Abstract
This research paper embarks on a comparative empirical study to investigate the impact that ICT plays on empowering women entrepreneurs in 5 developing/emerging countries, namely Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, as a group of Arab countries and Brazil. The World Bank’s Investment Climate Assessment Surveys (ICA) is the primary source of data for the four Arab countries and Brazil. The ICA database provides comparable enterprise level data based on similar sampling techniques. The results obtained from the empirical study reveal that in the selected Arab countries, the increase in female owned SMEs is associated with a decrease in the Internal Rate of Return. However, when we control for ICT in terms of ICT index constructed using the Principal Component Analysis technique (PCA), the female owned SMEs becomes statistically insignificant; this is also the case with the ICT index. This implies that IRR is negatively associated with the female owners of the SME, and there is a no association between IRR and the access and use of ICT. In Brazil, however, neither gender nor ICT plays any role in the profitability of SMEs. However, as for the other measure for economic performance, namely the labor intensity, the findings reveal that in the selected Arab countries, the ICT index has a positive, statically significant, association with labor-intensity, while in Brazil the usage of a Website has a negative, statistically significant, association with the labor-intensity.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Badran, M.F., Hosein, H.F.: Promoting Economic Growth by Broadband Development in Emerging countries: An Empirical Study, Telecom World (TW), ITU (2011), http://www.ieeexplore.ieee.org (retrieved)
Badran, M.F.: Is ICT Empowering Women in Egypt? An Empirical Study. In: Proceedings of the Research Voices from Africa Workshop, IFIP WG 9.4, Markerere University, Uganda (2010)
Badran, M.F.: What Determines Broadband Uptake in Emerging Countries? An empirical study. In: IFIP 9.4. Conference, Assessing the Contribution of Computers in Achieving Development Goals, Dubai, UAE (2009)
Bardasi, E., Sabarwal, S., Terrell, K.: How do female entrepreneurs perform? Evidence from three developing regions. Small Business Economics, Springer Science and Business Media 37, 417–441 (2011)
Berndt, E.R., Morrison, C.J.: High-tech Capital Formation and Economic performance in US Manufacturing Industries: An Exploratory Analysis. Journal of Econometrics 65, 9–43 (1995)
Boston Consulting Group, Egypt at a Crossroads How the Internet Is Transforming Egypt’s Economy Report (November 2012)
Chowdhury, S.K., Wolf, S.: Use of ICT and the Economic Performance of SMEs in East Africa United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER), Discussion Paper No. 2003/06 (2003)
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report, Global Report (2012)
Gender Gap Report, World Economic Forum (2013)
El-Hamidi, F.: How Do Women Entrepreneurs Perform? Empirical Evidence from Egypt. Alma Laurea Working Papers 23: Bologna (2011)
Heckman, J.: Sample selection bias as a specification error. Econometrica 47(1), 153–161 (1979)
Hilbert, M.: Digital gender divide or technologically-empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies, and statistics. Women’s Studies International Forum 34(6), 479–489 (2011)
I.F.C. Issue Brief / Women and Business, http://www1.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/bb0b20004d0481febbebfff81ee631cc/IFC-issue-Brief_AM12_Women-and-Business.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
IFC Jobs Study, ASSESSING PRIVATE SECTOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO JOB CREATION AND POVERTY REDUCTION. IFC Report: Washington DC, USA (2013), http://www.internationalentrepreneurship.com
Klapper, L., Parker, S.: Gender and Business Environment for New Firm Creation The World Research Observer. Oxford University Press, USA (2010)
Maier, S., Naier-Reichert, U.: Empowering Women Through ICT-Based Business Initiatives: An Overview of Best Practices. E-Commerce/E-Retailing Projects 4(2), 43–60 (2007)
Martin, L.M., Wright, L.T.: No gender in cyberspace? Empowering entrepreneurship and innovation in female–run ICT small firms. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research 11(2), 162–178 (2005)
Nasr, S. (ed.): Egyptian Women Workers and Entrepreneurs. Maximising Opportunities in the Economic Sphere. World Bank, Washington DC (2010)
Niethammer, C.: Women Entrepreneurship and the opportunity to promote development and Business. Brookings Blum Roundtable (2013)
Qiang, C.: Broadband Infrastructure Investment in Stimulus Packages: Relevance for Developing Countries. World Bank, Washington D.C (2009)
Robb, A.M., Watson, J.: “Gender differences in firm performance: Evidence from new ventures in the United States. Journal of Business Venturing 27, 544–558 (2012)
Teltscher, S.G., ICT and Development: Electronic Commerce and Development Report, UNCTAD: Geneva, Switzerland. 2002
Verheul, I., Van Stel, A., Thurik, R.: Explaining female and male entrepreneurship at the country level. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development 18, 151–183 (2006)
World Bank. Engendering development through gender equality in rights, resources, and voice. World Bank Publication (2001)
Lora, E., Castellani, F.: World Bank & Inter-American Development Bank: Entrepreneurship in Latin America, A Step Up the Social Ladder (2013)
World Bank, Mary Hallward-Driemeier. Enterprising Women, Expanding Economic Opportunities in Africa. African Development Forum (2013)
World Bank Report. Capabilities, opportunities and participation: gender equality and development in the Middle East and North Africa region. World Bank Publication (2011)
World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development (2012)
World Bank : Investment Climate Assessment Survey (ICA) for Egypt, Washington DC (2008)
World Bank : Investment Climate Assessment Survey (ICA) for Algeria, Washington DC (2007)
World Bank : Investment Climate Assessment Survey (ICA) for Jordan, Washington DC (2006)
World Bank : Investment Climate Assessment Survey (ICA) for Morocco, Washington DC (2007)
World Bank : Investment Climate Assessment Survey (ICA) for Brazil, Washington DC (2009)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Badran, M.F. (2015). Empowering Female-Owned SMEs with ICT in A Group of Selected Arab Countries and Brazil. In: Tiropanis, T., Vakali, A., Sartori, L., Burnap, P. (eds) Internet Science. INSCI 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9089. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18609-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18609-2_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-18608-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-18609-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)