Financing women entrepreneurship in the developing world : an fsQCA analysis of informal financing scheme

Simba, Amon (author), Dabić, Marina (author), Adegbile, Abiodun (author), Martins Ogundana, Oyedele (author)

This study adopts a configurational approach to facilitate a better understanding of the informal financing mechanisms inherent in women’s entrepreneurship. It draws on observations involving 200 Nigerian women entrepreneurs to study the antecedents that underpin informal financing in women’s entrepreneurship. Six antecedents, including firm age, size, entrepreneur’s age, marital status, educational level, and industry, alongside Ajo—an informal financing scheme—are studied. Using fuzzy sets, the study deduces six configurations depicting the use of this informal financing scheme in women’s entrepreneurship. FsQCA analysis reveals how these antecedents collectively form six configurations related to Ajo. Contrary to the bank–firm theory of formal financial relationships, this study uncovers how even educated women entrepreneurs also use Ajo for entrepreneurial purposes. We contend that simplistic predictions formed around a single antecedent must make way for a configurational approach, whereby a set of conditions must be in place to account for informal financing in women’s entrepreneurship, especially in the developing world.

• Language: English
• Keywords: entrepreneurship, women workers, developing countries, informal financing, Ajo, women entrepreneurship, developing world, fsQCA
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 2043-2078
• Numbering: Vol. 63, no. 5
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-173804
• UDC: 658
• ISSN on article: 0047-2778
• DOI: 10.1080/00472778.2024.2418029
• COBISS.SI-ID: 213819395
• Publication date in RUL: 23.09.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of small business management
• Shortened title: J. small bus. manage.
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 0047-2778
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2218524

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: podjetništvo, žensko delo, dežele v razvoju

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P5-0441
• Name: Regeneracija ekonomije in posla