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https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422320907051
Advances in Developing Human
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DOI: 10.1177/1523422320907051
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Article
Conclusion: Learnings From
Eight Country Studies on
Women Entrepreneurs in
Asia
Jessica Li1, Yonjoo Cho2,
and Sanghamitra Chaudhuri3
Abstract
The Problem.
Women entrepreneurs have played an important role in advancing the economic
development of Asian countries. It is in the best interest of Asian countries and
international human resource development (HRD) professionals to develop an in-
depth understanding of women entrepreneurs in Asia so that they can develop
policies, strategies, and resources to support their development. Eight country studies
on women entrepreneurs in Asia in this special issue revealed their motivations,
challenges, and opportunities in their business start-ups and development. The
findings would greatly contribute to an understanding of who women entrepreneurs
in Asia are and how they are doing in entrepreneurship.
The Solution.
The development of women entrepreneurs in Asia requires many scholars and
practitioners to study, understand, and theorize before meaningful solutions
can be enacted, which will have a lasting impact. This special issue of research on
women entrepreneurs in eight Asian countries offers a glimpse of the emerging area
of women entrepreneurship. HRD initiatives and expertise are needed to create
unchartered possibilities for women entrepreneurs in Asia to succeed and sustain the
development of their businesses.
The Stakeholders.
This special issue is for entrepreneurs and HRD scholars and practitioners who are
interested in entrepreneurship development, particularly in the development of
women entrepreneurs in Asia.
1University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, USA
2Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
3Metropolitan State University, St Paul, MN, USA
Corresponding Author:
Jessica Li, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 1310 S. Sixth St. MC-708, Champaign, IL 61822,
USA.
Email: jli2011@illinois.edu
907051ADHXXX10.1177/1523422320907051Advances in Developing Human ResourcesLi et al.
research-article2020
2 Advances in Developing Human Resources 00(0)
Keywords
women entrepreneurs, motivations, challenges, opportunities, business success, Asia
Why the Special Issue?
The purpose of this special issue was to examine Asian women entrepreneurs’ motiva-
tions, challenges, and opportunities in their business start-ups and development. We
took a particular interest in women entrepreneurs in Asia for the following reasons.
First, Asia has been the fastest growing region that has shifted the balance of the eco-
nomic landscape of the world (Khanna, 2019). Second, gender inequality has remained
a social and business issue in Asia (McKinsey Global Institute, 2018). Third, women
entrepreneurs in Asia is an area that has not been well-researched. By publishing this
special issue, we hope to bring the importance of women entrepreneurs in Asia to the
forefront of scholarly discussions. Through this effort, we can improve our under-
standing of women entrepreneurs in Asia that has not gained sufficient attention, and,
more importantly, we can encourage the scholarly community to present evidence-
based research and support the development of women entrepreneurs in Asia.
In this special issue, we included eight Asian countries: China, India, Indonesia,
Japan, South Korea (Korea), Malaysian, Thailand, and Vietnam. All authors of this
special issue are women. When we, a group of Asian women scholars, gathered at a
hotel room at an Academy of Human Resource Development International Conference
a couple of years ago, we felt an immediate passion: we needed to speak out about
underresearched women entrepreneurs in Asia for the scholarly community and prac-
titioners in human resource development (HRD), given that women in Asian countries
are being discriminated against because of long-lasting social traditions, religious
beliefs, and male-dominated family and business practices (World Economic Forum
[WEF], 2018).
While recognizing many differences between women entrepreneurs in Asian coun-
tries, to ensure focused discussions, we asked all authors to frame their research around
three important questions: What motivated women entrepreneurs to start/own/manage
a business? What challenges did they face in business development? What opportuni-
ties contributed to their business success? As we conclude this special issue on Women
entrepreneurs in Asia: Eight country studies, we felt obliged to discuss the lessons
learned from eight countries’ answers to the three leading questions.
Highlights of the Study Findings
In this section, we highlight the study findings from the eight country studies on
women entrepreneurs included in this special issue.
Second-Generation Women Entrepreneurs in China
Given that a significant number of family-owned businesses are facing a succession
issue since an economic reform policy was initiated in 1979, this study concerns
Li et al. 3
second-generation women entrepreneurs in family-owned businesses. This qualitative
study revealed that second-generation women entrepreneurs are faced with internal
pull and external push motivational factors. In line with internal pull factors, the well-
educated group of women sought for self-actualization and was willing to take on new
challenges to prove themselves. External push factors included parental influences and
family obligations that are generated from being the only or first child of the family.
