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A Journey from I am not Loving it to I am Loving it:
Guiding Women Entrepreneurs in the Accessibility of
Finance for Empowering them in Pakistan
Farrukh Saeed1 , Ghulam Abid2, Ali Raza Elahi3, Safyan Majid4, Waqas Khan5
1
Visting Faculty, Government College University, Lahore
2
Assistant Professor, Kinnaired College for Women University, Lahore, Pakistan;
3
Ph.D. Scholar, National College for Business Administration & Economics, Lahore, Pakistan;
4
Ph.D. Scholar, University of Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan;
5
Ph.D. Scholar, Superior University, Lahore, Pakistan;
Issue Details
Issue Title: Issue 1
Received: 15 January, 2021
Accepted: 08 February, 2021
Published: 31 March, 2021
Pages: 1445 - 1480
Copyright © 2020 by author(s) and
Linguistica Antverpiensia
Abstract
Women entrepreneurs are emerging as key economic players in developing
counties. Many things are considered obstacles in the path of emerging players'
development as entrepreneurs, with access to bank credit being one of the most
significant in developing countries. Basel III regulations have been
implemented across the globe in the recent past by every country, hence, the
country-specific effects can be neglected in terms of the policies regarding
credit initiations. In the South Asian context almost half of the population is
comprised of women, who are usually not initiating or taking part in businesses
due to the socio-cultural perspective. However, due to the rapid transition of
the economy in Pakistan and an increase in the literacy rate, women start
playing their role in the betterment of the economy. In lieu of that, this
qualitative research has examined the factors which can influence women’s
access to bank credit from lenders’ perspective in Lahore (One of the major
cities in Pakistan). In this regard, primary data has been gathered using face-toface in-depth semi-structured interviews supported by an ethnographic strategy
for recording real-time observations. The theoretical Sampling technique has
been used for data collection from commercial banking managers. Grounded
theory analysis was performed by using NVIVO 12.0 software over qualitative
data which revealed that factors ranging from the Perception of
Businesswomen to Sound Business Knowledge, Financial Awareness,
Management Capabilities, Networking, Familial and Community Moral
support, Business Constitution and Industry Sector, Firm Age and Size, and
Adequate Collateral influence the dynamics of access to bank credit to women
entrepreneurs. The study offers policy implications for banking sector related
Policy managers, Women Entrepreneurs, and Government-run programs.
Keywords
Women Entrepreneurs, Access to formal Credit, Lender, Gender, Pakistan
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Introduction:
Women entrepreneurs are a rapidly growing segment that contributing to
economic activities according to available resources. In 2016,
approximately 163 million women were establishing or handling new
ventures in 74 economies all over the world as reported in the Mastercard
Index of Women Entrepreneur (MIWE, 2018). In South Asian countries
almost half of the population is comprised of females. For example, the
total population of Afghanistan is 37.172M having male 51% and female
49%. In Bangladesh total population is 161.377M having male 51% and
female 49%. In Bhutan, the total population is 0.754M having male 53%
and female 47%. In India, the total population is 1,352.642M having male
51% and female 49%. In the Maldives, the total population is 0.516M
having male 63% and female 37%. In Nepal, the total population is
28.096M having male 45% and female 55%. In Pakistan, the total
population is 212.228M having male 51% and female 49%. In Sri Lanka,
the total population is 21.229M having male 48% and female 52%
(Worldpopulationreview.com, 2019). In Pakistan, SMEs' participation in
GDP is up to 40% annually but it is lesser to the neighboring countries.
The share of SMEs of India and China in GDP is greater than 40% and
60% respectively (Zafar and Mustafa, 2017).
While reviewing the literature on women entrepreneurship, it has been
analyzed that women's access to finance has remained a frequently
researched topic and women entrepreneurs faced obstacles in accessing
finance (Thurik and Wennekers, 2004; Tanusia et al. 2016; Ghosh et
al. 2017; Howell, 2019; Yunis et al. 2019). However, earlier studies have
been mainly related to the availability of resources to the sector and they
emphasized on difficulties of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in
getting required finance. Researchers observed that lack of credit access to
initiate or enlarge small-scale businesses has often plagued this economic
sector. For a long time, policymakers and regulatory bodies have devised
numerous policies and expressed concern about the shortage of credit
available to SMEs, especially women entrepreneurs. Despite all this,
commercial banks are yet not inclined to book sizeable loans for women
entrepreneurs even though women have their presence at large.
Although much has been written about credit constraints for women
entrepreneurs, limited researches are inquiring about influential factors of
access to finance for women entrepreneurs. The focus of researchers
remained towards market efficiency and provision of finance to the sector
caused a lesser focus on determinants of capital structures (Mac an Bhaird
and Lucey, 2010). Literature review related to this segment reports that
there is a considerable gap in knowledge regarding determinants of credit
access. Therefore, it has become very important that policymakers,
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regulators, and women entrepreneurs be well-aware of the determinants of
credit access.
The current study aims to solicit subjective information from commercial
bankers about their perspectives on woman entrepreneurs and their
experience of granting loans to them. Using grounded analysis, this
research seeks to bridge this gap by identifying factors that determine
credit access to women entrepreneurs from the lenders’ perspective. A
better understanding of these determinants/factors would significantly
enhance our knowledge of the industry and provide highly useful
resources for women entrepreneurs.
The researchers envisage that the current study shall augment the
knowledge by including qualitative research perspectives to the women’s
understanding who work in patriarchal societies. The main contribution
through the current study is the addition of substantial factors in liberal
feminist theory (Fischer, Reuber, and Dyke, 1993 ) - which implies that
women-owned firms do not perform well as compared to men since they
face overt discrimination (such as, by lenders/consultants) or caused by
systemic factors which deprive women to fundamental resources (such as,
business education and experience).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Women Entrepreneurship:
Women entrepreneurship is researched by the late 1970s upon their
association with businesses professionally while having the presence at
large, as compared to preceding years (Parker, 2010).
The review of literature endorsed that the association of women
entrepreneurs has been mainly observed with those industries which seem
more traditional and related to women. Besides this, women's low
representation being observed in those industries which are supposed as
male-dominated (Hampton, Cooper, and McGowan, 2009; Allen et al.
