Abstract

Women entrepreneurs are positioned to play an important role in the economic growth, employment generation, eradication of poverty and empowerment of women, especially in developing nations. Afghan women entrepreneurs, however, are confronted with social and financial barriers which can limit their entrepreneurial efforts and performance. The study investigated the impact of family support instrumental, emotional and financial support on women entrepreneurs in Kabul, Afghanistan. A quantitative approach was used, and the primary data were gathered using a structured questionnaire from 180 registered women entrepreneurs of Kabul. IBM SPSS Statistics 27 and AMOS software were used for the analysis of data. Adopted reliability and validity were Cronbach's Alpha, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure, Bartlett's Test of Sphericity and exploratory factor analysis, and testing the effects of the dimensions of family support was carried out by multiple regression analysis. Results indicated good reliability and validity of the measurement scales. The overall model was significant and accounted for 52.8% (R² = 0.528) of the variation in women's entrepreneurship. The effects of financial or instrumental family support were both positive and statistically significant, with the instrumental support having the greatest effect. However, emotional family support was also positive but statistically insignificant. The results suggest that family support in Kabul does not only need to be practical and economic to enhance the entrepreneurial development of women, but also emotional support alone might not have much impact on entrepreneurial outcomes. The study adds empirical evidence to the scant literature dealing with family support and women entrepreneurship in Afghanistan.

Keywords

Women-Owned SMEs Entrepreneurship Development Afghanistan Family Support Entrepreneurial Performance