Self-Help Groups as Influencers of Entrepreneurial Intentions Among Women

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is vital to the development of competitive and dynamic economies. In the Indian context as well, entrepreneurship is becoming widespread, more so, amongst women, especially when cultural dynamics bestows on women a subordinate role dependent on a man's permission for all or most decision making (Datta and Gailey, 2012). Self Help Groups (SHG's) are proven to bolster women to take the role of an entrepreneur. Further, SHG's and entrepreneurship are proven to have a symbiotic relationship with each other for improvement in the life of an entrepreneur (Prakash & Ruhela, 2015) This study comprehensively reviews the concept of entrepreneurship and SHG's, and gives insights into how SHG's can help women entrepreneurs to envision and evaluate business opportunities; to gather the necessary resources to take advantage of them; and to start a new business, based on Linen's Entrepreneurial Intention Model. The paper adds to the existing theory by extending Linen's Entrepreneurial Intention Model to include a social identity variable in response to Venugopal's (2016) call. Research propositions are presented and a conceptual model is proposed which need to be empirically tested to understand the outreach of SHG's in creating business opportunities for women. Further, implications for policy makers and implementing agencies are also highlighted.