Factors Influencing Entrepreneurship Ability A Case Study of Parbat District

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1 Factors Influencing Entrepreneurship Ability A Case Study of Parbat District Gyanu Maya Pun 1 This study aims at finding out socio-demographic characteristics, business characteristics, motivational factors and other challenging factors that may influence entrepreneurship ability of the entrepreneurs supported by MEDEP in rural setting of Parbat District of Nepal. Multistage sampling methods including stratified, probability and random sampling methods were adopted. A total of 253 entrepreneurs were selected, consisting 150 females and 103 males. And finding reached through the research is that the business characteristics have more significant influenced upon the ability of the entrepreneurship than the socio-demographic characteristics. Among the motivating factors, environmental factors much stronger than others are. While considering challenging factors, most of the non-economic factors are more powerful than the economic factors in increasing the ability of the entrepreneurs. 1. Introduction Rationale Micro Enterprise Development Programme (MEDEP) has indeed increased the number of enterprises in the 21 districts of Nepal. Parbat, one of the Programme districts, has also witnessed this trend. The district has now a total of 1,056 entrepreneurs created by the motivation and support of MEDEP. However, during the course of development stages of enterprises, the following situations of the entrepreneurs have been observed: Lack of confidence in starting business enterprise The business enterprises began but couldn't continue due to personal disinterest, financial problem, family volatility, etc The entrepreneurs found to be just engaged in the enterprising activity due to lack of motivation in other sectors. Some have expanded their business successfully Despite all the entrepreneurs being supported by the MEDEP in equal terms, the following questions have been raised: Why are some of the entrepreneurs unable to run their enterprises with full potentiality, but continuing the enterprises? 1 Ms Pun is a master s degree student of population, gender and development, Pokhara University. She is grateful to her thesis supervisor Mr. Deepak Raj Paudel, lecturer of Pokhara University.

2 48 Gyanu Maya Pun What are the reasons behind it? What types of characteristics, motivational factors, and challenges the entrepreneurs have faced that affected their entrepreneurship ability? Objectives The study s overall objective is to identify the factors influencing the entrepreneurs entrepreneurship ability. The specific objectives are: to analyse the business characteristics of the entrepreneurs to explore the positive or pull motivating factors affecting the entrepreneurs entrepreneurship ability to identify the challenges or problems faced by the entrepreneurs in regard to entrepreneurship development Hypotheses The following hypotheses have been formulated: Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents like sex, age, marital status, educational attainment, caste/ethnicity, and birth place influence the entrepreneurs entrepreneurship ability Business characteristics including the enterprises status, ownership type, condition, number of employees and types likely affect the entrepreneurship ability of the entrepreneurs Motivating factors affect the entrepreneurship ability of the entrepreneurs. 2. Materials and Methods Source of Data This study has been based exclusively on the quantitative data. Both the primary and secondary data were gathered. The primary data has been derived from the field survey. The secondary data were acquired from the reports and database provided by MEDEP. Sample Size and Sampling Methods Altogether 253 enterprises, comprising 150 females and 103 males were selected as sample units from a total of 1,056 enterprises across the Parbat District. These sample units were selected by adopting three sequential sampling procedures. First, the enterprises were stratified into female- and male-owned, castes/ethnicities, 13 types of activities and 13 program centres of MERDEP; secondly, the probability sampling method was used to determine the proportionate size for each stratum, and then finally simple random sampling method was used to select the required number of enterprises for each stratum. Concepts and Methods of Analysis This study covered entrepreneurs and the enterprises supported by MEDEP. Entrepreneurship has been defined as having ability to continue or expand the

