Proceedings of 8th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
9 - 10 February 2015, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-71-9
Women Involvement in Small-scale Business in Kota Bharu, Kelantan,
Malaysia
A. M. Sultana, Nurul Syafiqah Arifin and Jamil Osman Juraini
Women involvements in small-scale business are considered as the positive efforts to
enhance the family income as well as the economic development for the economy of
the country. Women economic participation could expand their ability to make decisions
in the family and would play an important role in the empowerment of women. The
study, therefore, attempts to assess the involvement of women in small enterprise in the
state of Kelantan, Malaysia. A total 50 of the women were interviewed from the Rural
Transformation Centre (RTC) in Wakaf Che Yeh, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. The first
objective of this study was to examine the factors influence women's involvement in the
business. The results revealed that the majority of the respondents involved in
bushiness in order to contribute to the family income. The second objective of the study
was to discover whether they face any challenges of being in the business. Results
revealed that the major challenges faced by women in business related to community
traditional gender norms. Moreover, other challenges such as the difficulty of receiving
loans and fear of sexually harassment are common among the respondents. Despite
this, there are positive impacts of business on women by changing their lifestyle,
increasing freedom of mobility, by knowing more about people from different
backgrounds and gaining confidence to do many things by their own. The study
concludes that a small scale business plays an important role to the empowerment of
women in the community at Kelantan.
Key Words: Small-scale business, Job satisfaction, Family tradition, Empowerment, Entrepreneur
1. Introduction
About one billion people are living on less than US$1 a day, an estimated 70 percent of whom are
girls and women (UNDP, 2008, Hasni, 2012). Women are half of the total population of any
country. Women are much more likely than men to be poor and illiterate. They usually have less
access than men to medical care, property ownership, credit, training and employment. It is
necessary to improve women socioeconomic condition, well as empower women for women to
participate in the overall development of the nation. One way to improve the woman's condition as
well as empower women economically is women's engagement in entrepreneurial such as income
generating activities (Chowdhury and Amin, 2011; Hasni, 2012). It is said that women
entrepreneurs have enormous potential to bring prosperity in the world (McConnell, 2007).
Therefore, many developed and developing countries in the world are taking steps to promote
women entrepreneur ships among their population (Hasni, 2012). For example, in Bangladesh
various agencies and non-governmental organizations are introducing different development
projects such as micro credit programs in order to involve women in income generating activities
for the empowerment of women as well as the alleviation of poverty.
Similarly, in Malaysia, women's labor force participation has an important impact on the process of
economic development. The labor force participation rates of women have risen in Malaysia since
its independence. To empower women by creating greater awareness of micro-finance and various
small loans, especially for low-income women, several projects have been taken by the Ministry of
Entrepreneur and Co-operative Development (Hasni, 2012). Currently, women's involvement in
_______________________________________________________________________________
*Dr. M Sultana Alam, Department of Social Studies and Citizenship Studies, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris,
Malaysia. Email: sultana @fsk.upsi.edu.my
Proceedings of 8th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
9 - 10 February 2015, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-71-9
entrepreneurial activity is increasing steadily over the years. According to the Companies
Commission of Malaysia (CCM) the registered number of women owned businesses increased
from 49 554 units in 2001 to 54,626 in 2002. (Kavitha & Anantharaman, 2008).
The study attempts to assess the involvement of women in small enterprise in the state of
Kelantan. Kelantan is famous for its Malay culture, traditional arts and crafts as well as its firm Islam
religion practice. The main economic activities for Kelantan originated from agriculture fields such
as paddy, rubber and tobacco produce (Aziz et al., 2012). Generally, women in Kelantan are known
as very independent and actively engaged in businesses. They are viewed as the aggressive
entrepreneur than their counterpart men in the local marketplaces. However, many women can be
found to conduct business in this state, especially in popular markets and shopping areas
(Norhaiyati, et al., 2011). Thus, women are contributing to the economy of the community in the
state. Despite the significant amount of women's involvement in the business who contribute to the
economy of the community. It is, therefore also important to discover whether they face any
challenges of being in the business and how business impacts on their empowerment.
2. Methodology and Research Design
This was a micro study involving a small number of respondents. The study was based on primary
information. Data was collected from Rural Transformation Center (RTC), Wakaf Che Yeh,
Kelantan (Figure 1). A total of 50 women were selected as the respondents for the study. The
majority of the respondents were Malay as 70 per cent of the total population are Malays. Purposive
sampling method was used to select a sample from RTC, which represents the entire population.
