Entrepreneurship for Women in Islam: An Institutional Perspective

Abstract

This study aims at analyzing critical factors for institutionalization of Islamic women entrepreneurship. It focuses on women entrepreneurship from two perspectives: firstly Islamic, and secondly from institutional theory. It develops two types of links: one is women entrepreneurship with Islam and another is Islamic women entrepreneurship with neo-institutional theory. It is evident that women were never forbidden from the involvement of entrepreneurial activities in Islam. But there are certain conditions exclusively for women that are to be strictly followed. The study shows those conditions under three mechanisms of neo-institutional theory: coercive, normative and mimetic mechanisms. In view of coercive mechanism, women entrepreneurs are to comply with the rules and regulations based on Islamic Shariah. Under the normative mechanism, Islamic values and norms are to be followed by the women entrepreneurs. As of mimetic mechanism, Muslim women entrepreneurs can be built following other Muslim women entrepreneurs. It is posited that these three mechanisms can institutionalize Islamic women entrepreneurship at a desired level