude of the society toward home-based businesses. Some of the interviewees
consider negative mentality as a barrier. Samaneh, a 35-year-old married woman with one
child who has an 8-year-old business, explains this problem:
The mentality [towards home business] is negative. Maybe because they [the society] believe that
works accomplished at home have poor quality or, as the case maybe, they fear that the home
address might change and no one could be held responsible.
Or Somayyeh, a 25-year-old single woman who has a 4-year-old business, explains:
No one takes home-based businesses seriously. Those who work at home are given no credits and
are viewed as cheap workers.
Lack of support services. Some of the interviewed women believed that the lack of access to an
individual or a center to guide them with respect to business or provide them with consulting
services was the most important barrier to improving their businesses. Mozhdeh stated:
I had no experience and there was no one to guide me […] There’s no place to answer my questions.
So, I should learn by trial and error which takes a long time to giveyou the know-how.
However, only four women complained about the above issue and the rest of the respondents
did not consider it as a serious barrier to business growth.
Legal barriers. Legal barriers and complicated procedures were among the barriers
experienced by some women studied here. The regulations related to insurance and
complicated procedures of acquiring some permission were among the barriers mentioned
by some women. Fatemeh, a 35-year-old divorced woman with one child, who has also
worked in a charity organization and had been an employment supervisor, said:
You work at home, in the hope of getting an old-age pension after 20 years. But, unfortunately they
easily cut your pension. We even have great difculty in employing people because we can’t solve
the issue of insurance.
This category of the barriers to HBBs is not very serious as only three women believed rules
and regulations are serious barriers to business growth.
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Discussion
The present study identied the growth barriers to women-owned HBBs in Iran as a
developing Islamic country with its unique cultural limitations and gender inequality for
women. Many studies have been done in the eld of women entrepreneurship, even in the
context of the Middle East and Islamic countries (Roomi and Harrison, 2008;Jamali, 2009;
Roomi, 2013), and the barriers to women’s entrepreneurship have been particularly
investigated (Roomi and Parrot, 2008;Jamali, 2009). However, their results cannot be
generalized to Iranian female entrepreneurs because of major cultural differences between
Iran and Arab countries, especially with regard to gender issues, aside from the remarkable
progress that Iranian female entrepreneurs have made in comparison with their Arab
counterparts (Javadian and Addae, 2013). Given the effect of context on opportunities and
threats and their role in entrepreneurship (Welter, 2011), the current research aimed at
investigating the issue in Iran.
On the other hand, despite the increasing role of HBBs in improving entrepreneurial
activities and economic and social advantages (Breen and Karanasios, 2010), this area suffers
from a dearth of academic literature and its importance is not widely recognized (Vorley and
Rodgers, 2012). Therefore, the present research focuses on the aspect of growth barriers
(Breen, 2010) to women-owned HBBs to push the boundaries of the related literature.
In addition, while women entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses are affected by a
set of complicated factors at different levels of analysis, most of the research in this area does
not follow a multi-level framework that includes all factors at the micro, middle and macro
levels of analysis (Jamali, 2009). Therefore, this research uses the framework proposed by
Syed and Ozbilgin (2009) to investigate the factors at the micro, meso and macro levels of
analysis.
At the micro (individual) level, the results of this study show that lack of business
management skills, particularly in marketing, is the most important barrier. It is noted
that while a previous study by Wynarczyk and Graham (2013) showed that lack of
required skills in IT, technology and business management are among the major barriers
to women-owned HBBs, lack of marketing skill was emphasized by the women in this
study. One of the reasons for this phenomenon concerns the stereotype that the business
world is masculine in Iran and other similar settings which contributes to the difference
in the educational pursuits of women in comparison to men with women less inclined
toward acquiring business skills. Moreover, the acquisition of business skills requires
the presence and participation of women in the eldwork. In Iran and other Muslim
countries, however, not all women are easily able to take part in masculine work
environments and benet from a practical work experience.
Most HBB workers are prone to physical problems and face obesity and bone diseases.
Moreover, some women who run HBBs suffer from poor eyesight, backache and other
diseases (Tipple, 2006). The present research found low physical capability and its ensuing
diseases as a barrier to the growth of women-owned businesses. It is also worth noting that
these problems are more common in the handicraft industry settings, as they are more likely
to involve the use of hands and greater effort.
