Summary of phd thesis in business administration research on some factors affecting entrepreneurial motivation of female SME owners in the northwestern subregion

Meanwhile, there are no studies about the reasons or causes for women, female entrepreneurs to start a business or their motivation in doing business, the barriers they face in rural and

INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reason for choosing the topic

Entrepreneurial motivation (EM) by the creation and maintenance of enterprises is

the driving force for economic development in every country To become a developed

economy, it depends mainly on the growth in both quantity and quality of businesses

Carree and Thurik (2003) point out that there is a close relationship between the creation

of new businesses and regional and local economic growth The places which have a high

rate of establishment and maintenance of businesses often have high economic growth

rates

The Northwest region, including four provinces: Son La, Dien Bien, Lai Chau, and

Hoa Binh, is the area where SME development has been shown by many previous studies as

one of the solutions to create development motivation for the whole region However, the

development of SMEs in this area is not commensurate with the inherent potential, mainly

due to the difficulties in topographical conditions, and low starting point In addition, the

weakness of infrastructure, technology and management skills are also big barriers in

enhancing the competitive ability of these businesses, especially women-owned SMEs

Meanwhile, there are no studies about the reasons or causes for women, female

entrepreneurs to start a business or their motivation in doing business, the barriers they face

in rural and urban areas conducted in mountainous areas and there is no research on factors

affecting EM of female SME owners in the northwest region, Vietnam, a region with

specific characteristics Through the initial survey, most of the SMEs owned by women in

the subregion mainly develop from the business household model, the female business

owners are familiar with the household business management method with poor knowledge

and management skills They have not fully exploited the natural potential of women and

the type of enterprise prioritized by the Government This is also a remarkable point to

promote the establishment, maintenance and development of enterprises for women to

increase both the quantity and quality of the business sector, contributing to regional

economic growth and sustainable development

With the above reasons and arguments, the author chose the topic "Research on some

factors affecting entrepreneurial motivation of female SME owners in the Northwestern

subregion" as the research content for the thesis

1.2 Objectives of the study

Based on the above reasons, the thesis focuses on the main objective: Researching

factors affecting EM of female SME owners in the context of the northwest subregion The

thesis systematizes the theoretical basis of motivation and EM; builds and tests theoretical

models and hypotheses on the relationship between individual factors and the environment

in the EM of female SME owners in the northwest subregion and proposes some recommendations to promote EM of women, female owners of small and medium-sized SMEs

1.3 Research question

Firstly, what are the personal and environmental factors that significantly affect the

EM of female SME owners in the northwest subregion and their impact level?

Secondly, Which groups of factors has the greater impact on entrepreneurial motivation of female SME owners in Northwestern subregion, the individual factors or the environment ones?

Thirdly, what do policy makers and business women need to do to promote EM of female SME owners in the northwest subregion?

1.4 Object and scope of the study

- The object of the thesis: Identifying factors affecting EM of female owners of

SMEs

- Spatial scope: Data collected from qualitative research, interviewing experts and

surveys conducted in the northwest subregion including 04 provinces of Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Son La, and Hoa Binh

1.5 Research Methods

Qualitative research methods. Group discussion, in-depth interviewing techniques used for SME owners and expert interviews

Quantitative research method. The survey has 2 phases: a preliminary investigation

to adjust the scale, the appropriate questionnaire and the official investigation phase to evaluate the scale, test models and research hypotheses

1.6 Contribution of the thesis

In theory

Inheriting the published research, the thesis continues to analyze and explore the factors affecting the EM of female owners of SMEs in the northwest subregion Through qualitative research and in-depth interviews with experts, there are 3 additional indicators, the scale is adjusted to be more suitable with the research context

Two separate factors in theory are "Social status of business women" and "Opinions

of people around" in fact in the northwest subregion, Vietnam becomes a unidirectional factor "Social standards"

The research results show that there are 6 factors affecting the EM of female SME owners in the northwest subregion including the factors in decreasing degree: (1) Access to

capital, (2) Social standards, (3) demand for success, (4) Barriers in awareness, (5) Model

female entrepreneur and (6) Optimism In which, the negative factors are: Perception

barrier, and the remaining factors have positive effects Interestingly, the Access to Capital

factor has the strongest impact and the Optimism factor is first considered in Vietnam from

the perspective of an independent variable In addition, the thesis also shows that the group

of environmental factors has a greater impact than the group of individual factors on EM of

female SME owners in the northwest subregion, which is also compared for the first time in