3 Factors Influencing Entrepreneurship Ability 49 enterprises. The abilities considered here include seeks and acts on opportunity, information seeking, commitment to work, problem solving, and self confidence (Guthier 1992). A total of 25 questions related to these five broad ability measures were asked to the sample entrepreneurs, seeking answer either YES or NO. Score 1 has been assigned to each yes answer to the questions. An index is developed based on score ranging from 0 to 25. The score is added up. Total score of 14 has been considered as benchmark to identify high and low entrepreneurship ability, since 56 th percentile of the sample entrepreneurs got this score and more. The entrepreneurship as the dependent variable has been assessed by two major independent variables and their sub-variables (Frear 2005). They are sociodemographic characteristics and business characteristics of the entrepreneurs. The socio-demographic variable has been described comprising: (i) sex, (ii) educational attainment, (iii) age, (iv) marital status, (v) caste/ethnicity, and (vi) birth place to indicate migrant or not. Likewise, the business characteristic of entrepreneurs has been described in terms of: (i) status, i.e. registered or not, (ii) types of ownership - single, two partners or more than two partners, (iii) condition just continuing or expanding, (iv) number of employees - ranging from 1-9, and (v) types of enterprises one of the 13 categories as stated above. This study has also considered two other concepts related to enterprising development like motivation and challenges. Motivation is essential to driving persons to take enterprising activities. The motivational factors in terms of positive pull factors considered here include:(i) persons of inspiration such as neighbors including friends or relatives, family members, and role model (exemplary) persons. (ii) individual reasons like sufficient capital, desire of earning more money, and independent work; and (iii) environmental factors including family background - having family member already involved in the enterprises, MEDEP intervention with support schemes (training, skills, finance, & technology), sufficiently available raw materials and labor and market demand of the products (Dollinger 1999). The challenging factors the entrepreneurs faced regarding continuing or expanding their enterprises include the direct related variables like (i) economic factors - access to finance, availability of raw material, contemporary machine technology, labor supply or availability, and marketing and (ii) non-economic factors like social values and norms, decision making of enterprise related works, household work, mobility, and networking (Khanka 1990). The data and information was acquired from the sample entrepreneurs by using the semi-structured interview questionnaire form. The data were processed and analysed with SPSS (Statistical Package of Social Sciences) programme. Descriptive statistics including distribution of individual features and cross tabulation, and a binary logistic regression model for examining the effects of selected independent variables on entrepreneurship ability were applied wherever feasible.

4 50 Gyanu Maya Pun 3. Review of Literatures The review deals with major studies so far available concerning with concepts and factors of enterprises. Entrepreneur and Entrepreneurship The word entrepreneur has been evolved passing through various meanings from musical instrument in France, to military expeditions and to economic aspects (Cochran 1950). Under economic terms too, several scholars have coined it differently such as risk taker, innovator, organizer, opportunity taker, marshaling the resources for advantage, etc (Knight 1965; Hisrich 1986; Bygrave and Hofer 1991; Huefner and Hunt 1994; Begley 1995). Entrepreneurship refers to the functions performed by an entrepreneur in establishing an enterprise (Khanka 2002). Simply, it is the process of creating something new and assuming the risks and rewards (Hisrich and Peters 2002). During the course of entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur may face several challenges- favourable or unfavourable. Entrepreneurship has cultural value dimensions such as high power distance and small power distance (Hofstede 1991; Henriquez et al. 2000). A high power distance reflects the acceptance of inequalities, privileges and status in society and is likely to positively influence on the entrepreneurship since it often goes hand in hand with more (income) inequality. On the other hand, a small power distance reflects a society characterized by decentralization and an educational system based on equality between teacher and student favoring entrepreneurship through the development of initiative. Measurement of Entrepreneurship Measurement of entrepreneurship is the most complicated work, as its determinants vary considerably among the countries and there is lack of universally commonly agreed set of indicators (Verheul et al. 2000). Indeed enterprise is of interest to several disciplines, but each discipline considers determinants according to its fields of area. For instance, economics consider scarcity, opportunity cost, technology development, etc to measure entrepreneurship, while sociology deals with cultural traits, and so on. Guthier (1992) has considered initiative, persistence, assertiveness, systematic planning, seeks and acts on opportunity, information seeking, commitment to work, problem solving, and self confidence as ability measurements of entrepreneurs in Nepal. Verheul et al. (2000) have used business ownership and self-employment to define entrepreneurship at country level and ability, personality traits, values and attitudes influencing the occupational decision, etc. at individual level. Similarly, Bosma et al. (2000) have attempted to measure the successful entrepreneurship taking into consideration of variables like profits, employment generation and survival period of firm. In terms of scale, the measurements may be at micro (individual entrepreneur) level, meso level (industrial sectors), and macro (national) level.