Study results show that household duties and responsibilities are among the barriers
to the growth of women-owned HBBs in Iran. Managing a business at home does not
mean leaving the motherhood responsibilities and household tasks (Al-dajani and
Marlow, 2010) and particularly taking care of the children at home and the resulting
limitations (Mason et al., 2011) increase the challenges that women face when running
HBBs (Lynn and Earles, 2006). This problem is more serious in Iran and other Muslim
countries, because according to the Islamic principles, the main responsibility of women
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is doing housework and caring for children and certainly not doing business or making
prot. These religious principles are widely accepted in Islamic societies and the women
who work outside home are not even allowed the smallest negligence with respect to
matters related to caring for children.
The disagreement, or at least the lack of support, of family members is a barrier which
is not reported in research conducted for Western countries. However, in countries with
Islamic cultures, family disagreement is considered as a barrier to the development of
women-owned businesses (Roomi and Parrot, 2008;Itani et al., 2011). This shows the
importance of contextual differences with respect to women businesses. Interestingly, in
the case of Iran, this is not serious because, despite the results of the above-mentioned
research, most of the interviewed women in this study were supported by their husbands
or family members. This attests to the social-cultural growth of the Iranian families
which can be attributed to the increase in the rate of higher education pursuits among
women as well as increased successful models of female business owners in Iran. It is
worth mentioning that family’s opposition to businesswomen in Islamic countries has its
roots, mainly in traditional beliefs or misinterpretation of religious principles like
freedom to go out of the house, meeting new men (Roomi, 2013), male female separation
in work environments (Itani et al., 2011) and the concerns of parents about the future of
their single daughters (Mordi et al., 2010).
At the meso (organizational) level, according to study results, business nancing is
found to be the major problem faced by women-owned HBBs in Iran. Although the
difculties related to raising capital in various contexts usually have their roots in
gender discrimination (Loscocco et al., 1991), it is considered a structural problem in
Iran. For instance, most banks inch from granting loans to home businesses. This,
interestingly, aficts men and women equally. Or in other cases, while some HBBs
require a large budget to buy equipment and launch the business, the loans allocated to
HBBs are small (Modarresi, 2013). In fact, in Iran, although there are policies that provide
nancial support for female entrepreneurs, particularly women who own home
businesses, in practice, they seldom can obtain loans because of difcult conditions and
slow procedures that are in place; hence, the raising of nance and capital is difcult and
requires extra effort (Modarresi et al., 2016a).
Some HBB owners are bothered by business-home conicts and are forced to draw clear
boundaries for their HBBs (Gray and Owen, 1986). Inconvenience for other family members
and, in some cases, for the neighbors, as the result of noise pollution, was considered a
barrier. This naturally imposes constraints on the working hours at home. In Iran, unlike
some developed countries, such as the USA, there is no zoning rule that forbids HBBs
operation in some special urban zone. Therefore, all urban areas and even larger apartment
buildings can be HBB activities which naturally yet unwittingly create disturbance for
neighbors.
Lack of focus and work interruption are among the barriers identied in this research.
This issue is interwoven in the nature of HBBs, because most HBBs view their job as part of
their daily activities. Therefore, they do not draw a line between their daily activities and
their works (Rosnasah and Shariff, 2012). Inconveniencies usually caused by family
members, friends and neighbors, because they are not viewed as workforce (Gringeri, 1994).
According to study results, another signicant barrier to the growth of women-owned
HBBs is not having enough space for running the business. The space used by HBB
owners is usually more than the space specied for other members of the family (Tipple,
2005) and most home businesses, while facing limited space, occupy a part of the living
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area (Sinai, 2002). It seems that lack of work space is a problem independent of the
context which arises from the nature of the home business.
According to research ndings, not having enough space for selling products is
among the major barriers to women-owned HBBs in Iran. This is because, as a result of
cultural limitations or space-related problems, only few women sell their products at
home and most of them rely on exhibitions and local bazaars for selling their goods. For
instance, some women mentioned the difculty of receiving men as customers at home
which is somehow specic to the social-cultural context of Iran or to Islamic countries as
indicated by Roomi (2013). This problem for HBBs is not found directly in research
related to other contexts. This could be investigated as a barrier to the growth of
women-owned HBBs.
At the macro (national) level, according to the ndings of research, the difculty of
working interaction with men as the result of widespread negative mentalities toward
women, not taking them seriously and the dominant gender discriminations are the most
important barriers to the growth of women-owned home businesses. This shows the
importance of the negative role played by this barrier in the context of Iran. However, this has
been noted in Western (Brush, 1997) and Islamic countries (Mordi et al., 2010;Jamali, 2009).