Vietnam

In practice

From the above research results combined with the characteristics of women, female

owners of small and medium-sized SMEs in the northwest region, the thesis proposes a

number of recommendations on factors affecting the EM of female owners of small SME in

this region, aiming to promote the formation, maintenance and development of

women-owned SMEs

The thesis becomes a reference for policy makers and women themselves, and

women owners of small and medium enterprises to promote the formation, maintenance and

development of women-owned SMEs

1.7 Bố cục luận án

In addition to the appendix, references the main contents of the thesis are presented

as follows: Introduction; Chapter 2: Overview of previous studies; Chapter 3: Theoretical

basis and research model; Chapter 4: Research method; Chapter 5: Research results;

Chapter 6: Discussion and recommendation; and Conclusion

CHAPTER 2: OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES

2.1 Overview of entrepreneurial motivation and motivation

2.1.1 Motivation

2.1.1.1 Concept

Many concepts of motivation have been introduced, but whether in the field of

economics or psychology, all the definitions are based on three components of motivation as

stated by Arnold et al (1998): firstly , orientation which means what an individual is trying

to do; secondly, effort, that is, how an individual is trying; and thirdly, persistence, which

means how long a person keeps trying Obviously, motivation is related to motive which

promotes an individual to behave in a certain way for the satisfaction or success they desire

It is also goal-oriented behavior An individual's motivation is promoted by internal

psychological factors (pull motivation) and external environment (motivation)

2.1.1.2 Types of motivation

Motivation can be classified in many different ways depending on the researchers' point of view and the theory of motivation Of these categories, the most commonly

accepted classification is that manifestation of motivation (implicit motivation and self-expression); the cause of the motivation (inner motivation and outer motivation)

2.1.2 Overview of entrepreneurial motivation

2.1.2.1 Entrepreneurial motivation concept

Inheriting and unifying from the research on the EM, the thesis proposes the use of the concept of EM in this research according to Malebana (2014) in association with Carsrud and Brännback (2011) and Shane và cộng sự (2003) “EM is the reason, motive or goal for an individual to start and run a business” Through his motives or goals, an individual is said to have a EM when he or she decides to seek, evaluate and exploit business opportunities during the process of establishing, maintaining and developing a business

2.1.2.2 Indicators of entrepreneurial motivation

Many motivational theories are given to discuss EM in the world, and among these

the pull factor ("pull") and push factor ("push") are most mentioned because these factors

are regarded as the entrepreneur's initial motivation to create a business (Munir and Sandhu, 2016)

Researches on EM in the world whether in developed, underdeveloped or developing countries like in Vietnam with different research subjects like potential entrepreneurs, male or female entrepreneurs, in this area or in others, almost all demonstrate that the registered business is represented at the same time by two pull and push indicators, they are not mutually exclusive Derived from the concept of a EM, which is the reason, motive or goal for the individual to start and run a business The reason, motive or goal here is the pull and push motivation (the initial motivation of the individual) to start and run a certain individual's business Trading volume is determined by both pull and push indicators

2.2 Overview of the factors affecting entrepreneurial motivation

There have been studies on the factors affecting EM on many different angles, points of view and scopes in the world The factors affecting EM are very diverse such as the environment, culture, institutions, individual characteristics and many other factors Traditionally, researches on EM are carried out in two different ways (Taormina and Lao, 2007) The first is the studies that examine the personal characteristics of the founders of businesses to find out what makes them different from the others Gartner (1989) calls this a

"trait-based approach" and this point of view can be derived from McClelland (1961) According to the theory of characteristcs in psychology, this is the approach of researching on

human personality Characteristics theory researchers are primarily interested in measuring

traits, which can be defined as patterns of habits of behaviors, thoughts, and emotions

According to this point of view, personality traits are relatively stable over time, and influence

interpersonal behavior differently Business characteristics represent one of the most

empirically studied topics in start-up (Vecchio, 2003) The second way focuses on external

(environmental) conditions as the key to change the number of times that a business is created

over time The contextual theory states that entrepreneurial situations can help or prevent the

process of start-up (Gnyawali and Fogel, 1994) Many previous studies have shown that

environmental conditions, or more accurately, individuals' perception of the conditions of their

surroundings, have a great impact on starting a business (Elfving and Carsrud, 2009; Gnyawali

and Fogel, 1994) According to Aldrich (1990), this approach is called the “normative”

approach in which the Government keeps the rules and regulations to a minimum level, reduces

taxes and gives advisories in order to increase the likelihood of team organization or ILO

(2003) calls the “contextual approach” which also emphasizes issues such as laws, government

regulations, financial support, family and social communities According to Gnyawali and

Fogel (1994), although it can not be denied the role of the founders’ personality, the external

environment is more helpful in understanding the starting of business Therefore, researches on

business topics begins to emphasize macro environmental factors (such as socioeconomic

conditions) to explain the establishment of businesses In support of this, Fereidouni et al (2010)

also emphasized factors in business environment, politics, and social status to explain the

motivation to start-up Several studies have divided the individual's operating environment into

two groups The group of environmental factors includes: actual business environment factors

such as deterrent factors, environmental support, the ability to access to finance source,

information and support, and preferential policies, the government laws, culture, economic status,

political society, institutions of nations The group of emotional environmental factors includes

the model of business owners, opinions of people around and the social status of business owners