2008).
Women are generally engaged with the service industry (Brush and
Hisrich, 1991) and feel more satisfaction being affiliated with service
industries (Galindo and Ribeiro, 2012). Women entrepreneurs are often
more likely to start companies or initiate ventures in the fashion, beauty,
healthcare, education, or other service-related sectors. Their preferences
are usually attached with said industries due to the comparatively low
requirement of high capital, bigger resources, vital familiarity, and
awareness.
According to Steward and Boyd, (1988) even though, female
entrepreneurs are associated and performing their economic activities in
services or retail sectors but somehow their businesses have enough
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growth potential to expand to a good extent. However, the growth of their
businesses has been observed very sluggish (Lee-Gosselin et al.’ 1990).
Women's entrepreneurship is widely recognized as having a significant
impact on global economic growth and social change. During the
transformation period of the economy as a whole into industrial, urban,
socially legislative, higher studies and knowledge, the businesses of
women are expanding all around the economic world (Masood, 2011).
Women entrepreneurs play a critical role in economic growth in
developing countries, and researchers have long sought to understand the
factors that influence businesswomen's success (Terjesen and Amorós,
2010). As per the findings of Minniti and Naudé (2010), through socioeconomic behaviors, the difference in the performance of male
entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurs can be observed. Huysentruyt,
(2014) found that females are much socially concerned and thus prefer to
associate themselves with those businesses through which they can play
their role for the betterment of the world and are less concerned with the
highest profit-generating projects. Hoffmann et al. (2015) presented their
findings that considerable attraction in establishing business setup is
observed when entrepreneur’s parents are also entrepreneurs, and
particularly for females if their mothers have gone through the
entrepreneurial process. Moreover, (Lewis et al. 2015; Agarwal, 2015),
responsibilities of women and their life-turning phases like parenthood, is
positively linked with women entrepreneurship since the independent
business setup is seemed more attractive while making a balance in
working and domestic life. Nguyen (2005) is of the view that females
generally put the foundation of their businesses with the intention to be
known as an entrepreneur for onward making their lives more flexible and
balanced. In the meantime, they are also performing their traditional role
to look after their kids and spouse.
Since entrepreneurship in Pakistan is dominated by men, woman
entrepreneurs face greater risks due to a lack of trust, family support,
business knowledge or research, and adequate guidance. Besides, women
are exposed to significant financial and emotional risk, necessitating a
significant amount of effort to start, and run businesses. In Pakistan's
conservative and masculine civilization, social capital puts high limits on
female businesswomen. (Lindvert, Patel and Wincent, 2017).
Credit Access to Women Entrepreneurs:
It is the ability of entrepreneurs that ensures the success of new business
ventures by getting support from financial institutions, investors,
buyers/suppliers, and consultants (Aldrich and Zimmer 1985). In the study
of Hisrich and O’Brien’s (1982), women entrepreneurs claimed that they
have to counter more difficulties in getting capital access and negotiating
with different related parties including business customers, suppliers,
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accounting, and law firms. Gicheva and Link (2015) inspected that limited
credit access to women entrepreneurs is due to a pre-mind set of financial
supporters about the performances of women-entrepreneurs and economic
criteria (Morris and Meyer, 1993).
Moreover, researchers
(Radhakrishnan, 2015; Bellucci et al. 2010; Lakovleva et al. 2013) also
reached the same type of conclusion.
Concerning credit availability Coleman (2000 ) did not find lenders to
have discriminated behavior for women, contrarily they discriminate in
terms of pricing/non-pricing related matters of the loan. Specifically,
females are required to mortgage collateral security and to pay highinterest costs. Robb and Wolken (2002) by applying similar data,
analyzed that female small business owners particularly have less
outstanding loan amount or have a lower ratio to apply loan (i.e., fear of
denial) than male owners. Besides, the author purposes that it may not due
to merely gender-based discrimination, rather different borrower
characteristics be caused to drive this pattern. Likewise, Cole and Mehran
(2009) state their findings that once characteristics of firm/owner have
been taken into account, females are not de-motivated either applying for
credit or not widely rejected to grant credit.
The lending Institutes are comfortable in grating loans; due to the good
association and close ties, (Dell’ Ariccia and Marquez, 2004) wellestablished relationship that may apart from earlier lending/borrowing
experience (Degryse and Van Cayseele, 2000 ), and deliberation of
financial setup ( Beck et al., 2006 ).
(Wilson, 2016) examined the process and criteria used in the loan
decisions of Banks. Their findings revealed that in the decision-making
process, quantifiable data and gut feeling both are used together. They
further disclose that the behavior of a lending officer is not discriminatory
against females but somehow decision-making process and lending
criteria themselves create considerable space for discrimination.
The study related to relationship lending (Petersen and Rajan, 1994) states
that close bonding and association become a vital factor if reliable
information could be accessible at a lower cost to one institution over
others, and mobility of said information is also not easily possible. In such
a situation, a firm with close ties/strong relationship with Financial
Institution will have better access to loan amount over others which have
no such association. Elsas and Krahnen (1998) analyze that Banks with
more reliable and authentic information are found more cooperative.
Working on the same line, Lehmann and Neuberger (2001) explored a
positive correlation between the SME Owner and Bank loan manager and
the credit access by using a set of variables that quantify interaction
activity.
Cole (1998) examined that the prior relationship between the lender and
business firm lessens the chances of being credit constraints, using data
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from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances (NSSBF).
Working on the same line but in the Italian context, Ferri et al. (2009),
disclosed the same findings.
Uchida et al. (2012) suggested that in a relationship lending, the collection
of soft information has its significance and by Scott (2006), trust raise the
volume of soft information enabling loan manager to effectively utilize
available soft information which eases them while taking a lending
decision. Moro and Fink (2013) empirically examined that those SME
owners obtain more credit who enjoys the status of solid trust of bank loan
manager and also face fewer credit constraints.
Cantwell (2014) added that businesswomen of the United States also have
to face obstacles in getting financial accommodation even in the twentyfirst century – merely 4% loan of total small business credit portfolio has
been sanctioned to women-owned firms.