In fact, in most societies, women suffer from some type of sexual discrimination (Cliff, 1998)
which is stronger in societies with Islamic cultures that promote particular religious values
(Roomi and Harrison, 2008). Negative beliefs and mentalities in Iran (Arasti, 2006)are
stronger to the extent that the world of business in Iran is masculine in a way that men even
dare to abuse and deceive a woman just because she is a woman.
The present study found that the negative mentality of the society and customers toward
HBBs is a barrier to the growth of these businesses. In fact, an individual who is engaged in
a HBB is low-credited and is not taken seriously as someone who works outside home
(Christensen, 1988). Moreover, these businesses face difculties with regard to legitimacy in
the eyes of their customers and investors (Mirchandani, 1999). Home businesses in Iran are
unfortunately viewed as efforts that are made out of desperation by their owners. As a result,
in spite of being unemployed, young university graduates are not inclined to enter this
sphere. This unhealthy culture topped by the government’s lack of resolve to foster a context
for home businesses has tarnished the legitimacy of these businesses for both the owners and
customers.
Our results show that lack of support services such as consultation and guidance is a
barrier affecting the growth of our sample population. The results of the study differs from
other related research and contexts in that lack of access to information, guidance and
consultation in most contexts is the result of gender issues limiting women and weakness in
networking (McElwee and Al-Ryami, 2003). Meanwhile, in the context of Iran, rst, women
entrepreneurs receive more emotional support from their networks than other supports
(Arasti and Akbarijokar, 2008) and, second, providing business guidance and consultation is
fundamentally weak in the context of Iran which is something irrelevant to gender. It is
worthy of mentioning that there is no Iranian center to provide home business-related
information and guidance. Unfortunately, HBBs receive a minimal nancial support from
the government to launch their businesses and other services, such as advice and guidance,
are not provided to home businesses. In fact, HBBs are left to themselves after being
launched (Modarresi, 2013).
Finally, based on our results, the legal barriers constrain some women-owned HBBs but
are not considered an important challenge to women-owned home businesses. In Iran, it
seems that as most HBBs are invisible and not supported seriously by the government, they
do not face the related rules and legal issues of conducting business.
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Conclusion
Policy implications
The results of this study have signicant policy implications for policy-makers in the areas
of business, in general, and HBBs, in particular, and also for the eld of women
entrepreneurship in Iran and some similar Islamic countries. Although, in Iran, the support
programs for HBBs formally started in 2010 under the umbrella of HBB organization and
support, it suffers from numerous problems in application (Modarresi et al., 2016a).
According to this research, business nancing is the most important barrier to HBB’s
growth which is conrmed by most women. This shows the role of nancial support in the
growth of women-owned home businesses. It is worth noting that other similar efforts such
as micro-nancing and creating various nancial institutions for nancing women
entrepreneurs both in UAE (Tlaiss, 2015) and in KSA (Welsh et al., 2014) have had positive
effects. First, governments have to implement a micro-nancing plan and obligate the banks
to grant easy loans to applicants. Second, debt-ceiling for HBBs have to be raised to increase
the possibility of the growth of home businesses.
Also, improving the culture in the areas related to entrepreneurial activities by women
and removing the negative mentalities widespread in societies by the governments, albeit
time-consuming and cumbersome, could pave the way to more cooperation by women in
entrepreneurial activities such as government projects, getting attention from the mass
media through introducing and acknowledging them. Through developing legal
instruments, governments could minimize the possibility of abuse and fraud toward women
engaged in nancial areas and prevent men from mistreating entrepreneur women just
because they are women. By adopting an approach to establish the legitimacy and
acceptability of entrepreneurial activities conducted by women, UAE provided many
incentives which resulted in the largest number of women entrepreneurs in the Middle East
(Tlaiss, 2015).
The results reveal that lack of a specic place at home is the third most important barrier
to conducting a home business. In this respect, policy-makers need to provide a place to
women who are not capable of running a business at home which could be possible through
founding an industrial zone specied to women with appropriate facilities and a
woman-friendly atmosphere. With this support plan, other issues related to home
businesses, that is, work interruption or inconveniences caused by the family members or
neighbors, would be solved.