(Elfving and Carsrud, 2009; Nasurdin et al., 2009) Howeve, most studies such as Taormina and

Lao (2007), Yushuai et al (2014) and in this thesis, the above groups of factors are considered to

belong to a single environment, collectively referred to as environmental factors

Based on the overview of domestic and foreign projects, the thesis emphasizes 2

groups: group of individual factors including Needs to Achieve, Accepting Risks,

Optimism, Personal capacity and group of environmental factors including Social Network

Access to capital, Business model, Social status of business owners, Opinions of people

around, Awareness barriers

2.3 Identify gaps and research directions

The review process revealed some of the research gaps as follows:

Firstly, in the world, researches on factors affecting EM of individuals, potential entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, and female entrepreneurs are quite diverse From foreign research projects, we can see the stable impact of most personal and environmental factors

on EM such as Demand for success, Taking risks, personal capacity, Optimism, Entrepreneurship model, Social status of business owners, Social networks, Perception barriers The approach to capital access factor alone has conflicting results Meanwhile, in Vietnam, there are also some similar influencing factors that are found in the world, but all

of them are on potential entrepreneurs including Demand for Success, Personal Competency, Tendency to take risks, Access to capital In particular, the factor of opinion surrounding with its positive influence is mentioned by potential entrepreneurs in many researches, especially young people, students That is unlike in Western society where people have a high level of independence in thinking development and career decisions In Vietnam, they still depend a lot on their families to study and accumulate experience and many of them have to follow the arrangement of their parents

On the basis of the overview of domestic and foreign works, the author realizes that

it is necessary to re-examine the above factors to confirm the stability of their impact on the

EM of female SME owners There have not been any studies in Vietnam that mention the Optimism factor as an independent variable in the group of individual factors, which should

be included in the model to verify the impact There has also been no study comparing the relative impact between individual and environmental factors on EM of female SME owners, this is a gap that needs to be filled

The northwest subregion, which has strategic significance in terms of security and national defense, but underdeveloped economy, heavily localized social culture still faces many difficulties in SME development, especially SMEs made by women There are not any researches on EM and the influencing factors Through the preliminary research, the author found that there are still many differences between the ethnic minority female entrepreneurs compared to the Kinh female entrepreneurs in demographic factors such as education level, marital status, number of children, age at the start-up This needs to be analyzed

Secondly, researches on EM and the influencing factors mainly are conducted in Western countries and developed countries; in developing countries like Vietnam researches are limited or carried in regions with high economic conditions like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho City The northwest subregion, which has strategic significance in terms of security and national defense, but underdeveloped economy, heavily localized social culture still faces many difficulties in SME development, especially SMEs made by women The owner has not had any research on EM and the influencing factors Also here, through the

preliminary research, the author found that on female SME owners, demographic factors

such as education level, marital status, number of children, age at the start of establishment

and management of the group There are still many differences between the ethnic minority

female entrepreneurs compared to the Kinh group and this needs to be analyzed

CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL BASIS AND RESEARCH MODEL

3.1 Theoretical basis related to entrepreneurial motivation

3.1.1 The theory of individual personality

The traits theory is used to explain the relationship between the characteristics of the

businessman and the EM According to this approach, the different personalities of each

businessman affect their EM, so different characteristics may affect the EM differently

(Munir and Sandhu, 2016) Psychoanalytic representatives claim that the entrepreneurs, who

are successful at starting their own businesses, are those who were born as an entrepreneur,

not someone who has been trained or educated to become an entrepreneur (Shane, 2003

gives an example, genes affect an entrepreneur's ability and success) This means that

successful entrepreneurs are gifted inborn, and have their own destiny to become an

entrepreneur An entrepreneur's ability to survive who only complete business training or

education is less, and limited because they don't have the talent, senses, and instincts to

become an entrepreneur

Talent, senses and instincts cannot be obtained by being taught or trained They are

innate gifts It is possible that a trained or educated person don’t have the suitable senses

and instincts to run their business so that they can exist in the business world – place with

tough competition

Researchers based on this theory such as Lowell (2003) said that a person who is

motivated to establish, maintain and develop a business is someone who not only recognizes

business opportunities but also own individual personality traits According to this point of

view, those who possess some certain personal characteristics and personalities can have the

business license such as risk-free personality, need for creative achievement, risk-taking,

self-control behavior, outrageous optimism This view is that people who do not have the

qualities of business owners never become entrepreneurs Individuals with different

identities have EM, even different pull and push motivations (Munir and Sandhu, 2016)