Due to the weak position of women in society, they have to face hurdles
in getting financial access to meet their business requirements,
particularly in economically developing countries. In a few corners of the
world, the rights of women have been restricted to get finance in an
individual capacity. The single option left with them is to seek financial
accommodation through male bodies like their brothers, husband, or
fathers (Mayoux, 2001 ).
Social discrimination in the form of gender biases is a big barrier in the
field of entrepreneurship for women in Pakistan, however, the supply of
finance can be proved as an appropriate measure for development and
empowering women politically and within social circles (Goheer 2003).
In comparison to other nations, Pakistani young women face unique
difficulties and obstacles. Financial instability is one of the most pressing
issues, as its role is pivotal in the overall economic activities. Businesses
as such rely on financial stability. (Lindvert, Patel and Wincent, 2017).
Panda (2018) investigated major issues which women entrepreneur are
facing in developing countries are; gender differentiation, family and
work-life issues, financial limitations, poor infrastructure, business
instability, eco-political environment, limited entrepreneur training
program, and personality differences.
DATA AND METHODOLOGY
Qualitative approach for exploring determinants of credit access for
women entrepreneurs being chosen. The reason to apply this approach is
to get subjective information from commercial bankers about their views
and elicit the experience of granting loans to women entrepreneurs.
Theoretical sampling technique has been applied for data collection.
Sample Profile:
During this study, 30 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with bankers in
various commercial banks were carried out. Subjects include a diverse
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group of people with 10-30 years of banking experience. There were front
desk officers i.e., Relationship Managers and Unit Heads, and back end
officers i.e., Risk Analyst Officers and Unit Heads Credit Risk. To obtain
the most diverse sample possible, the sample was diversified by banking
experience, Job Role, Age, and gender.
A short sample profile that was used in the current qualitative analysis
listed below;
Table 1: Sample Description concerning diverse features;
Characteristics
Classifications
Frequency
Age
Banking Experience
Gender
Job Role
31-35
36-40
41-45
Above 46
Total
10-15
16-20
21-25
Above 26
Total
Male
Female
Total
Relationship Manager
Unit Heads-Business
Credit Risk Analysts
Unit Head Credit Risk
Total
8
14
4
4
30
21
5
2
2
30
21
9
30
14
9
5
2
30
Introduction of the participants:
Below, participants from various banks of Pakistan have generously
participated in the present research. The identities of subjects have been
modified to maintain anonymity and to follow research ethics.
Table 2: Participants Details:
Participants Age
Banking
Gender
Experience
Sr. #
Research
(RP)
1
RP1
32
10
Male
2
RP2
33
11
Male
3
RP3
33
11
Female
1451
Job Role
Relationship
Manager
Relationship
Manager
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4
RP4
36
12
Female
5
RP5
36
13
Male
6
RP6
36
13
Male
7
RP7
36
13
Female
8
RP8
38
13
Male
9
RP9
40
14
FeMale
10
RP10
40
15
Male
11
RP11
44
18
Female
12
RP12
52
27
Male
13
RP13
34
12
Male
14
RP14
35
13
Male
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
RP15
RP16
RP17
RP18
RP19
RP20
RP21
RP22
RP23
RP24
RP25
RP26
RP27
RP28
RP29
35
36
36
37
37
35
40
35
37
41
48
49
54
45
40
10
11
13
14
15
11
12
13
15
17
22
24
30
20
17
Female
Female
Male
Male
Male
Female
Male
Male
Male
Male
Male
Male
Male
Male
Male
30
RP30
42
18
Female
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Manager
Relationship
Manager
Relationship
Manager
Relationship
Manager
Relationship
Manager
Relationship
Manager
Relationship
Manager
Relationship
Manager
Relationship
Manager
Relationship
Manager
Relationship
Manager
Relationship
Manager
Risk Analyst Officer
Risk Analyst Officer
Risk Analyst Officer
Risk Analyst Officer
Risk Analyst Officer
Unit Head
Unit Head
Unit Head
Unit Head
Unit Head
Unit Head
Unit Head
Unit Head
Unit Head
Unit Head Credit
Risk
Unit Head Credit
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Procedure:
The data collection process began with a general query to elicit feedback
from the participants, followed by a systematic digging into their
responses to get their in-depth reviews and experiences of granting loans
to women entrepreneurs until that moment, the point of saturation has
been touched, and no new information/ideas are arising. Bankers were
mainly questioned that “Women entrepreneurs constitute an increasingly
emerging market, why commercial banks have yet not booked sizeable
loans of women entrepreneurs”.
Subsequently, the researcher arranged follow-up interviews, with a
theoretical sampling perspective, to elucidate or validate emerging themes
and its implication. The detailed interviews conducted for as long as
insightful and informative discussion regarding credit access for women
entrepreneurs has been made. Upon 30 interviews among the targeted
population, It became clear that no new information would be
forthcoming, and that the information would only be repeated.
The Interviews and observations of respondents both have been
transcribed and thereafter word frequency query test was applied to check
in their conversation what was the common subject matter. Results are
presented in figure 2. The frequently used words were “Awareness,
Support, Collateral, networking, Financial, Capabilities, Knowledge,
Management, and so on.
Overall information collected by interacting with Bankers has been
manually coded to generate 13 nodes including; Level of Education,
Social Ties, Business Governance, Decision Maker, Familial Backing,
Awareness of access to formal bank finance, locus of Control, Marital
Status and Autonomy, Religious Awareness, Documented Business, Type
of Business, Business Volume and Market Share and Bank Acceptable
Security. These nodes have been positioned under two main themes
identified as Characteristics of Women Entrepreneur, Firm and Financial
Characteristics.
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Analysis Strategy:
The grounded theory analysis of qualitative data performed by using
NVIVO 12.0 software. The researcher has constantly involved in the data
collection and interpretation method for grounded theory analysis. The
author started the data collection process by asking a general question
about the research to elicit answers and then proceeded to ask more
specific questions until they hit saturation, at which point no new details
surfaced.