Purposive sampling method was used to select 50 respondents for this study. The questionnaires
and observation techniques were used as the instrument for collecting information from the
respondents. Questionnaires were handed to each respondent and the information was collected
directly by the researchers. There were some difficulties faced by the researcher during data
collection. Some respondents did not understand the questionnaire clearly due to lack of education.
However, the researcher explained clearly in her mother tongue. Although the researcher made
sure that the research was only an academic purpose, a few respondents did not fully co-operate
with the researcher. Due to these situations, the researcher needed to terminate the interview
session with some respondents and started the new one. The data such as frequencies and
percentages obtained from the analysis were presented in tabular and graphical forms to fulfil the
desired objectives. The study questionnaire technique used in order to examine woman’s
perception on about their business, factors influence to be involved them in business and whether
they face any challenges conducting the profession they involve in. The variables relate were
measured using 5 statements using Anchored scale ranging from 1=strongly Agree 5=Strongly
Disagree.
Proceedings of 8th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
9 - 10 February 2015, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-71-9
Figure 1: Rural Transformation Centre, Kota Bharu (RTC)
3. The findings
Table 1 summarized demographic background of respondents. The data revealed that the majority
of respondents (38 percent) involved in this research were aged between 26-35 years old while only
a small number (4 percent) of respondents belonged to the age range between 56-65 years. In
terms of ethnicity, the majority (70 percent) of the respondents were Muslim. These results are not
surprising as mentioned elsewhere, 70 percent of the population in Malaysia are Malay. The data
on marital status of the respondents revealed that the highest numbers (54 percent) of respondents
were married. Different educational levels of respondents were selected in this study.
Results revealed that the highest number of respondents (42 percent) belonged to higher
secondary level of education. Only a few respondents (20 percent) belonged to the primary level of
education. However, there was a respondent who holds Master degree and PhD level education.
Although previous studies argued that the educated and experienced women are more interested
in becoming entrepreneurs than non-educated and inexperienced women (Kavita et al., 2008;
Hasni, 2012), these results revealed that most of the respondents were not well educated. The
World Bank (1995) mentioned that a Bangladeshi bank assuming 40 percent of loans to be nonperforming required a spread of 20 percent between lending rates and the bank’s costs of funds
just to break-even.
Proceedings of 8th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
9 - 10 February 2015, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-71-9
Table 1: Demographic Information of the Respondents
Category
Age
Frequency
(N)
10
19
12
7
2
35
9
6
14
27
9
10
16-25 years
26-35
36-45
46-55
56-65
Ethnic group
Malay
Siamese
Chinese
Marital status
Single
Married
Divorce/single mother
Level
of Primary education
education
Secondary education
19
Higher
secondary 21
education
Percentage
(%)
20
38
24
14
4
70
18
12
28
54
18
20
38
42
3.1 Factors Influence to Start up Business
The study examines the factors that influence women to start up a small scale business. The
literature supports that there are various factors such as economic necessity, career prospect, job
satisfaction, motivation, family tradition (Schwartz, 1976; Alstete, 2002; Scott,1986; Norhaiyati &
Nik., 2011). Recent studies revealed that in Malaysia, psychological motives such as selfsatisfaction, the search for independence, and source of finance have been found to be motivating
factors for women entrepreneurs to start-up business (Nordin, 2005; Hasni, 2012). The present
studies lend support to the literature.
The study examined the factors that influence women to start up business using 5 statements
ranging from 1=strongly Agree 5=Strongly Disagree. The results (Table 2) revealed that most of the
respondents mentioned those factors such as (1) economic necessity (2) self-choice (3) Selfsufficient (4) family and friend’s encouragement and (5) family tradition of starting up a small scale
business.
The most prominent factor was in terms of “I start up a business because of I want to become
independent” (67 percent agree & 24 % strongly agree respectively). A larger number of
respondents considered “self-choice” (44 percent agree & 24 percent strongly agree respectively)
as the important to start up business. Family and friend’s encouragements were seen as the
motivating factors that contributed to start-up the business.