5 Factors Influencing Entrepreneurship Ability 51 Characteristics of Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurs are of different types, as they tie with existing physical, social, cultural, economic and political systems. Broadly, the characteristics of entrepreneurs are described in terms of: (i) socio-personal features like sex, education, age, marital status, caste or ethnicity, etc (Frear 2007), (ii) psychological/individual characteristic, including courage, confidence, patience, modesty, risk taking ability, and (iii) business characteristic, comprising business types, initial financial investment, size and types of employees etc (Tuladhar 1996). Available studies indicate that range of age is crucial for undertaking enterprises. In most cases, people within the age ranging form years are more likely to be entrepreneurs. Older age of people may have declined effects for entrepreneurship. In terms of marital status, married entrepreneurs operate the most of the enterprises, and that married women are more successful entrepreneurs than unmarried are. Though education is an important element of entrepreneurship, it has no direct relationship with the successful entrepreneurship; rather there are mixed results between education status and entrepreneurship ability (Minniti and Bygrave 2003). Formal education is not a prerequisite for becoming an entrepreneur. However, it plays an important role in managing the business (Ranabhat 1995). Since entrepreneurs always seek optimum situation for investment in terms of location and time, people move their firms at those locations. Traditionally, type and scale of enterprises are found to be varied by castes and ethnicities. Observation is that the Newars are traditionally town based traders, the Thakalis are inns operators, the Marwaris are business operators, the Jyapus are farm entrepreneurs and petty sellers, etc (Regmi 1988). Motivational Factors Motive may be defined as an inner state of mind that activates and directs the behavior of entrepreneur toward achieving the goal of successful enterprise. Among the motivation theories related to entrepreneurship, the Need Hierarchy Theory of Maslow is the most relevant to this study (Khanka 2002). Two among the five types of Maslow theory to motivate people to become entrepreneurs in low income countries like Nepal are physiological needs (economic rewards to meet basic needs) and safety and security needs (earn money for economic security and protection). Two main motivation factors of entrepreneurs are push or necessity and pull or opportunity. The former is termed as negative circumstance, whilst the latter is positive circumstance. Pull factors encourage potential entrepreneurs by virtue of attractiveness options like financial reward, independence, need for achievement, social recognition etc. Family background or support usually acts as a positive factor for entrepreneurship. Push factors are due to unemployment, job insecurity, less attractive, etc. In Nepal, the main motivation factor for entrepreneurs is to earn money due to majority of the people without adequate income (Ranabhat 1995; Tuladhar 1996).

6 52 Gyanu Maya Pun Challenging Factors Saying has it that any new venture is challenging. Successful entrepreneurs overcome several challenges in running enterprises. Existing studies indicate that barriers to entrepreneurships are of internal and external nature. Lack of self-confidence, assertiveness, communication skill, motivation, etc comes under internal barrier: Whilst lack of basic management training, lack of ability to market the product, etc comes under external barriers. Khanka (2002) has broadly classified barriers into economic and non-economic factors. The economic factors comprise financial capital, labor, raw materials, and market, whereas the non-economic factors may include legitimacy of entrepreneurship, mobility, socio-cultural values, etc. The economic factors are, however, prerequisites for the start-up of any enterprising activities, for their continuation and expansion as well. Easy access to institutional source for credit is a basic hurdle for enterprising activities, particularly in rural areas of Nepal. In absence of institutional credit facility, the credit from informal sources is often not competitive ones due to higher interest rate, which, therefore, results into low saving pattern. It is applicable more in the case of females than in males in rural Nepal (Dhakal 2006). If an enterprising activity is contingent upon far-fetched raw materials and market is at a distance for hauling the finished product, it poses enterprises major challenges. Other marketing problems of the products in MEDEP districts are damaged goods; due to poor packaging, credit sales, lower price, etc (Subedi 2006). Transportation linkages reduce risks production costs and improved easy access to markets, business ideas, knowledge, and capital (Reavley, Lituchy, and McClelland 2005). The prevailing social values, culture, and perception have become a restraint to the growth of women entrepreneurs in society (Ranabhat 1995). Restriction in decision-making and mobility in Nepal has inversely affected the entrepreneurship ability. 4. Results and Discussions The study s results are divided into three sections. The first section deals with the features of the respondents. In the second section, relationship between dependent and independent variables is analysed. The third section deals with the variables affecting entrepreneurship ability of the entrepreneurs in terms of logistic regression analysis. Characteristics Socio-demographic Among the 253 sample entrepreneurs, 150 were females and 103 males, of which 213 were married and 40 were unmarried. The age of the entrepreneurs ranged from 16 to 65 years, with 40 percent of age group of years, followed by age group of with 26 percent. Among the social groups, 108 were Bahun/Chhetri, followed by Dalits with 30 percent and Janajati with 27.3 percent. Most of the entrepreneurs (90%) had attained formal and informal schooling and the remaining 10 percent was illiterate.