The researcher also applied an ethnography strategy to establish and find
the determinants of credit access for women entrepreneurs. Ethnography
is a research method that involves researchers closely observing
individuals or respondents, interpreting their cultural interactions, and
then deducing significance from them (Bryman, 2012). The researcher
adopted this technique to observe, how participants view women
empowerment which enables women to get credit access.
Common Method Biases:
Some common method biases were identified to avoid their effect on the
research findings of the current study.
Social Desirability:
According to Crowne and Marlowe (1964), social desirability “refers to
the need for social approval and acceptance and the belief that it can be
attained employing culturally acceptable and appropriate behaviors” (p.
109).
Leniency Bias:
Guilford (1954, p. 278) defined leniency biases as the tendency of raters
i.e., “to rate those whom they know well, or whom they are ego involved,
higher than they should.”
Negative and Positive Mood:
Watson and Clark (1984) translated mood as “negative affectivity as a
mood-dispositional dimension that reflects pervasive individual
differences in negative emotionality and self-concept and positive
affectivity as reflecting pervasive individual differences in positive
emotionality and self-concept.”
Transient Mood State:
Participants' transient mood states developed as a result of various causes
or events. (e.g., Communication with a dissatisfied client, Compliment
given by a boss or senior officer, hear about his promotion, loss of a
relative or immediate family member, a tough day spent at the workplace,
distress about staff layoff). The reaction of the participants can be affected
by coercion.
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Context Induced Mood:
Factors that produce transient moods are often found because of a process
by which the respondent addresses the research goal. For example, the
interviewer's vocabulary may affect how questions are answered.
Moreover, 1 or 2 interviews were completed over a week to spend full
time with research subjects to prevent social desirability bias and the
mood status (positive, negative, intermittent, and contextual). As the
participant feels sufficient relaxation and can exchange practical facts, and
on the other hand, the researcher also has sufficient insight into the
working environment and the relationship of participants with woman
contractors. In addition, both men and women bankers are part of our
study to exclude leniency.
Findings:
We used NVIVO 12.0 software in the current study to generate word
cloud figures. These figures are the real outcome of the responses of
participants. The NVIVO software is best categorized for theme building
in the qualitative research study. In the current study, these figures
highlights (1) characteristics or features of women entrepreneur, (2) Firm
and Financial Characteristics that influence women empowerment.
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Characteristics of Women Entrepreneur
In an attempt to explore the required characteristics of women
entrepreneurs from the lenders’ perspective, nine major traits have
emerged in this regard.
Level of Education:
This appeared to be a very effective aspect of women entrepreneurs for
credit access. Even among businessmen families, it has been observed that
their children get attached to businesses at an early age without
completing their education. Their ancestors believe in getting business
experience for becoming a successful businessman and are less concerned
with getting a formal education. However, due to working under the
supervision and leadership of the father or other elder members, they
somehow managed their business matters.
Contrary to this, although women entrepreneurs are emerging and putting
their business foundation by themselves, somehow, they do not have the
good business education required for getting mature business decisions
and to perform business activities appropriately, as shared by research
participants (RP).
RP19:
“During my banking experience, I found that lack of business awareness
and knowledge is a major hindrance for becoming a successful
businesswoman. There is a strong need that they must be familiar with the
required things for their businesses and how to access it.”
RP27:
“During 2019, we conducted 3 days session of loan awareness to women
entrepreneurs and almost 300 women met with my team. However, almost
all those women were running self-financed business setup but relatively
on small scale. It has been analyzed that they were not so comfortable to
apply for bank finance facility due to their perception regarding a lot of
formalities bank requires while lending. Moreover, few were reluctant to
share any reason for not availing bank finance facility”
RP7:
“Due to the business governance issue, females prefer to continue small
size business with their equity”.
Social Ties:
Another important trait that emerged from research interviews is Social
Ties. Due to advanced technology, the world has now become a global
village and by building strong social ties within business circles,
considerable benefits including the sharing of effective business
information and business opportunities can be attained. However, women
are critically lacking in this regard as observed from the narratives of
participants.
RP5:
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“I have so far observed low market presence and weak social ties of
women entrepreneurs. The role of females is mostly limited to the
registration of businesses/firms with their names whilst entire business
operations are handling by their spouse or other male bodies. This issue
attracts critical credit risk for bankers or other stakeholders while entering
into banking arrangements or business deals with women entrepreneur”.
RP1:
“Due to not having an appropriate business education and unclear vision
to become business women, they are scared to build social ties among
business community mainly due to lack of confidence.
RP24:
“Women entrepreneurs have a very low frequency of bank visits or
interaction with bankers and the same is the case when women-owned
firms deal with their other business stakeholders including buyers and
suppliers. All this caused weak social ties and whenever they approach a
bank for credit access, the probability to get loan becomes very low”.
Business Governance:
The success of every business depends on efficient management and
effective utilization of available resources. The transformation of an idea
into an actionable task or object becomes possible with management
skills. Among other qualities, a women entrepreneur should possess good
business governance skills to achieve set business outcomes which
women entrepreneurs in developing countries are lacking as
communicated by participants.
RP13 and RP23:
One exclusive joint interview being conducted as per the participant’s
convenience and availability. “Businesswomen mostly remain sticky to
continue business at a stagnant pace under cottage industry due to not
having appropriate business management skills. They suggested that it
will be good if they engage professionally skilled staff to overcome this
issue and onward achieving business growth. They further added that we
(bankers) are not very much concerned with gender rather our focus is on
business operations and essential business skills of business owners that
we substantiate through their business health. We sell banking products
while keeping in view the health of their businesses and prospects”.
RP22:
Women-owned firms are mostly engaged in the services sector or a few of
them are involved in trading and very few running manufacturing units.
Women prefer cash sales and avoid credit sales due to their inability to
make recovery from receivables particularly from those who belonged to
the typical male business community. He pointed out another
management issue that relates to business consistency as observed most of
the time. During business crises, they usually go for winding up of
businesses, due to lacking stress management skills
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Decision Maker:
Among other aspects of women entrepreneurs, sound and strategic
decision-making put the foundation of business success. It has also been
observed through discussion with participants that the decision of women
to launch their business setup is usually influenced by others (society,
family) due to being a part of patriarchal society.
