Examination of The Human and Social Capital Factors Towards The Success of Rural Women Entrepreneurs in Malaysia

Abstract

Despite the increase in the number of woman entrepreneurs in Malaysia, the focus on entrepreneurial rural women remains largely under-researched. In particular, there is a dearth of studies in the field of rural women’s entrepreneurship regarding how human capital and social capital factors influence the success of these entrepreneurs. This knowledge gap thus contributes to a lack of developmental programs aimed at improving the human capital and social capital of these entrepreneurs. The present study aims to contribute towards filling this gap in knowledge and thus enable such programs to be developed and implemented. Rural women entrepreneurs from around Malaysia were selected using purposive sampling, and quantitative methods were used to obtain data from the study participants. The results obtained answer the following research questions: what is the influential role of (1) knowledge, (2) experience, (3) skills, (4) strong-tie relationships and (5) weak-tie relationships in the entrepreneurial success of rural women in Malaysia? The study used quantitative methods and PLS-SEM was used to analyse the data