7 Factors Influencing Entrepreneurship Ability 53 Majority with 221 were born in the same district of Parbat and about 13 percent migrated to the district. Business characteristics Two-thirds (166) of the enterprises were informal, whereas over 34 percent was registered one. The number of agricultural-based enterprise was 201 in comparison to 52 (21%) of non-farm based enterprises. Individual owners owned 122 enterprises. The number of enterprises in partnership with two partners was 81 and with more than two partners were 50. Self-employed enterprises shared 35.2 percent, while the enterprises with two were the largest (38.3%). The number of enterprises that generated employments to over two employees was 67. Majority of the enterprises (77%) have continued their enterprising activity, while only 23 percent have expanded their size. Motivational Factors Table 1 lists 11 different motivation factors, of which neighbor factor scored nearly 70 percent, has been the most vital motivating factor. Next motivating factor is being the MEDEP intervention (68 %). The survey results show that about 36 percent entrepreneurs have undertaken enterprises to earn money. Only 9 percent of them have begun their enterprise due to their own sufficient financial capital. Labour supply has not Table 1: Relative distribution of positive responses (n = 253) by motivational factors Variables Number %* 1. Neighbor MEDEP intervention Family/husband Sufficient raw materials Independent work Family background Model person Earn money High demand Sufficient laborers Sufficient capital Source: Field survey,*computed from n = 253. been a problem for becoming entrepreneur. Over 60 percent have been motivated due to sufficiently available raw materials and majority of them have been motivated to become entrepreneurs due to high demand of their products. Economic challenging factors Altogether 13 challenging factors with relative positive response, yes were reported. Nine problems with over 31 percent are listed in Table 2. Those with below this percent include machines-importing, repairing machines, labour unavailability and price rise in raw materials. Access to finance is being the most challenging factor (64.4%). This is why about 63 percent of the entrepreneurs obtained loan from private informal sources in initial phase; 21 percent used their own fixed capitals; while about 9 percent obtained credit support from MEDEP. Two other relatively acute problems include transport unavailability for marketing products and unavailability raw materials in time. Just over 50 percent of the entrepreneurs have locally made

8 54 Gyanu Maya Pun machines for the enterprise. About 13 percent have faced high competition for marketing their products, whilst 72 percent have medium competition. Non-economic challenging factors The analysis of noneconomic factors draws on five variables like importance of women enterprise, enterprising decision, family priority work, looking after of business, and membership to any organization. Fifty-eight percent of the entrepreneurs have given moderate importance to women enterprise, whilst 21 percent has given high value to it. Decision with regard to enterprise has primarily been made by spouse and other family members, each with 40 and 50 percent respectively. Majority of the families with 74 percent have given priority to the business work, but however, about one-third of the enterprises has been absent in the business work due to household work. About 61 percent has member with social network organization, but only about 46 percent has related to the business network. Entrepreneurship ability Table 2: Relative distribution of yes by economic challenging factors Variables Number %* Access Finance Transport for marketing products Unavailability of raw materials in time Transport for importing raw materials Insufficient of machines Changed machine Low market prices of the products Lack of money for raw materials Competition with imported products * Computed from total sample size of 253. Of total 253 entrepreneurs, 140 (55%) have high entrepreneurship ability that have scored 14 and over 2, whilst 113 have got low score 3. The efficiency measure has also been performed at different socio-cultural variables. There is relatively slightly greater high ability value in the female entrepreneurs than their male counterparts (57 versus 53 percent. Among the age groups, entrepreneurs with years of age have highest high ability value (60.4%), followed by the age group of with 58.5 percent. The married entrepreneurs are found more efficient (58%) against the unmarried entrepreneurs (42%). In case of social groups, there is no significant difference in entrepreneurship ability; all three types (Dalit, Janajati and Bahun/Chhetri) have values lying within percent. The entrepreneurs with formal education have higher entrepreneurship efficiency (59%) as compared to 40 percent of the illiterate entrepreneurs. The migrated entrepreneurs have shown slightly higher value of entrepreneurship efficiency (63%) than the non-migrated entrepreneurs (54%). 2 Two parameters with mean = and SD = 1.81 indicate that the distribution of score is fairly good. 3 All the values have been calculated at p<0.10, p<0.05, and p< 0.01 (p- value) based on Chi- Square statistics.

