November 2022
Dr. Vishal Gaikwad, Mr. Mandar Joshi, Ms. Malavika Khatavkar
In recent years women are seen playing a top managerial role. In the business world, women’s contribution is recognized and they are offered decision-making roles. According to International Monetary Fund Report ‘Pursuing Women’s Economic Empowerment’ (2018), women’s economic empowerment boosts productivity and increases economic diversification and income equality in addition to other positive development outcomes. Companies greatly benefit from increased employment and leadership opportunities afforded to women. Further, it is shown to increase organizational effectiveness and growth. It is estimated that companies with three or more women in senior management functions score higher in all dimensions of organizational performance (Women’s Economic Empowerment UN 2018 Report). Guillen (2014) argued that in developing countries women entrepreneurs are important as they can truly make a difference.
Whenever entrepreneurship is discussed it is discussed in the context of the commercial and not in the context of the social context. Commercial entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship are different from each other. Social entrepreneurship refers to innovative activity with a social objective in either the for-profit sector, such as in social-purpose commercial ventures. Social entrepreneurship is growing rapidly and attracting increased attention from many sectors. Social entrepreneurial ventures in both developed and developing countries are key contributors to the creation and diversification of economic growth, emancipation and empowerment of women.
Understanding how women engage in social entrepreneurial activities which support the local developmental needs is necessary to be studied in detail (Amine & Staub, 2009; Huysentruyt, 2014). Understanding the entrepreneurs can help the policymakers to form the right policies for businesses and remove the loopholes in the existing policies to make them more effective. This paper is an attempt to understand what has motivated these women to start a social start-up.
For this study, we have selected three women entrepreneurs from three different fields. We first interviewed Akshita Sachdeva, founder of ‘Trestle Labs, an Assistive Technology company enabling blind and visually-impaired people to access any type of content printed, handwritten, or digital anywhere. Second, we interviewed Saloni Sancheti, founder of ‘BAANSULI’ – Bamboo Artisan Socio-Economic Upliftment Initiative (Baansuli), and third, we interviewed Smriti Gupta, co-founder of ‘Where Are India’s Children’ (WAIC).
The present study explores the factors social (family background, role models), personal (education, experiences), environmental (government, financial institute, investors) and entrepreneurial learnings (actions, social and vicarious learnings) essentials for the development and sustainable growth of women social entrepreneurs.
This study adds value from the theoretical and policy perspectives. From the policy perspective, the study suggests that policymakers should emphasize promotional policies and developmental programs for encouraging women to become social entrepreneurs.