Proceedings of 8th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
9 - 10 February 2015, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-71-9
Table2: Factors Influence Women Involvement in Business
Statements Strongly
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
I start up
business
because of
the
economic
necessity
of my
family
I start up
business
because I
like
business
profession
I start up a
business
because of
I want to
become
independe
nt
I start up
business
with family
member’s
encourage
ment
I start -up
business
to
continue
my family
business
tradition.
I start- up
business
with the my
friend’s
encourage
ment
I start up
business
Disagree
Not
sure
Agre
e
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
Strongl
y
agree
N
1
2
2
4
11
22
13
26
23
46
0
0
3
6
13
26
22
44
12
24
1
2
3
6
0
0
41
67
12
24
0
0
5
10
5
10
27
54
13
26
6
12
9
18
13
26
14
28
8
16
1
2
13
26
21
42
11
22
4
8
1
2
7
14
7
14
24
48
11
22
%
Proceedings of 8th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
9 - 10 February 2015, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-71-9
8
9
10
because I
have to
support my
family on
my own.
I start up
business
because I
get support
from the
association
s.
I involved
in business
because
this field
brings
more profit
than other
profession.
I start up
business
to help my
husband in
family
income
1
2
11
22
9
18
13
26
11
22
9
18
13
26
7
14
15
30
6
12
0
0
3
6
8
16
22
44
17
34
3.2 Impact of Small-scale Business on Empowering Women
The study analyzes the impact of small-scale business towards women empowerment using a total
of 10 statements. Before analyzing the impacts of small-scale business towards women
empowerment it is also important to define what constitute empowerment. In order to define or
most authors defined empowerment as the ability of women to take control of their own life, selfconfidence. There are women who exercise a great deal of choice and thus enjoy power, they can
be considered as the empowered. Women empowerment further can be defined as women's
autonomy, relative access to household resources and control over decision-making power (Kabeer
1999, Batliwala, 1995). Batliwala (1995) conceptualized decision making power as the degree of
control over material, human and intellectual resources exercised by different sections of society. In
a recent study Sultana et al (2013) argued that employment was found to be a key indicator in
enhancing the level of decision-making power as well as empowerment of women in all aspects.
The present study contributes to show that women's participation in the small- scale
business play an important role for empowering women by controlling over decision-making,
economic freedom, increasing self-confidence, company ownership and freedom of making own
choice. Results ( Table 3) revealed that the majority of respondents showed positive attitudes
towards their empowerment in terms of (1) ability to deal with people from different (2) ability of
time management (3) satisfaction of economic contribution to family (4) independence of using own
income family (5) changing lifestyle (6) making own choice (7) ability to contribute to the welfare
of the family (8) self-confidence to do the things by own (9) ownership of the company and (10)
freedom of family decision making. The majority of respondents agreed with the above statements
Proceedings of 8th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
9 - 10 February 2015, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-71-9
and based on the theoretical orientation, these results proved that there is a huge impact on
business on empowering women especially at the household level.
Table 3: Percentage and Frequency of Impacts of Small Scale Business on Women
Statements
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
I know how to
deal
with
people
from
different
background
I know how to
manage work
and family
I
have
the
freedom to take
family decision
I can contribute
my
family
income
I feel free to
use my own
income
My
business
helped me to
change
my
lifestyle.
I can contribute
to the welfare
of my family
member
I am confident
that I can do
many things.
I can appoint
workers to help
my business.
I
have
the
freedom to do
something for
my own
Stron
gly
disag
ree
Disa
gree
Neither
disagr
ee or
agree
Agr
ee
Strong
ly
agree
F
%
F
%
F
%
F
%
F
%
0
0
3
6
7
14
29
58
11
22
0
0
4
8
7
14
31
62
8
16
1
2
7
14
3
6
25
50
14
34
0
0
9
18
3
6
23
46
15
30
0
0
2
4
13
26
24
48
11
22
1
2
0
0
6
12
33
66
10
20
0
0
1
2
13
26
23
46
13
26
0
0
1
2
6
12
32
64
11
22
2
4
4
8
9
18
25
30
10
20
3
6
1
2
9
18
27
54
10
20
Proceedings of 8th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
9 - 10 February 2015, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-71-9
3.3 Challenges faced by Women in Small Scale Business
The study also assesses whether any challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, who own micro
and small businesses in Kota Bhar, Kelantan by using eight statements related to the possible
constraints that they may face. Results (Table 4) revealed that the major challenged faced by
respondents in terms of lack of knowledge about business since the majority of respondents
agreed in terms of “ I do not have enough knowledge about business” (38 percent agree and 36
percent strongly respectively). As mentioned elsewhere, most of the respondents in this study
tended to have a moderate level of education.