Challenges included their relationship with parents, role conflicts, and alignment
issues. Opportunities included their optimistic outlook for the future, self-confidence
with educational backgrounds, capability, and support from their family. This study
makes a meaningful contribution to research on Chinese family business succession
(Chen, 2015).
Urban Women Entrepreneurs in India
There has been a recent surge in women entrepreneurs’ participation in economic activ-
ities in India (Rajvanshi, 2017). This qualitative study highlighted that urban women in
India became entrepreneurs as a way to alleviate the gender discrimination of the main-
stream society and business environment. Other push factors included the unfriendly
and inflexible work environment of the corporate world. A pull factor discussed was the
chance to pursue their interests and become a role model for their daughters. Challenges
included work–life balance and gender bias and stereotyping in a dominantly patriar-
chal society. The highlight of this article was an access to the developmental networks
from family, colleagues, friends, and other women entrepreneurs, which was instru-
mental in the development of these urban women entrepreneurs.
Women Small Business Owners in Indonesia
This survey study investigated how passion, future orientation, and identity conflict
impacted the success of women small business owners. There are two types of women
entrepreneurs in Indonesia: necessity-oriented and growth-oriented. The survey data
revealed that growth-oriented women entrepreneurs had a better education than neces-
sity-oriented women entrepreneurs. Coaching and training had a similar impact on the
two groups and showed a significant correlation with their self-assessed entrepreneur-
ial success. Role conflict had little influence on growth-oriented women, whereas it
showed a statistically significant influence on necessity-oriented women. The study
findings suggested that both passion and future orientation had a positive impact on
growth-oriented women entrepreneurs’ perceived success. As for necessity-oriented
women entrepreneurs, identity conflict presented a mediating impact between passion
and success.
Women Social Entrepreneurs in Japan
The authors centered their investigation on women social entrepreneurs in Japan and
aimed at developing a theoretical framework for their development. It was tragic
4 Advances in Developing Human Resources 00(0)
events (e.g., the Tohoku earthquake in 2011) that motivated women to engage in social
entrepreneurship to support people in economic and emotional suffering. The chal-
lenges they faced were male-dominated and hierarchical and traditional views of
women’s roles, consequently limiting women’s access to business networking oppor-
tunities. Ironically, gendered role expectations might have presented opportunities for
women to engage in social entrepreneurship because of their compassion and care
(Bobrowska & Conrad, 2017) to solve social issues such as helping street children.
The authors argued that using transformative learning theory as a conceptual frame-
work, HRD professionals can help women make sense of crises, reframe their values
and motives, and find self-actualization in social entrepreneurship.
Korean Women Entrepreneurs in the Information Technology (IT)
Industry
This is a case study of three outstanding women entrepreneurs in IT startups in Korea
who started, developed, and sustained their businesses for over 20 years. Although the
three women entrepreneurs had their own distinctive features, the authors found that
all women showed success factors in common: technical expertise, positive outlook,
adherence to business principles, and work centrality. Particularly, three women entre-
preneurs’ positive outlook was the most critical factor that helped them overcome
business challenges they faced in business development that included a male-centered
Korean business culture, an unpredictable business environment (e.g., the Asian finan-
cial crisis in 2008), and their lack of organizational management skills. Opportunities
included family (e.g., husbands) support, religious faith, and networking with other
women entrepreneurs through leading roles of the supporting groups (e.g., the Korea
Venture Business Women’s Association).
Malaysian Women Entrepreneurs
Given that women entrepreneurs in Malaysia are underrepresented, and little is known
about the development of their self-leadership, this qualitative study explored
Malaysian women entrepreneurs’ self-leadership development. The study findings
indicated that self-leadership is a unique set of capabilities that can be developed and
mastered by women entrepreneurs so that they have better opportunities for success in
business development. Personal characteristics identified in the study were linked to
internal pull factors, such as high self-esteem, self-initiative (risk-taking), and persis-
tence, whereas external sources of motivations were linked to external push factors
and opportunities such as family support and support from friends and government
agencies. The study findings will be beneficial to Malaysian government agencies and
HRD practitioners that design and deliver interventions (e.g., incubator programs)
focusing on women entrepreneurs’ self-leadership development.