9 Business characteristics and entrepreneurship ability Factors Influencing Entrepreneurship Ability 55 On the whole, the business features have shown better high ability with 55 percent as against low ability with 45 percent. These features have been analysed on five variables at p< 0.01 (based on Chi-square statistics). The registered enterprises have shown 81 percent high entrepreneurship ability as compared to 42 percent of the informal enterprises. Likewise, the non-agricultural enterprises have definitely greater entrepreneurship ability (77%) than the agricultural based enterprises (50%). The enterprises with two partners and more hired labours (>2) have shown better entrepreneurship ability than others. Their efficiency values are 72 and 85 percent respectively. Similarly, the expanded enterprises have better entrepreneurship ability (71%) than stagnant one (51%), which is obvious, otherwise no enterprises will be expanded if there is dim chance of improvement. Motivational factors of the entrepreneurship ability The enterprises are being highly motivated by high market demand of their products. It is being measured at 82 percent as high ability for Motivational entrepreneurship ability. Table 3 factors shows that the entrepreneurship ability measured by all other factors than adequate laborer has percentage values surpassed largely over the percentage values computed for low ability. Economic challenging factors and entrepreneurship ability While the entrepreneurship ability analysed by the challenging factors, low ability has got higher relative percentages than high ability due to problems in access to finance, availability of raw materials in time, Table 3: Relative distribution of yes responses (%) by motivational factors Low ability High ability High demand products Independent work Family background Entrepreneur-neighbor Adequate raw materials Role model person Earn money MEDEP intervention Sufficient capital Neighbour Adequate labourers Total Note: The percentage values are significant mostly at p< 0.01 (Chi-square statistics) machine efficiency, high competition, transport facility, and low market price of the products. Loan from MEDEP and other sources, machines replaced or maintained, etc have favorable situations for entrepreneurs to measure their entrepreneurship ability. Non-economic challenging factors and entrepreneurship ability The relationship between non-economic challenging factors and entrepreneurship ability shows mixed results. Low importance to women enterprise, family member, priority on business work, and membership of any organizations have given high entrepreneurship ability, whilst high importance to women enterprise and self decision

10 56 Gyanu Maya Pun or spouse decision on enterprise matters have shown higher relative percentages for low ability. 4.3 Logistic Regression Analysis The logistic regression analysis has been used to predict the measurement scales of associations between dependent variables and their related independent variables. Overall, it is found that the socio-demographic characteristics have no significant influence on the entrepreneurship ability. The measurement scales of entrepreneurship ability have yielded times for formal schooling as against of illiterate and times for married entrepreneurs over the unmarried. The business characteristics on the other hand however have shown relatively better factors to influence the entrepreneurship ability. The enterprises hiring more than two employees have shown times more likely to be. The registered enterprises have yielded times more likely to influence high entrepreneurship ability. The expanded enterprises have probability value of times for high entrepreneurship ability. This analysis has placed environmental motivational factors as most influencing one. For instance, highly demanded products appear times more likely to influence on high entrepreneurship ability. Two other relatively better factors are family background and adequate raw materials, which have yielded probability values of and times for high entrepreneurship ability. Other factors have yielded very low probability values. Though the problems of economic challenging factors appear to be responsible for low entrepreneurship ability, their probability measurement scales are unexpectedly very low with below except for changing machines and low market demand. The latter two variables have shown and times more likely to be for high entrepreneurship ability respectively. The non-economic factors are seen relatively more significant, however. Two factors like priority on enterprise work and enterprises having network with organization have yielded and times more likely to have influence on high entrepreneurship ability. Others non-economic factors have shown low influencing values. 5. Results and Discussions Overall, the hypothesis, the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents influence on the entrepreneurship ability, has been rejected. Though two factors like marital status and educational attainment were significant in the bivariate analysis, they have been insignificant in the multivariate analysis and therefore they also are being rejected. These results are consistent to several studies carried out in Nepal (New Business Age 2004). The possible explanation behind it may be these characteristics can't directly influence the entrepreneurship ability.

