Contextual Embeddedness of Women's Entrepreneurship

15 Women's business survival and the institutionalization of entrepreneurial support in the Malaysian handicraft industry

Salmah Topimin, Clare Brindley and Carley Foster

Based on a review of the literature on the concepts of gender, women’s business survival and the institutionalization of entrepreneurial support, this chapter highlights the bias that surrounds our understanding of women entrepreneurs. To address this bias, we present a conceptual framework for women’s business survival that includes the significant influence of contextual differences on women entrepreneurs by drawing on the Malaysian handicraft industry as the context (Figure 15.1).

This framework was developed based on the contention that entrepreneurship is a result of the ...