Studies based on this point of view suggest that only people with entrepreneurial qualities

and personalities can become entrepreneurs and there are different types of personality traits

of entrepreneurs to distinguish entrepreneurs from other groups

3.1.2 Institutional theory

Institutional theory is developed and used by researchers in many different ways,

in which the two common approaches are institutional economics and institutional theory from a sociological perspective Institutions are devided into two types: formal institutions and informal institutions The formal institutions include the legal system, policy, and regulation The informal institutions include customs, traditions, and cultural norms that are recognized and followed by everyone in the community It greatly affects human behavior (Nguyen Van Thang, 2015) Therefore, environmental factors can be deduced and explained by the institutional theory because they are the perceptions and judgments of individuals and entrepreneurs towards the environment The theory related to institution is proposed by North (1990) North (1990) says that the human-created institutions make interaction between people These institutions as the form of social norms define the roles and functions of community members or in the form of legislation that sets out legal rules The institutional analysis that takes into account a variety of factors and policy - socio-political levels, making it the optimal tool for assessing the performance of female entrepreneurs Institutions contribute to the formation of social structures in which organizations are operated through policies, thus they fix economic and legal policies In societies where clear legal policies, material resources, knowledge for the formation of businesses are fully provided, businesses will have great motivation to be formed and developed (Nguyen and partner, 2009) The theory of cultural tendencies (Hofstede, 1980), value theory (Schwartz et al., 2001) can explain the influence of the difference of "national culture" on the relationships mentioned in the model of Factors affecting startup intentions The core of culture is the values, and the value of each individual in the society is expressed through his or her views, thoughts, beliefs and behaviors (Hofstede et al., 2010) and this influences their thinking think, EM of businessman

3.2 Research model and hypothesis

3.2.1 Research model of the thesis

Through the study of Theoretical basis together with the overview results from related researches, 10 factors are proposed into the research model They are divided into 2 groups of factors: groups of individual factors including Demand into Achievement, Self-capacity, Risk-taking and Optimism and environmental factors including Social Network, Entrepreneur's social status, Access to capital, Opinions around people, awareness Barriers, Business model (Table 3.1)

Table 3.1: Summary of impacts of individual and environmental factors on EM in previous

studies proposed in the research model

Factors affecting

entrepreneurial

motivation

Personal factors

Demand for success o + + o + + o + +

Individual ability + + + + + o + o +

Environmental factors

Social status of

entrepreneurs

Comments of people

around

The symbol (+): positive effect; (-): negative impact; (o): no impact

(Source: The Author's compilation) 3.2.2 Development of research hypothesis

The author uses 10 pairs of hypothesis showing the expected impact of the above 10

factors on EM of female SME owners in the northwest subregion, in which, except for the

perceived Barrier factor with a negative impact, all other factors have a positive impact

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODS 4.1 Qualitative research

4.1.1 Qualitative research objectives

The objective of the qualitative research is (1) to determine the most appropriate

factors influencing the EM of female SME owners in the context of the northwest

subregion, (2) to adjust the scales used in the pre-quantification studies for preliminary investigations, to assess the validity of indicators, (3) discoveries also contribute to the interpretation of quantitative results and used as a basis for supporting recommendations

4.1.2 Content of qualitative research

Group discussions were conducted with 03 lecturers in economics and business administration to form the initial model Then, the author used the techniques of in-depth interviewing experts including university lecturers, business managers, bank officials, officials of the Department of Planning and Investment, tax officers, the heads of associations and clubs The theoretial sampling technique was used, 10 female SME owners

in Son La and Dien Bien provinces were selected for in-depth interviews to assess the appropriateness of influencing factors and scales, questionnaire

4.2 Quantitative research

4.2.1 Quantitative research objectives

Quantitative research method aims to: test the scale (2nd and official); sample description statistics about yourself, your family, and describe the EM of the female SME owner; determine the order of the influence of factors and compare the group of individual factors and environmental factors to the EM of female SME owners

4.2.2 Quantitative research content

Through experts’ opinions (in discussions and in-depth interviews), the suummary of development variables in form of coded questions, sources and scales is shown in the following tables:

Table 4.3 Entrepreneurial motivation Scale Kind of

Pull motivation

For an interesting job Malebana (2014); Choo and Wong (2006); Imitate a woman I admire Malebana (2014); Choo and Wong

(2006); Inherit and make some adjustment

To challenge yourself Malebana (2014); Choo and Wong (2006)

To make more money Malebana (2014); Choo and Wong (2006);

Hassan and Midih (2016)

To be the owner Malebana (2014); Choo and Wong (2006);