RP23:
“Most of the women make emotional decisions instead of logical. He
referred to the number of females in his social circle, who established
business venture just because to show their superiority over others,
however, they all have now wrapped up their businesses due to constant
failures or losses”.
RP21:
“Based on my Banking Experience and observations, I found younger
female entrepreneurs weak in decision making. However, mature women
are comparatively good in decision making due to their age and business
experiences”.
Familial Backing:
Familial backing is not limited or meant only to financial support rather it
also includes moral and family religious recognition as well. It is widely
observed that in our culture whenever we visit any official place or
shopping mall or financial institution etc. people treat us as per our
appearance, personality or dressing and further our level of confidence
also builds good impression over others. All these qualities brought in
from family standing and the environment in which we groomed up.
Moreover, it also came under observation that families having awareness
about religion and profession, well-educated background, and civilized
are considered more respectable in their social circles as narrated by
participants.
RP3:
“One of my customer’s father is a retired General of the Army. She
belongs to a highly respectable family and is also being wedded into one.
The status of her family is a real source of empowerment and consistently
empowering her as well”.
RP4:
“I would share my experience of dealing with a businesswoman who was
the only daughter of her parents. Since her childhood, she was enjoying
the freedom of decision-making independently. Her father was a
successful businessman and after the death of her father she took charge
of his business, however, after a few years, her husband also passed away.
However, her sons had been well grown up to support her in business
matters so she never had to depend on the outsiders for fieldwork”.
RP20:
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“It will be wrong to say that familial backing is only a need for women
entrepreneurs; rather it is equally important for male entrepreneurs as
well. However, by nature women are more affiliated with family,
therefore they prefer to get advice from family members in their
professional life”.
RP5:
“It is widely observed that young entrepreneurs, who belong to businessoriented families, are comfortable to take business initiatives on their
own. Even to keep business autonomy, they hardly involve family
members in their business decisions. It becomes possible due to their
grooming in an environment which given them enough confidence to take
financial decision independently and freely perform economic activities”.
Awareness of Access to formal Bank Finance:
Credit Access is a frequently referred issue facing women entrepreneurs
in developing countries. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Banks have a
propensity to deal with women entrepreneurs as not being a potential
customer and usually discriminate concerning firm size, reject loan
applications due to not possessing rich business experience and additional
domestic duties. On the other hand, gender differentiation has also been
observed in bank lending practices; however, another school of thought
argues that bankers don’t have discriminated behaviors with women
entrepreneurs since it is not in the interest of the Banks to overlook this
emerging sector at large
RP6:
“I am associated with a team that conducts credit awareness sessions for
SMEs. Although my team had made stringent efforts to give awareness to
several people and the particularly central bank of Pakistan is very
concerned about this issue but a lot of work yet to be done since there is a
big knowledge gap exists among SMEs concerning accessing formal bank
finance. He further added that most people still believe that only collateral
is required to Bank to sanction finance facility which is vague”.
RP9:
“I think awareness about access to formal bank finance is a secondary
issue, first and format issue is business awareness. If women are once
familiar with business requirements that may push them to get credit
awareness as well as to get formal business loans from Banks. Here the
point of concern is business awareness which shall bring women business
owners at a front end and increase their market presence as well”.
Locus of control:
Locus of control is a psychological concept that was brought up in 1960
by Julian Rotter. According to this concept, human beings generally build
a perception of the reason for the happening of an event in their lives.
Locus of control is further classified as an internal and external locus of
control.
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People with an internal locus of control admit that the outcome of any
event is the cause of their actions instead of external forces while other
category believers refer to external forces as a cause of underlying events
instead of self-action.
RP14:
“I observed that women often blamed that due to the male-dominated
business community, they are not fit for particular industries. It is not the
social issue rather it is due to their belief in a strong external locus of
control”.
Marital Status and Autonomy:
The qualitative analysis supports the illustration that females after getting
married feel more empowered, however the same can be varied from one
community to another as communicated by participants of the current
study.
RP25:
“While credit analysis, we follow banks’ internally designed borrowers
Risk Rating Model which covers almost all critical factors and has a
unique score chart against each factor wherein scores are assigned
according to a profile of a customer. If a customer’s marital status is
single, then zero scores are assigned otherwise particular scores are
assigned to married persons”.
RP8:
“As per ruling bank practice, the age of firm, firm size and marital status
have an effective role in business consistency and its prospects. Moreover,
sometimes we ask for Personal Guarantee of a spouse which further
substantiates his support and ultimately secures bank finance more
appropriately by covering succession risk”.
Religious Awareness:
In a Muslim country like Pakistan, it is widely believed that women must
be well aware of religious principles to perform economic activities
within a male-dominated society. It also came under observation that
families which have a good religious understanding and high moral values
usually transform religious awareness to their children thus building
enough confidence, particularly in females.
It is also generally viewed that families having good educational
background also have good religious awareness which does not only
empowers them but also enable them to perform their duties consistently
and with a focused approach. So, undoubtedly our education system can
play a very significant role in building a strong foundation in the
development of women entrepreneurs as an effective economic player as
well.
RP26:
“I would like to share my personal family experience. We are ten siblings,
eight sisters, and two brothers. Regardless of our large size family, my
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father is a strong believer in religious values who grown-up their children
in a religious atmosphere. The whole of my life I observed that my sisters
have full freedom to do whatever they decided to do. From their education
to their food to their marriages were all their choices. They all were
grown-up without any differentiation between boys and girls except for
‘purdah’ and there was no strictness of ‘burka’ instead a ‘chadar’ was
considered sufficient”.
RP10:
“I am a firm believer of women's independence from an economic
perspective, irrespective of their earning capacity and their spouse must
support them in this regard. They must have the feel of empowerment
about family bonding, religious rituals and from political, social and with
the perspective of necessities such as educational status and health needs”.
Firm and Financial Characteristics
The second major domain of qualitative analysis is comprised of
important characteristics of “firm and financial characteristics” of women
enterprises.
Documented Business:
Documentation is the real essence of any business because it builds the
confidence of stakeholders and other related parties over the business.
