Resource Support and Women-owned MSEs' Growth in Western Kenya

Abstract

Women entrepreneurship has attracted little attention from public policy makers and researchers, a situation that has left women entrepreneurs prone to both general and gender-specific barriers. The need for a female-specific policy, which was the basis of this study therefore cannot be over-emphasized. It analyzed the relationship between resource support and women-owned MSE' performance. The design was a Cross-sectional Survey, anchored on Resource-based Theory. It adopted a Positivist Paradigm and a Quantitative Multi-method approach. Through multi-stage sampling, 375 respondents participated in the study. Data was analyzed through correlation coefficient and coefficient of determination. The results revealed there being direct and indirect relationships between and among variables. For example, the correlation coefficient results for H0₁; R²=.9661, p=<.001meant that 97% change in the rate of MSE growth was attributed to resource support. Also, the coefficient of determination results for H0₂; k²= .0829, 95% BCa CI (0493, .1227) and (b= .0784, z= 3.8087, p= <.001); meant that 38% change in the MSE growth was due to the mediation influence of resource support between traits and MSE growth.