Business goals, strategy and firm characteristics of Polish women-owned micro-enterprises

What is it about?

Women-owned firms create new jobs and wealth for national economies of countries around the world. However, such businesses are not sufficiently studied in nations from the Central and Eastern Europe (e.g. Poland), which underwent transition from centrally planned economy to a market-based economic system. The main goal of this research is to present the profile of women micro-entrepreneurs from Mazovia Province in Poland. The secondary goal is to decsribe the possessed resources and the characteristic features of their businesses. The findings of this study indicate that women micro-entrepreneurs prefer to operate their firms as sole proprietors and are predominately active in the services sector. They mainly use their own financial resources to fund business operations. Moreover, female business owners tend to pursue personal type goals (e.g. “realisation of personal objectives or life passions”). They adopt an informal business strategy to achieve a competitive advantage over their competitors. It involves product/service differentiation, improvement of service quality, or a specific customer segment focus. However, the business strategies used by women rarely concentrate on long-term firm growth.

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