Taormina and Lao (2007), Fereidouni et

al (2010); Buttner and Moore (1997) Inherit and make some adjustment

To take advantage of my creative talents

Malebana (2014); Choo and Wong (2006)

To take advantage of opportunities from the market

Inherit Malebana (2014); Choo and Wong (2006); Hassan and Midih (2016)

Push motivation

To maintain family traditions Malebana (2014); Choo and Wong (2006)

To increase my status / reputation Job demand

Balance between work and home life Buttner and Moore (1997)

Table 4.4 The Demand for Achievement Scale

Set high

goals

I like setting myself high goals Phan Anh Tu and Giang Thi Cam Tien

(2015); Phan Anh Tu và Nguyen Thanh

Son (2015) Show effort

at work

When I do something I don't just get

the job done, I have to do it well

Phan Anh Tu and Giang Thi Cam Tien (2015); Phan Anh Tu và Nguyen Thanh Son (2015); Dinis et al (2013)

I try to do better than my friends and

colleagues

Kristiansen and Indarti (2004); Ahmad

et al (2016), and making som adjustment

I try my best to overcome past

achievements

Kristiansen and Indarti (2004); Ahmad

et al (2016) Requires

high-performance

jobs

I am not interested in a regular job

which is not challenging if the job does

not give me high performance

Phan Anh Tu and Nguyen Thanh Son (2015); Dinis et al (2013)

Table 4.5 Scale of Entrepreneurship itself

Deal with any

situation with

confidence

I am confident that when I have problems, I can often find some solutions Inherit Hassan and

Midih (2016);

Kabir (2017); Neill

et al (2017)

I can deal with any surprises I come across Achieve business

goals confidently

I can achieve all of the business goals that I have set for myself

Confidently build,

manage and develop

businesses

I can define and build the management team to develop the business

Inherit Hassan and Midih (2016)

Table 4.6 Scale of Optimism

To life I often expect economic improvements in

my life

Inherit Simon et al (1999); Wally and Baum (1994)

To

economy

I feel the economy will grow next year

To work I feel my performance will improve over the

next year

Table 4.7 The Risk Acceptance Scale

I am willing to take risks

I am willing to take high risks for high profits

Phan Anh Tu and Nguyen Thanh Son (2015); Dinis et al (2013); Neill ey al (2017)

I like to take risks Phan Anh Tu và Nguyen Thanh

Son (2015); Nguyen Thao Nguyen (2018); Neill et al

(2017)

I take risks when necessary to achieve important goals

Nguyen Thao Nguyen (2018); Dinis et al (2013); Neill et al

(2017) For a great chance I can take a high

risk

Nguyen Thao Nguyen (2018); Neill et al (2017) Perception of

risk acceptance for businesses

To achieve high profits, businesses must accept high risks

Table 4.8 Social Network Scale

Role in starting a business

Owning a social network is important to starting a business

Inherit Taormina and Lao (2007); Hassan and Anas (2016)

Role in enterprise development

Social networking plays an important role in business development

When I need help, I often rely on my existing social networks

A strong social network is certainly very important to a business

Table 4.9 Scale of Access to Capital

From the self (owner)

I have the ability to accumulate capital (through spending savings, overtime ) Nguyen Quoc Nghi et al

(2016); Phan Anh Tu và Giang Thi Cam Tien (2015); Yushuai et al (2014)

From other individuals and organizations

I can borrow money from friends and relatives

to do business

I can raise capital from other sources (banks, credit funds, )

I can easily raise funds from usury The author proposed through

qualitative research

Table 4.10 Scale Model of business woman

Know other people who are female entrepreneurs

I know other female entrepreneurs

Inherit Malebana (2014), and making some adjustment Know other successful

female entrepreneurs

I know successful female entrepreneurs

in my community

Table 4.11 Scale of Social Position of businesswoman

Admiration The social regime should place much value

on female business owners

Inherit Begley and Tan (2001);

Fereidouni et al (2010); Nasurdin (2009); and making some adjustment High status Running a private company gives a high

position to female entrepreneurs in society

Inherit Begley and Tan (2001);

Fereidouni and et al (2010); and making some adjustment

Reputation Starting a private business brings reputation

to female entrepreneurs

Respect Starting a new business creates respect for

female entrepreneurs

Table 4.12 Scale of surrounding people's opinion

Relatives My family support the decision to

start a business

Malebana (2014); Nguyễn Quoc Nghi

et al (2016); Phan Anh Tu và Giang Thi Cam Tien (2015); Begley and Tan (2001); Kabir (2017); Liñán and Chen (2009); Nguyen Thao Nguyen (2018)

Friends My friends support the decision to

start a business

Colleagues My colleague support the decision

to start a business

Inherit Malebana (2014); Liñán and

Chen (2009)