11 Factors Influencing Entrepreneurship Ability 57 The business characteristics, on the other hand, are found to have likely affect on the entrepreneurship ability. Except the condition of the enterprises, partners in the enterprises and types of enterprises, all other factors seem to have positive influence on the entrepreneurship ability. This result is verifiable with the research result of Henriquez, et al. (2000), which states that high individualism is associated with more entrepreneurial behavior. The nonagricultural-based enterprises that have more likely of high entrepreneurship ability than the agricultural based enterprises seem to be natural, since the latter are squarely dependent on the natural factors which are beyond their control, traditional system, etc. Conversely, the former has wide scope for adopting innovative techniques and systems since they are operated under the management of human beings. Similar results are found in case of registered and expanded enterprises. This implies that larger the hiring of employees with the registered enterprises, the greater would be the potential for expansion. Of the motivating factors, the environmental factors including family background are found to have positive influence on entrepreneurship ability. This is consistent with the results carried out elsewhere in other areas (Tuladhar 1996; Bosma, et al. 2000). Likewise, other factors like sufficiently available raw materials and high demand of the products have also shown positive influence on high entrepreneurship ability. That is why MEDEP has consistently putting emphasis on the enterprises that use local resources and produce goods according to the market demand. Strangely, the non-economic factors seem to be stronger than the economic factors to influence the entrepreneurship ability. Perhaps, it may be due to the lack of facilities and infrastructure, predominant of primary production sector, faulty government policies, etc. Among the economic factors, high entrepreneurship ability is likely to occur due to replacing the old machines by advance ones. In non-economic factors, the household workload is negatively correlated with entrepreneurship ability. It is argued that the entrepreneurs with less household workload are more likely to have high entrepreneurship ability, because they can devote more time to their enterprises. Networking has mixed result with entrepreneurship ability. In Parbat District, social network seems to have favorable for the entrepreneurship. The restricted mobility has positively influenced the entrepreneurship ability, which may be due to high demand of goods at local markets. 6. Conclusion This study has made an attempt to identify factors influencing the entrepreneurship ability of the entrepreneurs. The analysis, based on series of logical steps, has shown both positive and negative associations. For instance, the socio-demographic characteristics of the entrepreneurs have shown little positive influences on the entrepreneurship ability. In case of business characteristics, the status of enterprises and the number of employees in the enterprises have positive influence on the entrepreneurship ability, whereas the partners in the enterprises and the types of

12 58 Gyanu Maya Pun enterprises have negative influence. The environmental motivating factor (family background) seems to be more powerful than the other motivating factors to influence positively on the entrepreneurship ability of the entrepreneurs. Surprisingly, the noneconomic factors seem to be stronger than the economic factors to influence the entrepreneurship ability. It is found that the entrepreneurs are innovators who are quite able to handle challenges for their enterprise betterment. It can be concluded that the non-economic challenges can influence positively on entrepreneurship ability when they are in favor of the entrepreneurs. It is also found that the non-economic challenge (mobility) has positively influenced the entrepreneurship ability when it is in unfavorable situation. 7. Recommendations Based on the above findings, the study suggests the following recommendations for further improvement of enterprises and their entrepreneurship ability: Imparting more knowledge to the rural people about increasing the entrepreneurship ability of the entrepreneurs should be continuous Enterprises should be encouraged for registration Single-owned enterprises require to be stimulated More enterprises based on the non agricultural activities require to be created and their entrepreneurship ability should be increased The government and the concerned stakeholders should create environments so that the supply of raw materials is available adequately for running the enterprises smoothly Market based enterprises should be enhanced In addition, if a research including both qualitative and quantitative approaches is conducted in future, it would provide triangular results. References Bosma, N., Praag, M.V. and Wit, G.D. (2000), Determinants of Successful Entrepreneurship. Research Report (Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs. Bygrave, W. and Hofer, C. (1988), Theorizing about Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Winter. Cochran, T.C. (1950), Entrepreneurial Behavior and Motivation, Explorations and Entrepreneurial History. Vol. 2. Dhakal, D. P. (2006), Women Empowerment through Micro-Enterprise Development Programme: A Case Study of Nuwakot District. Master Thesis submitted to Central Department of Rural Development. Tribhuvan University. Kathmandu. Nepal. Frear, D. (2007), Rural Female Entrepreneurs: A Demographic Survey in Rural Pennsylvania. The Jay S. Sidhu School of Business & Leadership, Wilkes University, USA. Guthier, R. (1992), Entrepreneurship in Nepal: Some Observations on Entrepreneurial Characteristics and Other Findings. Paper presented at the International Conference on

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