Through documentation, the core objective of business, vision, and
mission of business and strategy to achieve the set objectives can be
reviewed and comparative performance can be analyzed in a sophisticated
manner. Through interviews and discussions conducted for the current
study, the researcher sums up multiple opinions to conclude i.e., the SME
sector remained unprivileged to credit access from financial institutions
mainly due to non-documented businesses.
RP30:
“Women Entrepreneurs are mostly unaware of the significance of
business documentation. They do not use the banking channel for their
business transaction which is the main cause of weak banking
relationships. Due to this, bankers remain unable to collect soft/inside
information about their businesses which is another hurdle to build
banker’s confidence in their businesses”.
RP29:
“One should be very clear that bankers are not biased or do not have
gender discrimination. However, when we are unable to assess the
working capital requirement of business and also unclear about business
cash flows/repayment capacity then it becomes very difficult to decide to
finance that particular business”.
RP18:
I have concerns over SBP policies wherein bankers have been advised to
give financial awareness to SMEs. It indicates that our educational
institutes are either incapable to perform their role or somehow lacking to
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develop entrepreneurial skills in business students. Small enterprises often
remain unable to provide a record of business transactions. Owing to this,
we could not assess the repayment capacity of the borrower which
onwards attracts credit risk.
Type of Business:
The current study identified that banks categorize business industries into
three segments (1) prime focused industries (2) focused industries (3)
unfocused/negative industries. Banks are comfortable to lend industries
mentioned above at serial numbers 1 and 2 and discourage
unfocused/negative industries.
RP29:
“While lending we are concerned with the purpose and ultimate utilization
of loan, therefore we prefer to extend credit facility in that particular
business which generates or has the potential to generate enough cash
flows to repay bank loans. Contrary to this, it has been observed that
females are mostly attached to business sectors like Fashion designing,
Interior designer, Beauty salons, Teaching and schooling, Doctor,
Apparels, E-commerce, Beauty products, IT Sector, NGO, Cookery,
Marriage Bureau, Career Consultants, etc where the requirement of
sizeable business loans is usually very low”.
RP26:
“Women are not associated with mainstream businesses particularly
manufacturing sector where banks prefer to finance due to considerable
working capital requirements of businesses”.
Business Volume and Market Share:
RP16:
“We connect different factors to evaluate the overall health of the firm.
An old firm usually more than 3 years old provides us in the last 3 years
of financial history to check the growth trend of that particular business
and respective market share. If a firm age is less than 3 years, we prefer to
attach liquid security or place certain covenants related to strict
monitoring of loan to avoid bad debts. Further, it has been experienced
that strict monitoring has opportunity cost and loans sanctioned to newly
established firms often becomes bad-debt”.
RP17 and RP15:
There is a need of the hour that businesswomen should have enough
business awareness that they may design their business model and
structure optimally and also assess actual business requirements to onward
approach right forum to fulfill their business requirements.
Bank Acceptable Security:
Security is usually required by commercial banks against financial
facilities. It is not the policy of the Bank to extend credit facilities against
inferior securities. Furthermore, banks discourage to accept properties
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which are either rented, owned by minor, agricultural property or property
with deficient documentation.
RP11
“During my job experience, I have met with several businesswomen,
wherein mostly were running their business set up on rented premises.
Furthermore, their residential properties were owned by family members
and they were not willing to offer their property as security to Bank for
getting the financial facility”.
RP1:
“Bank accepts third party property as security where borrower carries
good creditworthiness. In the present scenario, where women
entrepreneurs are going through a developing phase, we prefer to get selfowned security by loan applicant to avoid any worse situation in case of
liquidation of third-party security”.
RP30:
“Although Central Bank of Pakistan has relaxed collateral requirements at
a greater extent for women entrepreneurs through their financing schemes
however it does not reduce the credit risk”.
DETERMINANTS OF CREDIT ACCESS FOR WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURS:
Perception of Businesswomen:
The perception of businesswomen has a strong influence on their credit
access. Through the current study, the authors realized that the credit
application ratio of women is quite low, and it is mainly due to perceived
difficulties/complexities in accessing credit. By having this perception,
they may voluntarily take decisions of not availing bank credit facility
even for feasible projects. Contrarily, this phenomenon has built a general
understanding among bankers regarding the low market presence of
businesswomen as evident from the below-summarized discussion with
participants. Moreover, most of the participant disagrees with a literature
review which provides findings regarding charging of high-interest rates,
high collateral requirements and strict loan terms and conditions for
women entrepreneurs.
RP27:
“Being a leading member of an exhibition, which has been conducted
during the year 2019 to give awareness about bank lending products to
small enterprises, particularly to women entrepreneurs. We held an
interactive session with almost 300 women entrepreneurs in 3 days and
got surprised upon realizing that most women were reluctant to freely talk
about their business financial needs and it’s mainly occurred due to their
set perception about complexities involve in bank lending including
gender effect. Most of them were doing business through e-commerce but
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the preferred payment mode was cash collection. According to a
participant, it will not wrong to say that the perception of businesswomen
restricts them to even use the banking channel for their business
transactions. Moreover, most of the businesswomen were completely
unaware of the ruling practices of bank lending as well as
regulators/governing body’s focus on women empowerment and
development schemes”.
RP2:
“I never had gender discrimination while processing a loan application.
However, during the last decade, I hardly received a single loan
application from a women entrepreneur. He further added that most of the
women entrepreneurs prefer to stay at the back end with the perception
that her male representative can deal with banks more effectively”.
RP26:
“There is generally no gender effect in the banking sector. However, in
my banking experience of more than two decades, I observed that
business-women have set their perception regarding banking corporate
culture that is suitable only for large businesses. Owing to this, they failed
to build healthy banking relationships”.
Sound Business Knowledge and Financial Awareness:
Sound Business Knowledge and Financial Awareness appeared to be the
second most important determinant of credit access for women
entrepreneurs from the lenders’ point of view.
RP26:
quoted that “most businesswomen who got credit access belong to
business-oriented families. Moreover, their grooming among working
women or business class enabled them to set their goals and
enthusiastically contribute to economic activities upon getting a business
education”.