Li et al. 5
Innovative Women Entrepreneurs in Thailand
This qualitative study centered on opportunity-driven, innovative women entrepre-
neurs. Motivational factors identified were mostly pull factors including a need for
self-actualization, autonomy, passion and personal values, and sharing and paying for-
ward. Thai women entrepreneurs were also faced with business challenges such as
building trust, revenue generation, managing teams, and intellectual property rights.
Gender role expectations were not found as obstacles for Thai women, and the male-
dominated culture was not apparent, except for those who venture into male-domi-
nated industries. As for opportunity factors, the study presented personal traits,
self-improvement, knowledge and expertise, and family support, and personality traits
included caring for others as one of their key strengths in business development.
Vietnamese Women Entrepreneurs
In Vietnam, 31.3% of the businesses are owned by women, which is one of the highest
rates for this in Asian nations (Mastercard, 2018). Through a qualitative interview
study of 12 female entrepreneurs, the authors found that Vietnamese women entrepre-
neurs were motivated by both push and pull factors. Push factors were dissatisfaction
caused by lack of recognition and rigid working hours. Pull factors were monetary
incentives, passion, self-confidence, and autonomy. Gender was stated as a push factor
by the women who desired to spend more time with their children. Challenges included
financial constraints and issues in relation to running a business under tight budgets.
Gender-related bias was not mentioned as an issue, except on social occasions where
women exerted extra efforts to build trust with business partners. As for opportunities,
the study findings included entrepreneurial traits, continuous learning capabilities, and
external support.
Cross-Country Analysis
In this section, we discuss what we found from a comparison of the eight country stud-
ies included in this special issue. The eight country studies showed differences in a
number of aspects. First, women entrepreneurs studied showed diverse personal back-
grounds: (a) they were second-generation women entrepreneurs in China, urban
women entrepreneurs in India, small business owners in Indonesia, women social
entrepreneurs in Japan, CEOs in IT startups in Korea, and innovative women entrepre-
neurs in Thailand; (b) their educational backgrounds were diverse: from women with
little education to women with postsecondary degrees from top universities; (c) their
motivations to start a business were different: from economic survival to second-gen-
eration women successors’ self-actualization to monetary incentives to contributing to
social good; (d) they worked in diverse businesses, industrial sectors, and played dif-
ferent roles (e.g., CEOs and founders), therefore, making Asian women in entrepre-
neurship complex and broader in scope than we expected.
6 Advances in Developing Human Resources 00(0)
Second, there was a low representation of women entrepreneurs in most of the
Asian countries that were included in this special issue. Many authors alluded to reli-
gious, cultural, societal, and patriarchal beliefs as reasons for women’s low participa-
tion in entrepreneurship and as hindrances to the presence and development of women
entrepreneurs. However, women entrepreneurs in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam
are exceptional. Women entrepreneurs in the three countries make up high percentages
in entrepreneurship including 60% of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs)
in Indonesia (World Bank Report, 2016); the number of Thai women entrepreneurs
exceeded that of male entrepreneurs, ranking the third in female to male total entrepre-
neurial activity in 2016 (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2016); and 31.3% of busi-
nesses in Vietnam are owned by women, placing it sixth among 53 surveyed economies
(Mastercard, 2018). More importantly, women entrepreneurs in these countries enjoy
better gender equality compared with other Asian countries, which is supported by a
report by the WEF (WEF, 2018). The WEF’s gender gap report ranked Indonesia 85th,
Thailand 73rd, and Vietnam 77th surpassing China, India, Japan, Korea, and Malaysia
in the combined evaluation of economic participation, educational attainment, health
and survival, and political empowerment in terms of women’s status compared with
that of male counterparts.
In regard to the three research questions we proposed in this special issue, we
found a few emergent themes. As far as motivational factors are concerned, external
push factors seem to vary depending on the contexts, but these women entrepre-
neurs’ internal motivations were clear and simple: they were often driven by their
desire to have an independent life professionally and economically to make life bet-
ter for their families and employees and/or to become a contributing member of the
society. This study finding is inconsistent with Tambunan (2009) in that Asian
women entrepreneurs were not driven by pull factors but by push factors including
poverty and unemployment, though this inconsistency seems to be attributed to a
number of factors, for example, differences in participants and participating coun-
tries’ economic development stages.
In line with challenges, most study findings revealed that role and identify conflict
can be an obstacle in women entrepreneurs’ business success. Their perceptions of
conflict were generated from the results of external influences or internal reasons.