Table 4.13 The Barrier Scale is perceived

Infrastructure Poor roads and means of transportation Nguyen Thao Nguyen (2018)

and expert interview Government

regulations

Too many unfavorable regulations of the

Government for SMEs

Nguyen Thao Nguyen (2018);

Malebana (2014); and some adjustments The tax structure is complicated and

confusing for SMEs

Local policies

to support

women

Lack of policies to encourage and support

women in starting local businesses

Proposed through qualitative

research Lack of financial support packages for

women SME owners to expand production

and business

Lack of

management

skills

Lack of human resource management

skills

Inherit Malebana (2014) Lack of business planning skills

Lack of marketing skills

Lack of financial management skills

The quantitative method is implemented in 2 phases: preliminary quantitative and

formal quantitative The author uses SPSS 22 software to support the data processing

At the preliminary quantitative step, there are two contents performed, that is: Using

Cronbach's Alpha coefficient to evaluate the reliability of the scale and test the discovery

factor EFA to preliminary assess unidirection, value convergence of the scale, remove unguaranteed Indicator

The minimum sample size is defined as 215 In official quantification, 713 is actually collected and 669 samples are used The steps include: testing the reliability of the scale, Analysis of discovery factors EFA, correlation and regression and testing the regression model assumptions

4.3 Overview of the research process

Cronbach’s Alpha, EFA

Multiple regression (multivariate)

Figure 4.1 The research process of the thesis

CHAPTER 5: RESEARCH RESULTS 5.1 Indicators after qualitative research

The overview of the theory and the qualitative research has build up the 10-factor model The qualitative research continued being used in group discussions In-depth interviews with experts have identifed 10 factors affecting EM in accordance with the characteristics of women, female owners of SMEs in the context of the northwest subregion The thesis simultaneously has inheriedt and developed a scale for 10 factors along with a scale for the dependent variable

Summarizing the results discussions and of in-depth interviews with experts has obtained preliminary questionnaires of 10 factors with 43 indicators and 11 indicators for the dependent variable

Overview and qualitative research

Model and preliminary scales

the 1st time

Preliminary investigation (141 female owners of SMEs)

Adjust the scale for the second time

Official survey (669 female owners of SMEs)

Official scale Hypothesis testing

Discussion, recommendations

5.2 Quantitative research results

5.2.1 Some indicators excluded after preliminary quantitative research

The preliminary quantitative results have 03 indicators removed, which are Demand

to achieve 2 (due to being considered a "trash" variable), Risk-taking trend 2 and Trend of

taking risks 3 (due to load in many factors and difference factor loading <0.3)

5.2.2 Official quantitative research results

5.2.2.1 Descriptive statistics of research samples

- The age of the sample from under 35 in starting and operating a business like those

over 35 The proportion is relatively equal, but the number of people over 35 is larger

- Kinh ethnic group compared with the total number of ethnic minorities (Thai,

Muong, other) accounts for a smaller proportion, consistent with the actual demographics in

the subregion

- The number of the female SME owner with more than 2 children accounts for a larger

proportion than the rest, consistent with regional customs, especially for ethnic minorities

- The number of female with education level through training (from Intermediate,

Vocational and above) accounts for nearly equal proportion to the general education levels

and those who do not have education

- Regarding the age at which women start their current business in the northwest

subregion, the age group accounts for the most from 36-45 and previous work and business

experience accounts for a larger proportion than those who have not worked yet These

results are consistent with the fact that women here start their current businesses later and

have more experience as most of them have managed in Business Household, Cooperative,

and Cooperative models before starting their own bussiness

- The number of years in which enterprises are operated is the most 1-5 years due to

the fact that women-owned SMEs have been established rapidly recently since the Law on

SMEs came into effect in 2017

5.2.2.2 Descriptive results of the EM of female owners of SMEs

In general, women and female entrepreneurs in the northwest subregion show a

"pull" (DLKD1> DLKD7) motivation higher than "push" (DLKD8> DLKD11) in starting

and running a business

5.2.2.3 The results assess the reliability of the scale and survey data

Through Cronbach's Alpha coefficient, the observed variable Social Network 4 is

removed (MangLuoi4) and Risk-Acceptance Trend 1 (RuiRo1), Optimism 3 (LacQuan3),

Access to Capital 3 (Von3) and People's Opinion around 3 (YKien3) are retained In the

remaining 39 variables, the above scales are reliable for the use in EFA analysis step (table 5.6)

5.2.2.4 Results of factor analysis to explore EFA

In the first run, the gunuaranteed variables are eliminated in subsequent EFA runs

including Opinion of people surrouding 3, Optimism 3, Risk taking trend 1

In the second run, 2 observed variables: Risk acceptability trend 4, 5 are uploaded in

