Vol. 12, Special Issue 9 (2023)

Author(s):
Pooja V, J Tulasiram, SB Goudappa, Sidram BY and Vijaya B Wali

Abstract:
In the last few decades emphasis is given both by Government and non-government sectors on women to make her economically stable. Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka (AWAKE) is one of the NGOs working towards women empowerment by women entrepreneurship. An ex-post-facto research design was employed on trained women entrepreneurs from AWAKE NGO to know their motivating factors to enter into business. A total of 60 agri-entrepreneurs (30 from urban area and 30 from rural area) were selected in different districts of Karnataka randomly. The primary data was collected by personal and focused group interview using interview schedule. The findings revealed that, 37.10 percent of urban respondents were motivated by general factors like family background and support from husband or family members, which was followed by internal (36.68%) and external (26.22%) motivating factors. In case of rural respondents, more than one-third (34.42%) were motivated by internal factors followed by general factors (34.17%) and external (31.41%) motivating factors. This shows there is a significant difference between the motivating factors for urban and rural respondents which is tested through Mann-Whitney U test. These results help the stakeholders involved in training women entrepreneurs to create a favourable environment to start an enterprise.