A Phenomenological Study of Women Entrepreneurs

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is the cornerstone of any economy and women entrepreneurship is of paramount importance. Since very few research is conducted to examine the lived experiences of women entrepreneurs in India, this study was performed to explore the experiences of women entrepreneurs through the lens of psychological capital with the objective of learning the ways the tenets of psychological capital viz. confidence, optimism, hope and resilience are used by the women entrepreneurs.  A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted on fourteen women entrepreneurs from various backgrounds identified through snowball sampling. All the interviews were transcribed and the data was analyzed using Owen’s standards for emerging themes. The analysis revealed the subcategories, “Audaciousness”, “Communication” ,“Learning” in the category of confidence, “Contagious”, “Motivating factor” under category of optimism, “Fortitude”, “Adaptation” ,“New beginning” under the category of resilience, and “Positive impetus”, “Realistic” in the category of hope. The themes are discussed in the light of existing literature.