Title: Towards the empowerment of women: a social entrepreneurship approach in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Authors: Florabel O. Nieva

Addresses: Entrepreneurship Department, Effat University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract: This study was centred on the empowerment of women social entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, the study answered the following sub-problems: 1) the priority issues of women social entrepreneurship; 2) the characteristics and practices of implementers along social service, social activism, and social entrepreneurship; 3) the challenges faced by women social entrepreneurs in implementing social entrepreneurial activities along financing, regulatory restriction and framework, and technical support; 4) the strategic measures to foster social entrepreneurship along access to funding, socio-economic entrepreneurship culture, taxation and regulatory, education and training, and support coordination. The following were the salient findings: 1) 'skills development training' was the priority of women social entrepreneurship; 2) the characteristics and practices of implementers was 'social activism'; 3) the challenges faced by women social entrepreneurs in implementing social entrepreneurial activities was 'regulatory restriction and framework'; 4) the strategic measures to foster social entrepreneurship was 'education and training'.

Keywords: female empowerment; entrepreneurial activities; entrepreneurial culture; entrepreneurial financing; entrepreneurial funding; Saudi Arabia; social activism; social entrepreneurship; socio-economic entrepreneurship culture; women empowerment; women social entrepreneurs; regulatory restrictions; technical support; access to funding; taxation; support coordination; skills development; education and training.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIRD.2016.079454

International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development, 2016 Vol.7 No.3, pp.161 - 183

Received: 16 Nov 2015
Accepted: 16 May 2016
Published online: 28 Sep 2016 *

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