Factor analysis of entrepreneurial motivation of women in micro and small enterprises in Ambo Town, Ethiopia

An entrepreneur is a dynamic agent of change. Women entrepreneurs may be defined as a woman or group of women who initiate, organize and run a business enterprise. Women owned enterprises are steadily growing in Ethiopia, and they are contributing to household incomes and to the growth of national economies. In Ethiopia, support to Micro and Small Enterprises especially women owned enterprises has been considered as a tool to employment creation and foundation to long-term development objectives as well as empowering women. The purpose of this study is to identify the important women entrepreneurial motivation factors. The study was conducted in Ambo town which was purposively selected because the selected area in West Shoa Zone had more women entrepreneurs. A sample of 125 women entrepreneurs engaged in 5 sectors namely Urban Agriculture, Manufacturing, Construction, Service and Retail was taken for the study using stratified and random sampling techniques for taking representative sample from the population. The category of business was classified as micro and small enterprise level. Interview Schedule was used for collecting data from the women entrepreneurs. The scale contain 29 items to find out the factors that motivate women entrepreneurs in micro and small enterprises. Factor analysis was conducted on the above 29 items for data reduction which led to the identification of five factors, accounted for cumulative variance of 50.41per cent. Principal component matrix was used for factor analysis and Varimax rotations with Kaiser Normalization was used for rotation. The five factors that emerged out of the analysis were: Entrepreneurial factor, Individual and Independent factor, Social and Professional factor, Satisfaction factor and the Economic factor.