Women’s entrepreneurial motives and perceptions of entrepreneurship programmes: a case study of Sweden and Tanzania

Women’s entrepreneurship has received global recognition and support due to its contribution to the economy, with many initiatives focusing on entrepreneurship programs as a tool for influencing women’s perceptions and attitudes towards entrepreneurship. The socio-cultural context also plays a role, with a society’s gender role ideology determining the level of normative support and legitimacy accorded to women entrepreneurs. Based on semi-structured interviews, this study therefore focused on analyzing women’s entrepreneurial motives and perceptions regarding entrepreneurship programs in two different socio-cultural contexts namely Sweden and Tanzania. The study contributes to existing literature on entrepreneurial motives by identifying different non-mutually exclusive categories of ‘pull’ (personal identity, prior experiences, social mission and self achievement), ‘push’ (providing solutions) and ‘combined ‘(part-time entrepreneurs) factors that influence women’s decisions to become entrepreneurs. Second, I find that the socio-cultural context influences the prevalence of entrepreneurial motives in each context. This highlights the fact that women’s entrepreneurial motives are more nuanced and complex than the ongoing academic discourse on ‘necessity’ versus ‘opportunity’ entrepreneurs. Third, entrepreneurship programs can be viewed as having an overall positive impact on women entrepreneurs. However, what was perceived as being of value by the women entrepreneurs differed based on their entrepreneurial motives. Implications for policy and practice are also highlighted.