An important barrier to women-owned HBBs is the lack of a place to provide their
products such that almost half of women producers could sell their products just in
exhibitions. Without exhibitions, not only they cannot improve their businesses, but they are
also forced to limit their economic activities. Given the fact that the exhibitions held in Iran
are seasonal and some booths are expensive, the government could solve the issue through
holding permanent exhibitions or bazaars for women which are affordable for all HBBs
owners to facilitate selling their products and, hence, their growth.
Policy-makers need to remove the negative mentality toward HBBs through specic
plans and programs. In this regard, developing educational programs, introducing and
promoting HBBs opportunities and successful HBBs through popular media, like television
channels, could play a crucial role. In fact, policy-makers have to change HBBs into a public
discourse which is welcomed, both by customers and the educated unemployed population.
This is yet to be done despite high unemployment rates, particularly among the educated
female population.
Governments have to establish professional business centers for women owning HBBs to
provide advice and consultation and train them with the skills required for managing
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businesses and handling the possible problems. As an example, the Saudi government has
provided some advisory and technical assistance for women entrepreneurs (Welsh et al.,
2014).
Governments also have to minimize the barriers to HBB development, that is, restrictive
rules, and to remove the paperwork and bureaucracies related to HBB insurance and
acquiring the required permissions.
Below, some suggestions will be given with regard to women-owned home businesses.
Women HBB owners might not be able to overcome major barriers. Given the nature of HBBs
and problems like lack of space, business barriers at middle levels could not be controlled by
women business owners. However, these factors are out of their hands but could be
controlled and minimized to some extent. They can participate in the business management
training courses held by some organizations to improve their skills in business management.
Engagement in HBBs should not stop them from doing their routine tasks. Sports are
required to be put in the schedule to improve their physical strength. As for the restrictive
nature of household responsibilities and, in some cases, disapproval from family members,
HBB women owners are recommended to manage their time and develop more exible
schedules. In addition, smart and emotional management of home tasks through improving
the sense of belonging and control over household tasks could minimize the possible conicts
between business and family tasks (Clark, 2002).
Limitations and suggestions for further research
The results of the study have implications for scholars and researchers in this eld.
Below the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further research are
provided. The rst limitation of the research is the result of conicts in the denitions for
HBBs provided in various studies and different perspectives toward theories related to
HBBs (Mason et al., 2011;Tietze et al., 2009), which troubles the characteristics of home
businesses. As a result, the identication of these kinds of businesses and their
characteristics becomes complicated. For example, there is no clear line between home
activities with limited growth, home workshops developed and workshops which have
their origins in home businesses.
The second limitation to the study was the invisible nature of HBBs, because most of them
try avoiding government agencies to bypass restrictive regulations (Dwelly et al., 2005).
These businesses in Iran work informally (Modarresi, 2013). Therefore, the researchers did
not have appropriate access to informal HBBs engaged in handicraft in Iran and the sample,
inevitably, included only the registered businesses which were monitored by the Handicraft
Union in Tehran, Iran. As barriers for business development might differ in formal and
informal sectors, the research may not reect the barriers to women-owned HBBs in informal
sectors.
The third limitation of the study concerns the study being narrowed to a specic area
(handicrafts) among numerous women-owned home businesses because barriers to business
development could be inuenced by the nature of a sector (Buttner, 1993). For example,
although lack of space, low physical capability or not having a location to supply products
might not be barriers to the growth of women-owned home businesses, they might subject
the handicraft sector to problems.
Given the results and limitations of the present study, the following suggestions are
proposed for further research: conducting cross-cultural research in the different contexts
seems essential to better understand and explain the women’s businesses (home-based or
otherwise) and, hence, create a basis for the expansion of an intercultural and generalizable
theory. Examining growth barriers to women’s businesses in different sectors (e.g. services,
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IT, food industries, etc.) and comparing the results could be helpful in expanding the existing
theories. Comparison of growth barriers in women-owned and men-owned businesses is also
a subject which leads to a better understanding of business growth-related differences in
men and women. Furthermore, quantitative studies that assess the effect and correlation of
each barrier identied in this study on business growth are also suggested.
Note
1. Global entrepreneurship monitor.
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Hodges, N., Watchravesringkan, K., Yurchisin, J., Karpova, E., Marcketti, S., Hegland, J., Yan, R. and
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pp. 47-71.
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Corresponding author
Zahra Arasti can be contacted at: arasti@ut.ac.ir
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