3 factors and the load difference of each of these factors are <0.3, type Risk acceptability trend 4, Risk acceptability trend 5 is removed from the research model

In the third time, the author has extracted 08 factors

However, 04 items of the scale of Social status of businesswomen have been downloaded along with the remaining 02 observed variables of the scale The surrounding people's opinion becomes a factor Combine this scale of 2 factors into one factor named

"Social Standards - Standards" including 6 observed variables from Standards1> Standards6

Adjust the research model

Figure 5.7 Modified research model

5.2.2.5 Test the distribution format of the data

As a result, the distributions of the scales used in this study have the normal form of distribution, meeting the requirements for further analysis

5.2.2.6 Test the correlation between the variables

The author conducted analysis the correlation to examine the relationship between quantitative variables through Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) The correlation coefficients

in the table 4.16 show that the relationship between the variables is quite reasonable

Firstly, the correlation between the independent variable and the dependent variable

Except for the variable perceived barrier (RaoCan) with a correlation coefficient (r) bearing the sign (-), which means there is a negative correlation between the barrier and the

dynamics of female SME owners

Demand for success

Capability for entrepreneurs

Social Standards Female business model Social network

Perceived barrier

Capital access

H1+

H3+

H5+

H6+

H7+

H8+

H10-

H2+

Control variables:

Ethnicity; age;

Education;

marriage; Number

of children

registered EM of the female SME owner, this relationship is opposite All the remaining

coefficients have a (+) sign that indicates the variables Social Standards (ChaunMuc),

Entrepreneurial Self-Capability (NangLuc), Access to Capital (Von), Demand for Success

(ThanhDat), Social network (MangLuoi), Optimism (LacQuan), and Model female

entrepreneur (HinhMau), that is, they are positively correlated, in the same direction with

the EM of female SME owners At the same time, all 08 coefficients of the independent

variable with this dependent variable have Sig <0.05 (high level of statistical significance)

This result is completely consistent with the expected relationship in the research

hypothesisof the thesis

Secondly, the correlation between the independent variables

Most of the Sig <0.05, only a few Sig > 0.05 between independent variables It is

necesssary to consider the Pearson coefficient to consider the problem of multicollinearity |

r | are all quite far from 1, so multicollinearity probably won't happen However, to be more

cautious in regression, it is still necessary to check the multi-collinearity problem (consider

adding VIF coefficient when regression)

5.2.2.7 The results of multivariate regression of factors affecting EM of female owners

of SMEs

Model 1, when tesing the control variables including Age (DoTuoi), Ethnicity

(DanToc), Marital status (HonNhan), Education level (HocVan), and Number of children

(SoCon), the results is that all these control variables have p> 0.05, they are all not statistically

significant The model has no statistical significance, adjusted R2 coefficient equal to 0.003, F

of model 1.386, p> 0.05, factors in the model show that there is 0.3% variable of EM of female

owners of SMEs R2 is changed to 0.010 (1% variable)

Model 2, when putting environmental factors including Awareness Barriers

(RaoCan), Social Standards (ChuanMuc), Access to Capital (Von), Social Networking

(MangLuoi), Model of Female Entrepreneurs (HinhMau) into testing, the result is that all

control variables and factors Social Network (MangLuoi) have p> 0.05, they are not

statistically significant The other variables of the group of environmental factors are

statistically significant (p <0.001) The model is statistically significant, the adjusted R2

coefficient is 0.561, F of the model 86,338 p <0.001, the factors in the model explain 56.1%

of the variables of EM of female owners of SMEs When the factors of the environment are

included, the change of R2 is 0.557 (up 55.7%)

Model 3, when the remaining 3 groups of individual factors are tested, the result is

that all control variables are not statistically significant The model is statistically significant

(adjusted R2 coefficient is 0.627, F of model 87,482, p <0.001), the factors in the model

explain 62.7% of variation in EM of female owners of SMEs Except for only one variable

with opposite relation (RaoCan - Awareness barrier), five of the remaining 8 independent variables are positively related and 06 variables are statistically significant with the EM of female SME owners including ThanhDat - Demand for success (β = 0,271, p <0.001), LacQuan - Optimism (β = 0.060, p <0.05), Von - Access to capital (β = 0.373, p <0.001), HinhMau - female entrepreneurs model (β = 0.069, p <0.001), ChuanMuc - Social standards (β = 0.267, p <0.001), RaoCan – Awareness Barriers (β = -0.079, p <.001) The other two variables: NangLuc - Entrepreneurial self capacity (P> 0.05) and MangLuoi - Social network (P> 0.05) have no statistically significant relationship with the EM of female SME owners Thus, the hypothesis of Entrepreneurship and Social Network which have a positive relationship to the EM of the female SME owner is not accepted (there is no evidence to accept the hypothesis) When putting three individual factors into the model, R2 changes by 0.067, which means that R2 only increases by 6.7% to further explain the research model Thus, the group of environmental factors has a stronger impact than the group of individual factors on the EM of the female SME owner in the northwest subregion

