A comparative study on factors that influence women into entrepreneurship in the Fiapre community of the bono region, Ghana

Entrepreneurs are either pushed (compelled) or pulled (motivated) to start their ventures. In the Ghanaian setting, there exist two groups of entrepreneurs; the formal and the informal. The formal entrepreneurs are those who are highly educated and either employed elsewhere or not and are engaged in entrepreneurial activities. The informal are those who are not educated but are also entrepreneurs. This study, conducted on 200 (100 from each sector) women from Fiapre, did a comparison through cross-tabulation in SPSS to find out if the same factors pulled or pushed these women into entrepreneurship. There was consensus in factors such as desire for independence, power or social status and exploiting opportunities. However formal sector women were exposed to more opportunities than their counterparts. Informal sector women wanted a flexible lifestyle as against the formal sector entrepreneurs. Differences existed in the choices of the entrepreneurs in the push category. The need for flexible working time was the major influencer for the formal entrepreneurs whiles a moderate factor for the informal entrepreneurs. Whereas job dissatisfaction, relocation, job insecurity, boredom and layoff were moderate influencers for the formal entrepreneurs and minor or negligible for the informal sector. Divorced or loss of a husband was considered a minor influencer for both sectors. In all women are majorly pulled into entrepreneurship and not pushed with their major challenge being access to finance.