RP23:
“We feel comfortable to finance businesses whose owners have an indepth business understanding and relevant business experience. Most of
the Banks’ have now hired professionals/industry experts to get a better
awareness of loan applicants’ business as well as the business knowledge
of applicants”.
RP19:
He coupled business knowledge with financial awareness. “A prudent
business-woman among business understanding must know her business
financial or working capital requirements. We bankers from all loan
applicants must ask the purpose of a loan. Through financial literacy, one
shall able to explain the ultimate utilization of loan and to onward
generate enough cash flows to repay bank loan within extended
timelines”.
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Management Capability:
A third most important determinant of credit access was observed
“Management Capability”. Boden and Nucci (2000) observed quality
differences of the human capital hold by entrepreneurs. They found that as
compared to males, women are inexperienced in business management
capabilities; furthermore, the impact of gender differences is not restricted
up-to limited access to financial services rather it also affects the business
performances of women entrepreneurs as well (Shaw et al., 2005; Carter
et al., 2003).
RP24:
“It has been analyzed that customers having the sound business and
market knowledge have enough confidence to handle complex situations
and take appropriate business decisions. I observed the number of
customers who hardly spend two or three business hours at business
places and the rest of the time business activities are performed as per the
set business structure. All of this becomes possible with an efficient
management system. He further emphasizes specialized business
education where females are lacking to a greater extent. Owing to that
they remained unable to understand market evolution”.
RP21:
“I know some people who took the start of business ventures with small
business volume and available limited capital. However, through strong
interpersonal skills and management capabilities, they made their
businesses sizeable and also availing credit lines from banks for further
business expansion”.
In the business world, consistency in business decisions and behavior is
considered highly important and gives a good representation of capable
management. Good decision-making becomes possible while having
complete awareness about any issue.
Networking:
The fourth most appealing determinant of credit access that emerged from
the analysis is networking. Banks are more concerned with the creditworthiness of their prospective borrowers and to evaluate it they usually
approach respective market players including buyers, suppliers,
competitors, and peer companies. A positive or negative feedback
influences bank loan decisions and no feedback creates uncertainty. Most
importantly, a good banking relationship is also proved very effective in
credit access as summarized in the below interview discussions;
RP12:
“It will be unrealistic to entirely overlook the social, cultural, and
religious forces and restrictions on women while building or establishing
networks. However, to make this an excuse and to work in isolation is
also unjustified. To empower women, banks have opened their women
branches”.
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RP 14:
“The role of networking is very crucial since it is considered the tool to
check the worthiness of loan applicants. In addition to this, it also helped
to gauge how efficiently business-women are running businesses without
compromising the interest of their commercial partners and how well
honoring their business commitments. Women Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (WCCI) provides a platform for networking and also
offering their services for business promotion and development and
addresses issues of women to economic empowerment”.
RP24:
“Banks’ collect proprietary information about the creditworthiness of
borrowers over time to avoid information asymmetries. Furthermore, the
reputation of associated parties also portrays the business worth of the
customers. If any businesswoman is getting supplies from a renowned
firm on credit, it reflects a good credibility sign and onward selling to
good market names also speak about market presence and demand of
products”.
Networking efficacy is observed by way of reducing information
asymmetry, increasing a firm's legitimacy, and getting “soft” information
that is gathered through contact over time.
Familial and Community Support:
Support of family characterized as moral, social, and financial backing by
people having blood relation or other near family members of respective
businesswomen.
Yet another Important determinant found through this study was familial
and community moral support. To avoid business succession risk as well
as business consistency issue, familial support in particular and
community support in general plays a very crucial role in the loan
evaluation process of businesswomen.
RP9:
“Those women entrepreneur who maintains social status are considered
more empowered as compared to socially weak families. Community
support refers here the support extended by neighbors, colony people, or
society as a whole, etc”.
RP7:
“We cannot ignore the household responsibilities of women particularly
after marriage. To keep balance in family and working life is extensively
connected with household dynamics for example support of spouse and
in-laws since they have a crucial role in routine life and choices of
working women”.
Business Constitution and Industry Sector:
The sixth possible determinant of credit access for women entrepreneurs
appeared as “Business constitution and industry sector”. Lenders prefer to
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finance those industry sectors which have growth potential. Besides,
business ownership structure and business approach play an important
role to get bank financing. The supply of credit for proprietorship firms is
usually low and for companies is comparatively high, mainly due to
maintaining adequate business documentation and efficient resource
management, etc.
RP19:
“We assume comparatively high credit risk while financing to
proprietorship business as the entire debt repayment obligation is on one
person. However, in the case of partnership firm and limited liability
company, debt repayment obligation is spread over different shareholders,
thus these firms face lesser financial constraints and adequate leverage
level. Broadly speaking, we analyze the business approach of
owner/sponsors from a business constitution”.
RP26:
“Each business has a certain type of required documentation as per
standards and parameters. Documented businesses as in the case of
partnership firms and limited liability companies enable us to access the
financial health of business without hassle. For a small business, it is
highly commendable to be a member of the Women Chamber of
Commerce and Industry for strong business recognition and ultimately
increase the probability to get credit access from financial institutions”.
Firm Age and Size:
The seventh most important determinant of credit access identified as
Firm Age and Size. As per participants' general views, the firm size and
age both are considered interrelated factors and are usually analyzed
jointly to assess the firm growth to sales, profitability, Assets, number of
employees, etc. An old age firm usually carries good repute among
stakeholders by building enough confidence through its business
operations. Contrarily a new firm has greater uncertainty and less
confidence of all related parties.
Earlier studies (see North et al.,(2010) and Aryeetey et al., (1994)) have
demonstrated a strong link between the age of the company and access to
bank credit.
RP3:
“Firms are usually established by internal sources including personal
savings, friends, and family financial support. Through successful
business operations, firms build enough confidence in suppliers to get
supplies on credit. When a firm reaches a level, where it has a business
track record, buyers/suppliers’ chain, firm accounting system and much
more, then that is the time to approach to a bank for credit access for
further business expansion”.