The linear regression equation is as follows:

EM of female SME owners = 0.274 * Demand for success + 0.066 * Optimism + 0.374 * Capital Access + 0.080 * Entrepreneuria model + 0.286 * Social standard - 0.107 *

Awareness barriers

* Check for model defects and detect violation of regression assumptions

- The normal distribution of the residue, the result about assumption of the normal

distribution of the remainder is not violated

- Linear relationship Assumption, the result about linear relationship assumption is not violated (Figure 4.10)

- Assumption of constant variance of residual, the results about the assumptions of

variance of constant error are not violated

- Assumptions about the independence of the error (no correlation between the

remainder), the assumptions results about the independence of the error are not violated

- Assumptions about multi-collinearity violation of the model, results reject

hypothesis of multi-collinearity violation

Thus, the linear regression model built according to the presented equation does not violate the necessary assumptions in linear regression

5.3 Conclusion on research hypotheses

From the experimental results, we can conclude about the research hypotheses of the thesis as follows:

Table 4.19 Conclusion on research hypotheses

impact Experimental results

H2 Capability for entrepreneurs Positive There is no evidence to

accept the hypothesis

accept the hypothesis

H7 Female entrepreneurs model Positive Accepted hypothesis

(Source: author's synthesis)

CHAPTER 6: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION

6.1 Discuss research results

In the existing documents on EM, there have not been any researches conducted a

comprehensive and in-depth empirical analysis on the factors affecting the EM of female

SME owners in Vietnam On the basis of Individual Personality Theory and Institutional

Theory, based on group discussions and in-depth experts interviews, the thesis proposes 10

factors for the research model suitable for the context of the northwest subregion

In-depth interviews with SME owners and experts themselves are used to adjust and

build the scale of previous studies to test the model and scale through preliminary

quantitative analysis of 141 SME female owners and analyze on a large sample of 669

female owners of SMEs in the northwest subregion through formal quantitative research

The results show that the external environment and the EM of female SME owners have a

close correlation, including, Access to capital (+), Model of female entrepreneurs (+),

Awareness Barriers (-), he new factor "Social Standards" (+) - the factor Social status of

businesswomen, the opinions of people around them combined after the official EFA test

and the unity of experts’ opinions Besides, the EM of female SME owners and individual

factors also have significant correlation, which is the the desire for success (+) and

optimism (+)

However, no correlation is found between the factors Ability of Entrepreneurs and the Social Network with the EM of female SME owners The Optimism factor is first introduced and the research model to the EM of female SME owners in Vietnam as an independent variable Similarly, the comparison of the relative impact of individual and environmental factors on the EM of female SME owners is also carried out the first time in Vietnam The results of the thesis show similarities and some differences with previous studies in Vietnam and in the world because of the characteristics of women, female owners

of SMEs and regional context like Northwest region

Firstly, the thesis shows statistical evidence of the impact of factors on EM of female SME owners in the northwest subregion according to the degree of gradual decrease: (1) Access to capital, (2) Standards society, (3) Desire for success, (4) Awareness barrier, (5) The model of business women and (6) Optimism In which, the factor Awareness Barriers has a negative impact while all the remaining factors have a positive impact All of these relationships have similarities and differences with several previous studies However, two factors: Social Network and Ability of Entrepreneurs, do not have a statistically significant

Secondly, the interesting thing is that Access to capital has the strongest impact on

EM of female SME owners in the nortthwest subregion, which is different from other studies Smallest impact level (Sesen, 2013; Yushuai et al., 2014); Access to capital is in the factor Availability of tools, ranked first in the Norwegian context and second in the Indonesian context (Kristiansen and Indarti, 2004); ranked third (Phan Anh Tu and Giang Thi Cam Tien, 2015)

Thirdly, the research results of the thesis show that the group of environmental factors has a greater impact than the group of individual factors These result are similar to the study of Taormina and Lao (2007), and contrary to Sesen (2013) in potential business entrepreneurs

6.2 Some recommendations

6.2.1 For macro management agencies

Renovate credit support policies for SMEs, further facilitate women, female owners

of SMEs, and women-owned SMEs to access legal credit sources, minimize usuty

Firstly, for credit institutions, women-owned SME products are essential with a proper credit history The central and local enterprise development funds should give priority to a certain percentage for women-owned SMEs In addition, it is necessary to create diversified capital channels for SMEs, especially women-owned SMEs such as stock market development, bonds, microfinance, investment funds