External factors included a gender bias of a patriarchal, traditional culture in many
Asian countries. Internal factors were highlighted by their obedience to perform wom-
en’s traditional roles and to become primary caretakers of the family. The lack of
education, training, coaching, and network support was another critical challenge
many women entrepreneurs face, particularly for those who did not have good educa-
tion backgrounds and/or necessary financial resources. Most women entrepreneurs
seem to believe that the support from family, friends, and employees has been instru-
mental in their increased self-confidence, therefore, leading to opportunities for their
business success. In the process, as many authors indicated, HRD interventions (e.g.,
coaching, training, mentoring, and network building) can help women entrepreneurs
overcome challenges and empower aspiring women entrepreneurs.
Li et al. 7
Implications for HRD Research and Practice
Given the challenges and difficulties faced by women entrepreneurs from the eight
countries, HRD can play a crucial role in alleviating some of their hardships by devel-
oping mentoring, coaching, training, counseling, and leadership programs that would
not only equip them with necessary resources but be instrumental in building their
self-confidence, grit, resilience, and positive outlook that has turned out to be an
important success factor from early on. The importance of formal education that has
significantly helped in closing the gender gap in many of these countries cannot be
undermined as women take bigger strides in entrepreneurship. HRD ought to be at the
forefront at the national level strategizing and at the organizational level implementing
developmental initiatives so as to increase the number of women who are empowered
to take the entrepreneurial leap. HRD professionals need to collaborate with these
countries’ governments to formulate policies and programs that would facilitate the
proliferation of women entrepreneurs.
Given underresearched and underrepresented women in entrepreneurship in Asia, it
is our hope that through this special issue, HRD scholars and practitioners work in
unison to implement innovative HRD interventions at the individual, organization,
and country level to empower women entrepreneurs and aspiring women in line. In
addition, HRD scholars and practitioners should seek out interdisciplinary and trans-
national partnerships with profit and nonprofit organizations and the government so
that the challenges women entrepreneurs face can be addressed collectively. We also
hope that this special issue stimulates HRD scholars to study women entrepreneurs in
Asia beyond their motivations, challenges, and opportunities to create a conceptual
model that can be used to develop women entrepreneurs in Asia and other countries.
Many of the articles in this special issue alluded to an extremely supporting spouse,
family support, and a network of friends and colleagues that were instrumental for the
success of women entrepreneurs in Asia. Future research can contribute to this emerg-
ing area by further exploring a working model for a conducive support system where
women entrepreneurs thrive and succeed. In a similar vein, a study on governmental
and institutional support can be undertaken in ways that shed new light on policies and
legislature that encourage aspiring women to take the entrepreneurial leap. Narrative
inquires and ethnographic studies can be used as preferred methodologies to offer a
more nuanced and contextualized understandings of women entrepreneurs’ lives and
to go deeper into the interface of their work and family/life in the process of business
development.
As the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2018) reported, women have played an
important role in contributing to the fast-growing economic development in Asia,
therefore, becoming the next economic power in the world (Khanna, 2019; McKinsey
Global Institute, 2019). However, extant research on women in entrepreneurship
mostly draws from Western contexts (Bullough & Renko, 2017; Bush et al., 2009;
Henry et al., 2016; Jennings & Brush, 2013), leaving a huge void in and pressing needs
for research from the perspective of Asian and/or developing countries (Jamali, 2009).
In this special issue, therefore, we attempt to highlight the importance of women
8 Advances in Developing Human Resources 00(0)
entrepreneurs in Asia and offer implications for the development of aspiring women
entrepreneurs as well as HRD research agenda needing further investigation.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
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Author Biographies
Jessica Li is the editor-in-chief of Human Resource Development International and a regional
editor for the Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management. She is currently an associate
professor and program director of Human Resource Development at the University of Illinois at
Urbana Champaign, IL, USA.
Yonjoo Cho is an associate professor of instructional systems technology focusing on HRD at
Indiana University. She serves as an associate editor of Human Resource Development Review
and served as an elected board member of the AHRD (2016–2018). She received her PhD in
instructional technology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Sanghamitra Chaudhuri is an assistant professor of human resource management at
Metropolitan State University, Minnesota. She is an editorial board member of the Human
Resource Development Review and Sage Open and is the co-chair of the AHRD India SIG.