Table4: Percentage and Frequency Challenges Faced by Women in small scale business
Statements
1 My family is not
confident with
my work.
2 My family does
not allow me to
go outside for
business.
3 People look at
me like I am
weird.
4 People think
that business
is male
dominated
profession.
5 I have been
discriminated
as by the
traders as
being female
entrepreneur
6 I am always
having a fear of
sexual
harassment
7 I do not have
enough
knowledge
about the
business
8 I am having
difficulties
getting loans
Strongly
disagree
Disagre
e
F
%
F
14
28 26
16
Not
sure
%
F
Agre
e
Strongly
agree
%
F
%
F
%
52 3
6
5
10 2
4
32 20
40 7
14 5
10 2
4
7
14 22
44 11
22 7
14 3
6
17
34 18
36 3
6
6
18 6
12
8
16 17
34 16
32 7
14 2
4
8
16 13
26 11
22 12
24 6
12
7
14 16
32 4
8
19
38 16
32
5
10 22
44 7
14 14
28 22
44
Proceedings of 8th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
9 - 10 February 2015, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-71-9
There is a link between the challenges faced by women in small-scale businesses and low
education and lack of training (Decal, 2010). On the other hand, gaining relevant skills and
knowledge are difficult to achieve for the women, since they frequently have triple work burden
(Anisiobi., 2014).
However, there are other types of constraints such as difficulty of receiving loans. A large number
of respondents (28 percent agree & 44 percent strongly agree respectively) were having difficulties
of getting loan because of being a female entrepreneur. The present study constrained by
previous conducted by Aziz et al., (2012) on challenges faced by micro, small, and medium
lodgings in Kelantan, Malaysia. The study demonstrated that generally in Kelantan the microenterprises are utilizing their revenue to enhance business ventures. The study highlighted that
micro; small and medium accommodation enterprises are both facing problems in raising capital in
managing their accommodation business that has given them many challenges.
Another constraint faced by women entrepreneur was related to community perception. Some
people believed that business is male profession. Gender role also plays an important for the
challenges faced by women in small scale business. It was noted that the fear of sexually
harassment among respondents are common. A small number of respondents (24 percent agree
and 12 percent strongly agree) that they are fearful of sexual violence especially of being a female
entrepreneur.
4. Summary and Conclusions
The study assessed women’s involvement in small-scale business in Kota Bhar, Kelantan,
Malaysia. The main aim of this study was to explore factors, impacts and challenges faced by
women in small scale business. The findings of this study showed that the major factors that
influence women to start-up business are an economic necessity, self-choice of becoming an
entrepreneur, becoming self-sufficient, family and friend’s encouragement and a family tradition.
The study analyzed the impact of small-scale business towards women empowerment. The results
demonstrated that women’s participation in the small-scale business plays an important role for the
empowering women by controlling over decision-making, economic freedom, increasing selfconfidence, company ownership and freedom of making own choice. Lastly, the study examined
whether any challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, who own micro and small businesses in
Kota Bhar, Kelantan. The results revealed that the major constraints faced by women
entrepreneurs are related to lack of knowledge about business, difficulty of receiving loans,
patriarchal gender attitudes when business are viewed male profession and fear of sexual
harassment. The study showed that women tended to have lack of knowledge about business and
education. Moreover, women entrepreneurship has been recognised as an important untapped
source of economic growth and socioeconomic development of any nation. Given the importance of
women's participation in the business, the government and NGOs would facilitate training and
education for women in terms of the importance of marketing strategy as well as other business
strategies to the business management. Furthermore, the study was limited to a small number of
women who involve in a small scale business in Kota Bhar, Kelantan. The current research was
able to manage to distribute 50 respondents only. Therefore, the results of this study could not be
generalized to a broader scope.
5. Acknowledgments
Proceedings of 8th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
9 - 10 February 2015, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-71-9
We gratefully acknowledge, the study respondents who consented to voluntarily participate in the
study and provided valuable information on their participation in small scale business in Kota Bharu,
Kelantan.
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