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Adequate Collateral:
The eighth highly important determinant of credit access for women
entrepreneurs is adequate collateral. Almost all participants of the study
firmly stated that adequate collateral cannot be a neglecting factor mainly
due to the bank’s policy requirements. While lending, banks in Pakistan
require tangible securities mostly in the shape of immovable property
having good marketability and enough value to cover the requested loan
amount. For the ownership status of collateral, banks prefer to obtain selfowned collateral however relaxation (third party owned security) is
allowed only specific customers of strong creditworthiness and a wellestablished reputation.
From the discussion with respondents, it has been identified that firms
with weak collateral, inadequate security value, deficient documentation
with land record departments, security without self-possession or rented
property, and lastly agricultural properties are discouraged by banks while
processing loan applications. These issues are mostly observed by them
with newer or younger firms that do have not enough funds during
business starting years to purchase fixed assets for getting bank finance
facilities. However mature firms have enough security arrangements and
actually, these firms are mostly availing bank credit facilities as stated by
most of the respondents.
Conclusion:
This study was conducted to establish factors or determinants of credit
access for women entrepreneurs from the lenders’ point of view.
Overview of the literature addressed various issues and reasons about lack
of credit access to women entrepreneurs, therefore a current study being
conducted to establish factors of credit access for women entrepreneurs.
The factors established were: Perception of Businesswomen, Sound
Business Knowledge and Financial Awareness, Management Capabilities,
Networking, Familial and Community Moral support, Business
Constitution and Industry Sector, Firm Age and Size, and Adequate
Collateral.
The research technique used in this analysis was qualitative. The authors
applied research strategies; grounded analysis and ethnography whereby
in-depth semi-structured interviews were held of participants to identify
desired characteristics of women entrepreneur and their enterprises for
credit access with the application of NVIVO-10 software. By using
primarily derived characteristics, the authors established the above
determinants of credit access for women entrepreneurs.
To begin with, the current study's contribution relates to characteristics of
women entrepreneurs, for example, expectations of women entrepreneurs,
which have a close relationship with their credit access. This study
showed that assessing a borrower's creditworthiness purely based on their
financial condition is wrong and that lending officers should pay special
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attention to Relationship Lending when considering the characteristics of
women entrepreneurs. This study concluded that customers who are not
considered creditworthy or trustworthy are refused to grant the loan.
Further financial institutions consider firm age and size while evaluating
applications of loan applicants.
These study findings are consistent with (Fischer, Reuber, and Dyke, 1993
)
The liberal feminist theory argues that female businesses are less effective
than males since they face overt discrimination (such as, by
lenders/consultants) or caused by systemic factors which deprive women
of fundamental resources (such as, business education and experience).
The implication of Research:
The numerous implications of current research work for policymakers,
regulators, and women-entrepreneurs are;
1. To take conversant decisions while formulating policies to support
women entrepreneurs for their effective economic contribution and
developing society as a whole.
2. To organize customized training sessions for women’s professional
skills development and keep them well aware of technological
advancement globally.
3. To articulate the support structure that can certainly concentrate on the
capacity building of women entrepreneurs and overcome the factors
affecting credit access of women entrepreneurs of Pakistan.
4. Women entrepreneur while applying for any financial facility can
check their eligibility based on the identified determinants of credit
access and accordingly can upgrade themselves to increase the
probability of loan granting.
Recommendations:
Despite launching different schemes by Govt. of Pakistan and regulators
for the development of women entrepreneurs they remained unable to
book a considerable number of loans for women entrepreneurs. Most
particularly speaking about Government schemes including; “Credit
Guarantee Scheme for women entrepreneurs” under which 60% of risk
coverage of outstanding loan amount has been provided by the regulatory
authority, is not catching the eye of lenders. It is therefore very necessary
to work on building entrepreneurial capabilities of women which may
entitle them to apply and to get a loan. Ordinary programs of credit
provisioning wherein the focus is on only lenders will not be sufficient.
The government, as well as lenders' efforts, is required to identify specific
business sectors eligible for lending for women.
It is the need of the hour; specific prudential regulations may be designed
by regulators under which all banks shall design their asset-based
products particularly for lending to women entrepreneurs. To ensure the
effective economic contribution of women, lending targets must be
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allocated to banks. It should be made compulsory for banks to
communicate the basis of their lending decision with their borrowers in
the documentary form so that they can understand how a bank’s lending
decisions are derived. Through this, on one side, the successful borrower
shall able to apply for loan enhancement whenever they needed and on the
other hand rejected loan applicants shall improve their week areas to
ultimately make themselves eligible for bank financing.
Limitations of the Study:
While significant work is made on improving the efficiency of the
analysis when identifying causes or determinants of women entrepreneurs'
access to loans, the researcher still recognizes such limitations. The results
of this analysis were focused solely on interviews with bankers in
Pakistan. The study restriction can contribute to the determination of the
analysis performed and also to the definition of decision criteria for
readers.
A pilot project to set the scope and duration of the field of study has
begun the current study. It was soon discovered that the researcher
couldn't interview banking experts from various developed countries, so
the emphasis was confined to Pakistan alone and narrowed the scope of
the study as such. The restriction was disguised, as it allowed the
researcher to concentrate more on the aim or goal of the study.
It increased the length of discussions between the researchers and the
study members and also enhanced the ethnographic time per respondent.
Besides, the compilation of data researcher is confronted with all the
complexity that is common in primary studies.
Suggestions for Further Research:
The strategy and framework of current research and subsequent thorough
review provided a number of possibilities and prospects for further
research; a few possible sources are listed here.
1. Based on a thorough qualitative survey, the current research identified
the factors that influence women's access to credit. Tool production
under quantitative analysis, on the other hand, necessitates the
validation of each determinant by critical and thorough in-depth
analysis.
2. Due to scarce financial means and time limitations, the current analysis
centered solely on Pakistan. By including different developing
countries, the field of prospective research may be expanded.
3. The critical data analysis performed in the present study generally at
the country level; however, analysis can be further zoomed in, at
industry or sector levels in which women-owned firms are mostly
operating.
4. While the current study's participants were drawn solely from
Commercial Banks, future studies could expand the scope of the study
to include Non-Banking Financial Institutions (NBFIs).
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The above-mentioned or proposed research directions are by no means
exhaustive. Further paths may be found by reviewing or revisiting the
study.
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