Success factors of women entrepreneurship in tourism business in Langkawi Island, Malaysia

Abstract

Women involvement in Malaysia Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has significantly increased and is indisputable that half of the current Small-Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs) are run by them since 1980s. Women who are active in tourism entrepreneurs in Langkawi Island encounter enormous pressure from various challenges starting from the initial operation phase that has affected their survival in the tourism business. Understanding the survival success factors remains limited as in previous studies mainly focused on motivation and internal business challenges. However, the womens entrepreneurs’ ability to cope with the external challenges of vulnerability factor, namely seasonality, trends and shocks and factors influencing the success of women entrepreneurs and the extent of their response to these challenges of vulnerability need to be studied. In this research, Langkawi Island was used as the case study. A qualitative approach involving in-depth semi-structured interviews focused on success factors and their experiences in response to vulnerability challenges during business operations. 17 entrepreneurs were interviewed comprising 4 who are involved with women entrepreneurs who are the pioneers in tourism business in Langkawi, while 13 are the women entrepreneurs themselves. Transcripts from the interviews were thematically analysed to determine the relevant sub-themes. The main findings showed that the survival success factors involved in entrepreneurship were found in the family traits, business environment and personal drive. Besides, the results showed that the dual role as a woman and an entrepreneurs serves as the platform for these women to achieve greater work-life balance on a daily basis. Furthermore, the data on how to sustain from vulnerability challenges showed that the most crucial factor was to adopt low risk financial sources in order to avoid financial crisis when they experienced the vulnerability impact. By adopting this measure, women entrepreneurs were able to react against to these vulnerability. Interview data on resilience showed that these tourism business have survived for more than two generations. Based on the findings, a theoretical framework was derived to gain insight of these women’s entrepreneurship success factors despite the challenges of the vulnerability context. These success factors are important in assisting to direct the women of the community to participate in entrepreneurship related to high income economies based activities. As a conclusion, the framework will empower women entrepreneurs to be successful in their future business undertakings.